Rep Steve Cohen Mocks Chicken Bill Barr with a Wing and Drumstick

By Andy Sullivan

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When Attorney General William Barr refused to appear at a hearing in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, one Democrat decided it was thigh time to act against what he saw as fowl behavior.

Congressman Steve Cohen arrived at a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee carrying a bucket of fried chicken and a poultry figurine. He said the props represented the nation’s top law enforcement official, who canceled his planned testimony amid a dispute over the hearing format.

“The chicken Barr should have shown up today and answered questions,” the Tennessee Democrat told reporters, after he handed out pieces of fried chicken to other committee members. After the hearing concluded, committee staffers wiped up chicken grease from the area around Cohen’s seat.

A statue of a chicken sits above the nameplate and near the empty seat of U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who was scheduled to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) hands out Kentucky Fried Chicken during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Justice Department’s investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election”, that U.S. Attorney General Barr was scheduled to appear at, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Democrats accuse Barr and other administration officials of stonewalling their investigations into Trump’s taxes, his businesses and other topics.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on Thursday that he may hold Barr in contempt of Congress if the attorney general does not turn over an unredacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Jonathan Oatis)