Did Congress read the Mueller report? Many lawmakers won’t say
Washington — Rep. Justin Amash broke ranks with fellow Republicans when he said Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report shows that President Donald Trump took actions that “meet the threshold for impeachment,” arguing that the stark partisan divide over the findings was because “few members of Congress have read the report.”
While it’s common for politicians to draw very different conclusions from the same set of facts, the Michigan congressman’s suggestion in several tweetstorms this past week is bolder — that most lawmakers simply ignored Mueller’s report.
So how many lawmakers actually read the entire 448-page, redacted report released on April 18?
A Washington Post canvass of House and Senate members on the relevant committees — the Judiciary and Intelligence committees in both chambers — found most saying they have read the publicly released report in its entirety, but more than 3 in 10 declined to respond to five yes-or-no questions after repeated contact attempts, offered unclear answers or said they have not read the full report.
Three out of the four Republican chairmen or ranking GOP members on the Judiciary and Intelligence committees did not respond when asked how they reviewed the report, while one senior Democratic senator said he has read the executive summaries but not the full report with redactions.
On Tuesday, The Washington Post emailed questions to all 92 members of the committees, which have been among the most active in holding hearings and conducting their own investigations into Russia interference in the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign. Here’s what they said: Did not answer our questions — 25 Unclear — 4 Did not read the full report —3 Read the full report — 60 Of the 92 congressional and Senate offices we contacted, 67 responded to the query and 60 — 65 percent of all contacted — said their member read Mueller’s report in its entirety. Taking offices at their word — it is possible some overstated how much of the report lawmakers read — this suggests Amash may be underestimating his fellow lawmakers.
But a sizable minority of 25 lawmakers on the Judiciary and Intelligence committees (27 percent of the total) did not respond to questions, despite multiple attempts by The Post to contact each office by email and phone.
It is difficult to know the reasons offices did not respond — some refuse to respond to survey-like requests, while others may have just been too busy. The Post will update this report if non-responding offices send answers after publication.
There were large gaps in response to The Post’s canvass by party. A slight majority of Republican members of the Judiciary or Intelligence committees responded to The Post’s questions (55 percent), compared with 88 percent of Democrats. One of the first responses came from the office of Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, whose staff also provided images of the senator’s markedup copy of the report. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., participated in a “marathon reading” of the report last week, according to her office, and sent along four pages of the congresswoman’s marked-up copy of the report.
Beyond simply responding to the questions, 80 percent of Democrats said they read the entire report, compared with 48 percent of Republicans.
The partisan gap extended to senior members of the House and Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees. All four Democratic chairs and ranking Democratic members — Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said they read the Mueller report in its entirety. That compares with three of the four senior Republicans who did not respond to questions about their office’s review of the report: Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Rep. Devin Nunes of California. Rep. Douglas Collins did read the entire report, according to a spokeswoman.
Among the 65 offices that provided answers, only three lawmakers said they did not read the full report.
Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., of the Judiciary Committee did not read the entire report himself, according to spokesman Sean Colt, who said Coons “personally read the key portions of the redacted Mueller report and was briefed extensively by staff and legal experts on the full report.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., read the executive summaries of Volumes I and II and most of the redacted Mueller report but not the entire document, according to a spokesman. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., is “still finishing up” reading the report, according to his office, though a spokesman said he has read the executive summaries. Senior staff members for both lawmakers read the full report and briefed staffs.
Four other members of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees provided unclear responses when asked whether they had read the report in its entirety. The office of Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, responded that the senator “has read the Mueller report” but did not directly answer any of The Post’s questions, which asked specifically whether she read the entire 448-page document.
A spokesman for Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, did not answer when asked whether he read the report, but said, “Chairman Grassley’s oversight and investigative staff — one of the largest in Congress — read the report in its entirety and provided a comprehensive briefing on its contents.” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas’ office said members of his staff “reviewed the special counsel’s report,” though it did not provide specific details on whether the senator read it in its entirety.
Rep. André Carson, D-Ind., said he was briefed by senior staff who read the report, but a spokesperson said they are “unable to speak about the internal proceedings and activities in the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee.”