WASHINGTON- U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the below statement following the report from BuzzFeed News that President Trump directed his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

“At this week’s nomination hearing Mr. Barr confirmed to me, under oath, that he believes that if a president, or anyone, persuades someone to commit perjury or convinces a witness to change their testimony it would constitute an obstruction of justice. These new reports underscore why it’s so important that the Special Counsel must be allowed to complete his investigation and the report must be made public. The American people deserve to know all the facts.”

“When I asked the questions of the nominee I was not aware of the later released BuzzFeed report.  I asked the questions for two reasons.  The first reason was to follow up regarding potential obstruction of justice violations he did not raise in the memo, like promising pardons and drafting misleading statements to conceal information.  The second reason was to get on the record at the hearing certain meaningful nuggets I found in the 19-page memo that had not gotten enough attention: that the President’s Attorney General nominee actually put in writing things that a President could do that did amount to obstruction of justice—like ask someone to perjure themselves or change their testimony.  I thought those scenarios were in the realm of the possible so I asked about them.”  

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