AG Barr: DOJ had been drawn into 'political maelstrom'; department used as 'political weapon'

Attorney General William Barr, facing a hotly anticipated appearance before a House panel Tuesday, offered a forceful defense of his actions as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, asserting that he has acted apart from the interests of the White House while "applying a standard of justice without partisan considerations."

Even before taking office in 2019, Barr said he became "deeply troubled by what I perceived as the increasing use of the criminal justice process as a political weapon and the emergence of two separate standards of justice."

"The Department...