Democrats issue subpoena for Mueller report
THE chairman of the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena yesterday for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report as Democrats intensified their investigation of President Donald Trump, but leaders stopped short of liberal demands for impeachment proceedings.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has insisted on a methodical, step-by-step approach to the House’s oversight of the Trump administration, and she refuses to consider impeachment without public support, including from Republicans, which seems unlikely.
But in light of Mueller’s findings, Democratic Party leaders are under mounting pressure from the party’s rising stars, deep-pocketed donors and even a presidential contender to seize the moment as a jumping-off point for trying to remove Trump from office.
Speaking yesterday in Belfast as she wrapped up a congressional visit to Ireland, Pelosi declined to signal action beyond Congress’s role as a check and balance for the White House.
That approach isn’t enough for some liberals, who see in Trump’s actions not just a president unfit for office but evidence of obstruction serious enough that Mueller said he could not declare Trump exonerated.
New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria OcasioCortez is signed on to an impeachment resolution from fellow Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, bringing new energy to the effort.
Massachusetts Democrat Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said yesterday the House ‘‘should initiate impeachment proceedings against the president’’.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, a leading advocate of impeachment, has grown impatient with the House’s pace of investigations and wants televised hearings to focus Americans’ attention on Trump.
‘‘Let’s get the show on the road,’’ Steyer said yesterday. ‘‘The Mueller report very clearly outlined obstruction by the president and basically said, ‘I can’t do anything about it, it’s up to Congress to hold the president accountable’.’’
Democrats, though, may see greater power in pursuing an investigative effort, leaving impeachment as a final option.
Judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat congressman, said he expected the Justice Department to comply with the committee’s subpoena for the full report by May 1 – the same day Attorney General William Barr is to testify before a Senate committee, and one day before Barr is to appear before Nadler’s panel. Nadler has also summoned Mueller to testify by May 23.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupac called Nadler’s move ‘‘premature and unnecessary’’.
Barr sent Congress a redacted version of the Mueller report.
Nadler said he was open to working with the department on accommodations, but the committee ‘‘needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence’’.
With Barr, Democrats expect a long battle ahead. The attorney general has come under intense scrutiny over his handling of the Mueller report and subsequent comments that have left him exposed to criticism that he is acting in Trump’s interests.
Democrats yesterday rejected an offer from Barr for a limited number of congressional leaders to view some of the redacted materials in a confidential setting. –AP