House Judiciary Committee will vote to authorize subpoenas for full Mueller report
The House Judiciary Committee will meet Wednesday to authorize subpoenas for the full special counsel's report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential ties between the Russian government and Trump campaign. The committee will also be moving to subpoena all underlying documents related to Robert Mueller's findings.
Six House committee chairmen wrote to Attorney General William Barr last week to demand the full Mueller report and to start producing underlying documents by April 2. Barr wrote to Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-New York, last week and said that he would likely release a redacted report by mid-April.
Nadler responded that April 2 is still the deadline and that he wants the full, un-redacted report as well as underlying materials. House Democratic staff have begun preparing the legal precedent for Congress demanding the full report and materials. This comes after Barr summarized Mueller's report as saying, "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
Democrats, including Nadler, have called for the full report to be made public as there are still many unanswered questions. The fact that Mueller didn't make a determination as to whether Mr. Trump obstructed the investigation, but Barr said there was insufficient evidence to establish that the president committed obstruction of justice, has particularly troubled Democratic lawmakers.
On Monday, the New York Times published an op-ed by Nadler, where he maintains that lawmakers "have an obligation" to read Mueller's findings and "will not wait much longer" for its release. Nadler argued that the Congress has a "duty under the Constitution" to determine whether or not wrongdoing has taken place in the Russia investigation. He said Barr's proposal to redact Mueller's findings before lawmakers were to receive it was "unprecedented."
"We require the evidence, not whatever remains after the report has been filtered by the president's political appointee." said Nadler. The chairman added that lawmakers have an obligation to "make it harder for future presidents to behave this way."
"If the department is unwilling to produce the full report voluntarily, then we will do everything in our power to secure it for ourselves," Nadler appeared to threaten.
Meanwhile, Ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia, said in a statement in response to Nadler's letter that "Judiciary Democrats have escalated from setting arbitrary deadlines to demanding un-redacted material that Congress does not, in truth, require and that the law does not allow to be shared outside the Justice Department."
Collins added, "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."
A White House official meanwhile slammed Nadler's efforts, saying in a statement: "Chairman Nadler is demanding secret grand jury information and classified material that he knows is against the law to release. He should stop playing politics and allow the Attorney General to complete his work."
The full House of Representatives previously voted to pass a non-binding resolution calling for the public release of Mueller's report last month, but Sen. Lindsey Graham blocked the vote in the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked for unanimous consent on the resolution, which passed the House in a 420-0 vote. However, Graham objected after Schumer refused to amend the resolution to include a provision on appointing a special counsel to investigate misconduct at the Justice Department related to FISA applications against former Trump campaign official Carter Page.
Nadler's committee, meanwhile, will also vote to issue subpoenas for a variety of Trump associates, including former White House Counsel Donald McGahn, former White House Chief Strategist Steven Bannon, former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former White House Counsel Chief of Staff Ann Donaldson as part of the Judiciary Committee's separate investigation into threats to the rule of law by the president.