Vote to release Robert Mueller's Russia report passes House, but is blocked in Senate
The House of Representatives voted to pass a non-binding resolution calling for the public release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report into the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, 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.
"Was there two systems of justice in 2016? One for the Democratic candidate and one for the Republican candidate?" Graham asked on the Senate floor.
But even if the resolution did pass the Senate, it's still not clear how much of the report, which will be submitted to Attorney General William Barr, will ever see the light of day.
The House passed the largely symbolic resolution Thursday morning as pressure mounts on the Justice Department to release Mueller's full report. Four members of Congress voted present -- Republicans Justin Amash of Michigan, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Before Thursday's vote, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York, told lawmakers that the report should be made available to the public and Congress, emphasizing that "transparency is fundamental to the special counsel's process." He added that it was critical to pass the resolution because of the "many questions and criticisms of the investigation" raised by the Trump administration.
"It is important that Congress stand up for the principle of full transparency at at time when the president has publicly attacked the Russian investigation," said Nadler.
The report's impending release comes as House Democrats have moved to escalate their own investigations into the Trump White House and the president's associates as it relates to possible claims of obstruction of justice and collusion.
President Trump told reporters last month that it would be "totally up to" his newly installed Attorney General William Barr to decide what is made public or not.
"That'll be totally up to the new attorney general, he's a tremendous man a tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the Justice Department so that'll be totally up to him," Mr. Trump said.
Barr previously told lawmakers in January that while he wants to make as much of Mueller's report public as is consistent with the special counsel regulation. The report Barr receives will be confidential, and because it's possible Mueller's report may also contain extremely sensitive information regarding how the intelligence community collects information, much of it could stay under lock and key for some time.
CBS News' John Nolen contributed to this report.