Attorney General William Barr to testify in Congress

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler was involved in a car accident this morning on his way down to Washington for today’s Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr, a Nadler spokesperson said. 

Nadler, who was not driving, was not hurt in the accident, the spokesperson said. But the accident, which did not involve another vehicle, has delayed Nadler’s arrival and the hearing this morning will be delayed as a result.

The hearing is now scheduled to begin at 10:45 a.m. ET, the spokesman said. It was originally scheduled to start at 10 a.m. ET.

Attorney General William Barr accuses congressional Democrats of seeking to discredit him because of his investigation into the origins of the FBI's Russia probe, in a combative opening statement for Tuesday's hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

In Barr's prepared remarks, which were provided to CNN by the Justice Department on Monday, the attorney general says he has acted independently of President Trump in the decisions he's made in several criminal cases he's handled.

Barr will also face questions on his role in the administration's crackdown on the protests across the country that followed George Floyd's killing in May, including the decision to forcibly disperse a peaceful demonstration at Lafayette Square in June and the dispatching of federal officers to Portland, Oregon, where rioters have clashed with authorities nightly outside a complex of federal buildings.

In his opening statement, Barr said the President "has not attempted to interfere" in the criminal decisions he's made, which would include lessening the sentencing recommendation for Trump's longtime friend Roger Stone and to move to dismiss charges against Trump's first national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"My decisions on criminal matters have been left to my independent judgment, based on the law and fact, without any direction or interference from the White House or anyone outside the Department," Barr will say.

The majority of Barr's statement, however, is devoted to issues of race and policing, striking a tone that is decidedly defensive of law enforcement.

Barr calls the killing of Floyd "horrible" and says it "understandably jarred the whole country and forced us to reflect on longstanding issues in our nation." He continues, however, by recounting the ways that policing in America has changed since "the Civil Rights movement finally succeeded in tearing down the Jim Crow edifice."

Attorney General William Barr is expected to be questioned today about the Department of Justice's role in the forceful clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square that took place in June ahead of President Trump's photo-op outside St. John's Church.

Barr has repeatedly defended the actions of federal law enforcement officers.

In his interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" in early June, Barr said the protesters were moved because the Park Police wanted a larger security perimeter around the White House — not to aid the White House in staging President Trump's subsequent photo.

The clearing, though, ultimately devolved into a discordant and violent spectacle, with federal law enforcement agents clashing with protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets about 30 minutes before a curfew was set to take effect in the nation's capital. Barr was seen surveying the crowd shortly before law enforcement acted.

Barr, who has sought to distance himself from the official order to clear the protesters, also claimed in June that the protesters at Lafayette Square, which had become the center of attention for the ongoing demonstrations, were violent. There is no evidence of that claim, and CNN personnel on the scene reported the protesters were peaceful.

"They were not peaceful protesters. And that's one of the big lies that the media is  — seems to be perpetuating at this point," Barr claimed. "The Park Police was facing what they considered to be a very rowdy and non-compliant crowd. And there were projectiles being hurled at the police."

Some background: As CNN has previously reported, Barr appeared in Lafayette Square shortly before 6 p.m. ET, about an hour before Trump left the White House. In a scene that was captured on news cameras, Barr stood flanked by a security detail, his chief of staff and the head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

As Barr surveyed the situation around the park, some protesters spotted and recognized him, and shouts went up.

A Justice Department official previously told CNN that Barr had been told that police believed protesters were gathering rocks to throw at law enforcement, and while he was in the park, water bottles were thrown in his direction.

CNN did not witness any water bottles being thrown at the attorney general.

Attorney General William Barr's hearing today is titled "Oversight of the Department of Justice," and it is expected to serve as a moment for the Democratic-led committee to press the Trump official on a number of episodes that have raised concerns in the House about the agency's independence and use of force.

Tuesday's appearance on Capitol Hill will be Barr's first before the House Judiciary Committee, where the panel's Democrats have accused Barr of a litany of offenses and raised the specter of impeachment.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have long been angling for Barr to appear before them after a no-show last year and previous dates this year were scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Here are some key topics that could arise during the hearing:

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have a whole different set of issues they're eager to discuss with Barr related to the FBI's actions in the Russia investigation, which Barr has tapped US Attorney John Durham to investigate. Republicans are likely to ask Barr for an update on the Durham probe and the recent set of documents he declassified related to the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation — while pushing back on Democrats charges of corruption and misconduct.