During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN on Tuesday, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) expressed his skepticism about how much his colleague House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will accomplish with his separate investigation from the Department of Justice special counsel probe led by Robert Mueller on allegation of wrongdoing by President Donald Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign.
Byrne, a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020, argued that ultimately, this could be a net positive for Republicans, given at some point the public will hit a saturation point for their tolerance of Democrats’ investigations.
“I’ve read the Mueller report cover to cover,” Byrne said. “Some parts of it I had to read two or three times to make sure I understood it. There is no evidence of a crime in there, OK? And if the Justice Department after two-plus years and $35 million and all of these attorneys and agents over there at the Justice Department and the FBI – if they couldn’t find it, what in the world is the Judiciary Committee going to find under Jerry Nadler? What do they think they are going to bring to this that hasn’t already been brought to it? Nothing.”
“This is just pure politics,” he continued. “The American people are not going to be happy about this. So, I think that it’s bad for the country. It’s certainly bad for President Trump. It’s bad for what we’re trying to get done in Congress. But I think next year, next year I think it is going to be good for Republicans because I think people are going to say ‘enough.’ ‘I think we need to get people in there that are not going to do these investigations forever.’
The Alabama Republican highlighted Attorney General William Barr’s investigation, which he said had Democrats “nervous” because it could uncover crimes that led to the launch of the investigation initially.
“Now, I do back, as you know, the investigation the attorney general has right now going into how this whole investigation got started to begin with to make sure we know exactly what happened and if there were crimes committed there that we do what we need to do to prosecute those who committed those crimes,” he added. “That has the Democrats very nervous, as it should have them very nervous because there is every reason to believe there very well may have been a crime committed in getting this investigation going in the first place.”
Byrne speculated that if Barr can find wrongdoing, it will lead to jail time for the perpetrators.
“I’ve been very impressed with Attorney General William Barr,” Byrne said. “He’s the adult in the room and thank God we’ve got an adult in the room, finally. This guy, he’s at the end of his career. He’s at the peak of his career. He’s got nothing to prove to anybody. He’s calling balls and strikes in his office right now. He is going to get to the bottom of this, and he’s going to put everything that he’s allowed legally to put out there to inform the American people about what he found out. And if somebody has committed a crime, I have every reason to believe that Attorney General Barr will prosecute them and put them in jail, which is where they belong.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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