Democrats demand release of Mueller report’s full 300 pages
Democrats intensified their demands for the full Mueller report Thursday after learning the special counsel’s findings from his Trump-Russia investigation run to more than 300 pages while President Donald Trump boasts of total exoneration based on a four-page summary by his attorney general.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Attorney General William Barr told him he has no intention of giving the confidential report to Congress immediately as he redacts grand jury testimony and other elements,
Democrats say they may subpoena the report if it’s not forthcoming by a Tuesday deadline they have set.
Through the day, tempers were rising on Capitol Hill.
Shaking her fist for emphasis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr’s summary, which cleared Trump of campaign collusion with Russia and criminal obstruction of Mueller’s federal probe, was “condescending” and “arrogant.”
“Mr. Attorney General,” she said, “show us the report and we’ll come to our own conclusions.” She asked what Trump and the Republicans were afraid of and mocked them as “scaredycats.”
Trump himself headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a campaign rally where he was sure to lambaste the Democrats again for the investigation that he has repeatedly dismissed as a “witch hunt.”
The length of Mueller’s still-confidential report makes clear that there are substantially more details that he and his team have documented in their investigation than Barr disclosed to Congress and the public. The volume of pages was described Thursday by a Justice Department official and another person familiar with the document.
The Justice Department official said Barr discussed the length of the report during a phone call Wednesday with Nadler, who would only indicate it was less than 1,000 pages.
Barr would not commit to providing the full report with its underlying evidence, Nadler said.
Both the department official and the other person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the document.
The attorney general has been going through the report amid Democratic concerns that what has been made public so far was tilted in Trump’s favor. It’s unclear whether whatever Barr might release next will be Mueller’s own words or another summary. Nadler offered to join Barr to seek a judge’s approval to unseal grand jury testimony, an aide said.
Barr has said he’ll provide Congress with at least a partial version in April and also told Nadler he would agree to testify before his committee.
As that battle brews, House Democrats barreled ahead with their own investigation of the Trump administration, and Trump resumed his attack on Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., just as the chairman of the intelligence committee was about to gavel his panel into session.
“Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!” Trump tweeted early Thursday.
Republicans picking up on Trump’s complaints formalized their demand that Schiff resign as chairman of the intelligence panel over his comments that there was significant evidence the president and his associates conspired with Russia.
“We have no faith in your ability to discharge your responsibilities” in line with the Constitution, the Republicans wrote to Schiff in a missive they read aloud at the hearing.
Republicans pointed to Barr’s synopsis, released Sunday, that said Mueller’s probe didn’t find that Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Schiff stood by his remarks, listing the meetings that people in Trump’s circle had with Russians. He noted Trump’s pursuit of a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
“There is a different word for that than collusion, and it’s called compromise,” Schiff said, as he opened the session. The hearing was called to provide an overview on how Russia in the past has blackmailed Americans.
Since Barr’s findings were released, Schiff this week has repeated his assertion that evidence of collusion is in “plain sight.” He says Mueller’s failure to find a criminal conspiracy with Russia does not absolve the Trump campaign.
While Barr’s summary on Sunday said Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election, it also said that Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed the federal investigation, instead setting out “evidence on both sides” of the question.
Barr told the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that he’s combing through Mueller’s report and removing classified, grand jury and other information in hopes of releasing the rest to Congress.