'What enemies have I indicted?': Barr pushes back
The House Judiciary Committee launched a broad inquiry last month into whether the Justice Department had become overly politicized.
The inquiry came after Barr intervened in several high-profile criminal cases involving people close to Trump. In February, he moved to scale back the Justice Department's sentencing recommendation for Trump's longtime friend Roger Stone, prompting four career prosecutors to withdraw.
In May, Barr sought to drop the criminal charge against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, setting the stage for an ongoing legal battle with the federal judge who was due to sentence Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Barr on Tuesday defended his moves in both cases, specifically mentioning the Stone case, saying: "Stone was prosecuted under me and I said all along that I thought that was a righteous prosecution, I thought he should go to jail... but the line prosecutors were trying to advocate for a sentence that was more than twice anyone else in a similar position has ever served and this is a 67-year-old man."
Barr added: "I wasn't going to advocate that because that is not the rule of law. 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."
