‘I wish he would have listened’: Texan Democrat shares video of her pleading with Barr to protect constitution

‘We would really love your help,’ says Veronica Escobar

Texan Democrat Veronica Escobar shared a video of her pleading with the outgoing attorney general William Barr to protect the US constitution.

The video, which the congresswoman shared to Twitter on Monday, was filmed in 2019 after Mr Barr had refused to testify in front of House representatives about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 national election.

Before she confronted Mr Barr, the congresswoman told reporters that the attorney general had refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, according to The Dispatch journalist Haley Byrd Wilt.

In the video, Ms Escobar walks up to the attorney general and hands him a pocket constitution, before saying: “We would really love your help in defending the constitution.”

Mr Barr replies “sure” to the congresswoman, and Ms Escobar says “thanks” before they walk in opposite directions.

Ms Escobar captioned the video on Monday: “I wish he would have listened.”

In May 2019, Mr Barr refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee because he did not agree with being asked questions about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election by the staff of committee members.

However, he did testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was accused of misrepresenting the Mueller Report in favour of President Donald Trump.

Before the report was released in 2019, Mr Barr claimed that it cleared the Trump campaign of criminal coordination with Russia and exonerated President Trump of obstructing the investigation. Investigators disputed those claims.

Earlier this year, US District Court Judge Reggie Walton criticised Mr Barr for his comments, and said: “The Court cannot reconcile certain public representations made by attorney general Barr with the findings in the Mueller Report.”

Ms Escobar shared the video confronting Mr Barr on Monday after President Trump announced that the attorney general would be resigning by the end of 2020.

“Just had a very nice meeting with attorney general Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!

“As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,” Mr Trump tweeted on Monday.

The announcement followed more than a week of tensions between the pair, after Mr Barr said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 3 November’s election.

Although President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election last month, Mr Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that there was widespread voter fraud and has still not conceded.

Mr Trump and his team have had more than 50 legal challenges dismissed over the last month, while the US Supreme Court rejected an effort from his Republican allies in several states on Friday, which attempted to set aside 62 electoral votes in four battleground states.

However, in early December, Mr Barr told the Associated Press that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security had investigated claims of voter fraud, “and so far, we haven't seen anything to substantiate that”.

Mr Barr’s admission was a blow to President Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of 3 November’s election.

The announcement of Mr Barr’s resignation came on Monday as the US Electoral College affirmed Mr Biden as the winner of the presidential election, with 306 electoral votes to Mr Trump’s 232.