Barr slams Democrats and courts: Avalanche of subpoenas is designed to 'incapacitate the executive branch'

Barr accused "the left" of "waging a scorched earth no-holds-barred war of resistance against this administration," and of being "engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law." He also slammed what he called the Senate's "unprecedented abuse of the advise and consent process."

He said the Democrats "have decided to drown the executive branch with oversight demands for testimony and documents." He adds while he doesn't "deny that Congress has some implied authority," the volume of investigations and "avalanche of subpoenas ... is plainly designed to incapacitate the executive branch and indeed is touted as such."

He slammed Democrats for raising concerns during his confirmation hearing over his adherence to the theory, which Barr insisted is not new, but "a description of what the framers did in Article II" of the Constitution.

Barr made those remarks after invoking the movie "Vice" and a scene depicting a young Dick Cheney plotting a "new nefarious theory that will allow them to just take over the world."

"It is reasonable to wonder whether a future president will actually be able to form a functioning administration if his or her party does not hold the Senate," Barr said.

He accused opponents of Trump of launching the "resistance," saying "they rallied around an explicit strategy of using every tool and maneuver to sabotage the functioning of the executive branch and his administration."

Barr also went after the courts for putting the travel ban on hold over accusations about the President's motives, as well as a series of other decisions.

He accused judges of acting "like amateur psychiatrists attempting to discern an executive official's real motive often after ordering invasive discovery into the executive branch's privileged decision making process have no more foundation in law than a subpoena to a court to try to determining a judge's real motive in issuing a decision."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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