House members Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice sent a letter Thursday to the Virginia and Washington, D.C., bar associations requesting that they open an ethics investigation into the conduct of Attorney General William Barr.

“Given the recent release of a document written by Special Counsel [Robert] Mueller to the Attorney General objecting to his severe mischaracterization of the Special Counsel’s report, it appears the Attorney General has at best misled Congress and the American people, and at worst perjured himself before the Senate and House,” Lieu, D-Calif., and Rice, D-N.Y., wrote . “As such, we formally request an ethics investigation by the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar into Mr. Barr’s conduct for review and possible disbarment.”

"By deceiving Congress and the American people, who vested their trust in both the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice at large, Attorney General Barr must be subject to a professional review for the sake of the legal profession and the public," they added.



At best AG Barr misled the public. At worst he perjured himself before Congress. We shouldn’t accept that from any attorney, let alone our top law enforcement official.@tedlieu and I have asked the Virginia & DC Bar associations to open an investigation into his conduct. pic.twitter.com/X7RQMJnM6b — Kathleen Rice (@RepKathleenRice) May 3, 2019



Lieu and Rice, who were both prosecutors before being elected to office, quoted the rules of professional conduct for both bar associations, which ban lawyers from acting with “dishonesty.”

Barr has come under intense criticism from House Democrats for his handling of the Mueller report, including releasing a four-page summary before releasing the whole report, which Democrats charge was misleading.

It was revealed this week that Mueller sent a letter to Barr stating that the summary did not “fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the Mueller investigation.

Barr fired back in a Wednesday Senate Judiciary hearing, calling the letter “snitty” and probably “written by one of his staff people.”

The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.