Schiff says Mueller report "needs to be made public ASAP"
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Attorney General William Barr should make the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report public as soon as possible.
"That report needs to be made public ASAP, so we can evaluate the body of evidence on the issue of conspiracy and look at why Bob Muller decided not to indict," Schiff said on "Face the Nation" Sunday, referring to the special counsel. The nearly two-year investigation into Russian meddling in U.S. elections and possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow concluded on Friday, when Mueller submitted his report.
Barr and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein have been reviewing the report over the weekend to decide which aspects to share with congressional leaders. Since the attorney general informed the heads of the Judiciary Committees in both chambers of Congress that Mueller had submitted his report, President Trump has kept an unusually low profile.
Mr. Trump's legal team believes the report, along with the Department of Justice's assertion that no future indictments will be handed down as part of Mueller's probe, will exonerate the president, whose first term has been clouded by the investigation and the indictments of some of his former aides and confidants.
Schiff, however, said the fact Mueller will not issue new indictments does not negate the possibility of collusion and obstruction of justice.
"Now, vis-à-vis the president, Bob Mueller can't indict the president," he said, referring to long-standing Justice Department guidelines. "So the fact that [there are] no future indictments either on conspiracy or obstruction of justice doesn't tell us about the quantum of evidence."
Echoing remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Schiff urged the Department of Justice's leadership to brief all members of Congress on Mueller's report and make its findings available to the public — not just a handful of top lawmakers.
"It is not going to be satisfactory for the attorney general of the Justice Department to brief eight of us, the so-called Gang of Eight, in a classified setting and say, 'OK, we discharged our obligation, we don't have to tell the rest of the country anything,'" he said. "That's not going to fly."
Schiff demurred when asked if he would boycott such a closed-door classified briefing.