The White House on Friday hit back at Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiHoyer: House should vote on COVID-19 aid — with or without a bipartisan deal Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose at Supreme Court McCarthy threatens motion to oust Pelosi if she moves forward with impeachment MORE (D-Calif.) for accusing Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrHarris faces pivotal moment with Supreme Court battle Hillicon Valley: DOJ proposes tech liability shield reform to Congress | Treasury sanctions individuals, groups tied to Russian malign influence activities | House Republican introduces bill to set standards for self-driving cars McCarthy threatens motion to oust Pelosi if she moves forward with impeachment MORE of committing a crime by lying to lawmakers in sworn testimony.

"The fact that the Speaker would take it upon herself to call him a liar is really, really inappropriate and beneath her office," deputy press secretary Steven Groves said on MSNBC.

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Barr has come under intense scrutiny from Democrats, some of whom have called on him to resign and who say he was not truthful during testimony before House and Senate panels in recent weeks.

Groves was shown a clip in which Rep. Charlie Crist Charles (Charlie) Joseph CristFlorida Democrat introduces bill to recognize Puerto Rico statehood referendum Anna Paulina Luna wins Florida GOP primary in bid to unseat Charlie Crist The feds should not spend taxpayer dollars in states that have legalized weed MORE (D-Fla.) asked Barr during April 9 hearing whether he knew about frustrations from Mueller's team with his March 24 summary of the special counsel's report.

Barr said he did not, but that he suspected they "wanted more put out" from the full report.

Honest questions deserve honest answers. I'm very concerned that Attorney General Barr's answer on April 9, 2019 wasn't honest.



If that's true, there will be consequences. pic.twitter.com/CP9JHeKvqt — Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) May 1, 2019

It was revealed this week that Mueller had personally written Barr a letter on March 27 expressing concerns that Barr's memo "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusions."

Groves on Friday defended Barr's comments, arguing the attorney general was responding at the time to a question about those on Mueller’s team quoted anonymously in a New York Times piece, and not Mueller's letter itself.

"In that moment, that was private correspondence between Attorney General Barr and special counsel Mueller," Groves said. "I mean, I don’t know what was going through his head, but one of the things might have been, ‘Hey that was a private exchange, maybe I’m not going to reveal that on national television.’ ”

"Watching that exchange in its totality, the idea that he would be called a liar or accused of perjury is just so outrageous that I don’t even know how to react to it," Groves continued.

Barr has become a focus of Democrats' ire in the wake of the end of the special counsel investigation. Democrats have accused the attorney general of mishandling Mueller's report and spinning a favorable narrative for the president.

The attorney general endured a grilling from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but refused to attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday after the Democrat-run panel voted to allow staff attorneys to ask questions.

Pelosi said Thursday that she "lost sleep" Wednesday night watching replays of Barr's testimony.

Asked directly whether Barr committed a crime, she didn't hesitate.

"He lied to Congress; he lied to Congress. And if anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime," Pelosi said.