The House Judiciary Committee plans to vote Wednesday on authorizing a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report as well as its underlying evidence.
Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Monday that he has scheduled a markup Wednesday at 9 a.m. for the committee to vote on authorizing subpoenas for the report.
{mosads}Attorney General William Barr told Congress on Friday that he plans to have a public version of the report ready to send to Congress and release publicly by mid-April or sooner — but after a Tuesday deadline that Democrats have demanded.
In a statement, Nadler noted what he said was Barr’s refusal to provide Mueller’s full report to Congress without redactions.
“The Attorney General should reconsider so that we can work together to ensure the maximum transparency of this important report to both Congress and the American people,” Nadler said, calling for the full report to be released “without delay.”
The resolution will also authorize the panel to send subpoenas to five individuals who, Nadler says, have yet to turn over documents to the Judiciary Committee following his panel’s requests last month asking 81 entities and individuals to provide records as part of the panel’s sweeping oversight probe of President Trump.
The individuals include former White House counsel Donald McGahn, McGahn’s former deputy Ann Donaldson, former Trump campaign chairman Stephen Bannon, former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
“I am grateful to the many individuals who have cooperated with our initial request for documents. Regrettably, not everyone has chosen to voluntarily cooperate with the Committee at this time. I am particularly concerned about reports that documents relevant to the Special Counsel investigation were sent outside the White House, [waiving] applicable privileges,” Nadler’s statement says.
“To this end, I have asked the Committee to authorize me to issue subpoenas, if necessary, to compel the production of documents and testimony.”
Republicans quickly criticized Nadler’s move, arguing the law does not allow the Justice Department to share everything in Mueller’s report.
“Judiciary Democrats have escalated from setting arbitrary deadlines to demanding unredacted material that Congress does not, in truth, require and that the law does not allow to be shared outside the Justice Department,” Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
“It’s unfortunate that a body meant to uphold the law has grown so desperate that it’s patently misrepresenting the law, even as the attorney general has already demonstrated transparency above and beyond what is required.”
Barr in a four-page letter to Congress last week said Mueller concluded his investigation without finding evidence that Trump’s campaign was involved in a conspiracy with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.
His letter also said Mueller did not reach a conclusion on an obstruction of justice charge, writing in his report that there is “evidence on both sides of the question.” Barr wrote that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in reviewing Mueller’s findings decided there should be no obstruction of justice charge. Such a charge would mean proving that an individual acted with “corrupt intent” to hinder an official proceeding.
Trump and Republicans have seized on Barr’s letter as totally vindicating the president, while also fueling their attacks against Democrats and media personalities who they say made claims there was evidence of “collusion” between the campaign and the Kremlin.
Democrats, on the other hand, have accused Trump’s top law enforcement official of possible bias for putting out his interpretation of Mueller’s findings, further fueling their demands that Barr release Mueller’s full report as well as its underlying evidence.