'Shame on you': Democrats attack Barr for carrying out Trump's agenda

Democrats clashed angrily with Donald Trump’s attorney general on Tuesday, over the aggressive deployment of federal agents to US cities three months before a presidential election.

William Barr faced a difficult grilling during a hearing in Congress that proved combative, contentious, and indicative of Washington’s bitter divide.

Related: Barr: 'I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments' – live

Democrats on the House judiciary committee pointed to the use of federal law enforcement to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square, Washington, last month so Trump could stage a photo op, and a harsh crackdown on protests in Portland, Oregon.

“The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered,” Jerry Nadler, the committee chairman, told Barr.

“You use pepper spray and truncheons on American citizens. You did it here in Washington. You did it in Lafayette Square. You expanded to Portland. Now you are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr Barr. Shame on you.”

The attorney general denied the interventions were motivated by Trump’s re-election.

“I just reject the idea that the department has flooded anywhere and attempted to suppress demonstrators,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, if you take Portland, the courthouse is under attack.

“The federal resources are inside the perimeter, around the courthouse defending it from almost two months of daily attacks where people march to the court, try to gain entrance and have set fires, thrown things, used explosives and injured police, including just this past weekend, perhaps permanently blinding three federal officers with lasers.”

Barr added: “We are on the defence. We’re not out looking for trouble.”

Like so many other hearings of the Trump era, the session highlighted America’s debilitating polarisation. Barr sat expressionless as Nadler delivered a scathing opening statement.

“Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the department’s professional core in an apparent effort to secure favours for the president,” the Democrat said. “In your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president.”

Barr’s justice department, Nadler continued, has violated constitutional rights, downplayed the effects of systemic racism, expressed open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement, spread disinformation about voter fraud and failed to enforce voting rights laws, amplified the president’s conspiracy theories about the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and interfered with criminal investigations to protect the president and his allies.

“The message these actions send is clear: in this justice department, the president’s enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected, no matter the cost,” said Nadler, whose involvement in a minor car accident had caused a delay.

Jim Jordan, a close Trump ally and the top Republican on the committee, gave a radically different account.

“Spying. That one word. That’s why they’re after you, Mr Attorney General.”

Jordan said Barr has spoken “the truth” that Barack Obama’s administration spied on the Trump campaign, a claim that has repeatedly been debunked.

He then proceeded to play a selectively edited video for nearly eight minutes which showed TV hosts and Obama saying the words “peaceful protests”, then cut to the grieving family of David Dorn, an African American retired police captain killed last month in St Louis, Missouri, then to undated, un-located footage of people jumping on cars, buildings ablaze, an injured officer, a looted shop and people yanking and chainsawing a fence.

The clips echoed talking points by Trump and conservative media.

In his own opening statement, Barr acknowledged that “the horrible killing” of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis “jarred the whole country” but insisted police forces were more diverse than ever before.

“According to statistics compiled by the Washington Post, the number of unarmed black men killed by police so far this year is eight. The number of unarmed white men killed by police over the same time period is 11 … And the overall number of police shootings has been decreasing.”

Trump has quoted similar statistics, which fail to acknowledge that black people, who make up about 13% of the US population, are disproportionately affected by deadly police violence.

Barr added: “Unfortunately, some have chosen to respond to George Floyd’s death in a far less productive way – by demonising the police … and making grossly irresponsible proposals to defund the police … Violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims.”

Pressed by Nadler, Barr acknowledged that Trump’s re-election comes up at cabinet meetings but denied he had discussed it in connection with operations in Portland, Chicago and elsewhere.

“I would like to pick the cities based on law and enforcement need,” he argued.

Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas questioned Barr on whether he considered the killing of Floyd to be indicative of a systemic problem in policing. He said: “I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments generally in this country.”

The attorney general faced hard-hitting questions for pushing for a more lenient prison sentence for Trump’s ally Roger Stone, convicted of witness tampering and making false statements, a move which prompted the entire trial team’s departure. Trump eventually commuted Stone’s sentence, sparing him prison.

Related: 'Beyond the pale': antics of Trump ambassadors highlight crisis in US diplomacy

Barr said: “Stone was prosecuted under me. I said all along I thought that was a righteous prosecution. I thought he should go to jail.”

But prosecutors were advocating for a sentence twice as long as justice department policy would recommend, he contended.

“I agree that the president’s friends don’t deserve special breaks but they also don’t deserve to be treated more harshly than other people and sometimes that’s a difficult decision to make, especially when you know you’re going to be castigated for it.”

The DoJ’s internal watchdog launched investigations last week into federal involvement in the Portland and Washington DC protests.