House Judiciary Committee to Authorize Subpoena For Full Bob Mueller Report

The House Judiciary Committee will authorize subpoenas for special counsel Bob Mueller’s full report and the underlying evidence in his investigation, Politico reports.

Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said that he will push for the release of the nearly 400-page report via subpoena after Attorney General Bill Barr said he would release a redacted version to Congress no later than mid-April.

Nadler said he was “disturbed” by Barr’s extended timeline for the report’s release. Barr said he is reviewing the report to redact information about grand jury and intelligence community materials as well as information that is derogatory to “peripheral third parties.”

Along with the Mueller report, the committee plans to authorize subpoenas for documents from former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former communications director Hope Hicks, former White House counsel Don McGahn, and McGahn’s former deputy Ann Donaldson.

Nadler rips Barr in NYT op-ed:

Nadler slammed Barr’s handling of the Mueller report in an op-ed in The New York Times Monday, demanding the release of the full report.

“The entire reason for appointing the special counsel was to protect the investigation from political influence,” Nadler wrote. “By offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general, a recent political appointee, undermines the work and the integrity of his department. He also denies the public the transparency it deserves. We require the full report — the special counsel’s words, not the attorney general’s summary or a redacted version.”

“When the full scope of the president’s misconduct has been revealed, when his lies are debunked and his abuses have been laid bare, I believe that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will draft legislation to curb the worst of his offenses. Put another way: If President Trump’s behavior wasn’t criminal, then perhaps it should have been,” he added.

Republicans accuse Dems of ‘misrepresenting the law’:

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, slammed the move by Democrats and claimed that Barr has been more transparent than the law requires.

“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," Collins told Politico. "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.”

 

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