NADLER ORDERS THE FULL MUELLER
Subpoenas Barr for uncensored report
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler fired off a subpoena Friday demanding a look at Robert Mueller’s unredacted report and all underlying evidence collected over the special counsel’s 22-month investigation.
The eight-page subpoena was served on the Justice Department just one day after a truncated version of Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election was finally made public.
“My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report,” Nadler (DN.Y.) said. “The redactions appear to be significant. We have so far seen none of the actual evidence that the special counsel developed to make this case.”
Echoing widespread Democratic concerns that Attorney General William Barr is trying to protect President Trump, Nadler added, “It now falls to Congress to determine the full scope of that alleged misconduct and to decide what steps we must take going forward.”
Nadler set a May 1 deadline for the full Mueller report, but the Justice Department quickly rebuffed the request.
“The attorney general released the special counsel’s ‘confidential report’ with only minimal redactions,” spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement. “In light of this, Congressman Nadler’s subpoena is premature and unnecessary. The Department will continue to work with Congress to accommodate its legitimate requests consistent with the law and long-recognized executive branch interest.”
Democrats are expected to insist the department comply with the subpoena, meaning the matter will likely end up in federal court.
The redacted version of Mueller’s 448-page report painted a damning picture of Trump and his campaign, although the special counsel stopped short of charging any associates of the president with criminally conspiring in Russia’s attempt to sway the 2016 election.
However, on the question of obstruction of justice, Mueller neither exonerated nor charged Trump and instead urged Congress to consider taking action.
For that reason, Nadler reasoned in his subpoena that Congress must be allowed access to “the complete and unredacted version of the report,” along with all documents referenced by Mueller’s report, all documents obtained during the probe and any “investigative materials created by the Special Counsel’s office.”
Nadler’s Republican counterpart disagreed and called Nadler’s subpoena “wildly overbroad.”
“This is politically convenient,” House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins (R-Ga.) said, accusing Nadler of attempting to “grandstand.”
Trump, who just one day earlier falsely crowed that Mueller’s report completely cleared him of both obstruction and collusion, unleashed an expletive-riddled Twitter tirade following the subpoena, denouncing statements made by people interviewed by the special counsel as “fabricated and totally untrue.”
“It was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the ‘Report’ about me, some of which are total bulls—t & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad),” the president tweeted from his private club in Florida, where he’s spending the holiday weekend. “This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened.”
Trump spent the rest of the day golfing at his West Palm Beach club. Among his golf partners was right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, according to the White House.
Mueller stated in his report that Trump’s attempts at obstruction failed in large part because his deputies refused to carry out his orders.
Former White House counsel Don McGahn told associates that he often rebuffed the president’s request because they were “crazy” and possibly illegal, according to Mueller. Among other requests, Trump once urged McGahn to fire Mueller, the special counsel said in his report.
Underscoring the Democratic distrust in Barr, eight of the most powerful Democrats in Congress sent a letter to the attorney general Friday afternoon rejecting his offering them to view a slightly-less redacted version of Mueller’s report in a confidential setting.
“Given the comprehensive factual findings presented by the special counsel’s report, some of which will only be fully understood with access to the redacted material, we cannot agree to the conditions you are placing on our access to the full report,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and Nadler said in a joint statement with the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
Nadler had expressed a similar point in his subpoena, saying he’s open to working with the Justice Department to reach “a reasonable accommodation.”
“However, I cannot accept any proposal which leaves most of Congress in the dark, as they grapple with their duties of legislation, oversight and constitutional accountability,” Nadler said.
Barr is due to testify before a Senate committee on the the day of the May 1 deadline. He’s expected to appear the next day before Nadler’s committee — which has also requested a visit from Mueller.
Nadler, in a morning appearance on ABC News prior to issuing the subpoena, made clear he’s not going to go easy on Barr.
“Barr has revealed himself as an agent of the president, not the Attorney General of the American people,” the Manhattan Democrat said. “He clearly misled, consistently misled the American people about what was in the report.”