In 420-0 vote, House says Mueller report should be public
WASHINGTON — The House voted unanimously Thursday for a resolution calling for any final report in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be made public, a symbolic action designed to pressure Attorney General William Barr into releasing as much information as possible when the probe is concluded.
The Democratic-backed resolution, which passed 420-0, comes as Mueller appears to be nearing an end to his investigation. Lawmakers in both parties have maintained there will have to be some sort of public resolution when the report is done — and privately hope that a report shows conclusions that are favorable to their own side.
Four Republicans voted present: Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.
The resolution is unlikely to be passed in the Senate, where Democratic Leader Charles Schumer tried to bring it up hours after House passage. He was rebuffed when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham objected. But the House vote shows that lawmakers from both parties are eager to have a look at Mueller’s findings after almost two years of speculation about what it might reveal.
Though Mueller’s office has said nothing publicly about the timing of a report, several prosecutors detailed to Mueller’s team have left in recent months, suggesting that the investigation is winding down. On Thursday, Mueller spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement that Andrew Weissmann, one of the most prominent prosecutors on the team, would be concluding his work “in the near future.”
The nonbinding House resolution calls for the public release of any report Mueller provides to Barr, with an exception for classified material. The resolution also calls for the full report to be released to Congress.
FBI debate
Already released is information that during the early days of the Russia investigation, FBI officials debated whether Trump’s chance of winning should factor into how aggressively they investigated potential coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, two FBI officials told Congress last year, according to newly released transcripts of their interviews.
Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who helped lead the investigation, told lawmakers in a closed-door interview that the FBI had received information from an “extremely sensitive source” alleging collusion between the government of Russia and members of the Trump campaign. FBI officials, including then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, debated internally how vigorously to follow up on that information given that Democrat Hillary Clinton was seen at the time as likely to defeat Trump, and an aggressive investigation had the potential of exposing the source.
Strzok recalled that he disagreed that a candidate’s electability should be part of the equation.
The comments were made during a closed-door interview in June 2018 with members of the House judiciary and oversight committees. The top Republican on the Judiciary panel, Rep. Doug Collins, released a transcript of the interview Thursday as part of an ongoing effort to paint the early days of the Russia investigation as tainted by law enforcement bias. In the past week, Collins has released transcripts of similar interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Strzok exchanged anti-Trump text messages during the 2016 election and investigations into his campaign.
Those text messages have made Strzok and Page particular targets of outrage from Republicans and from Trump. Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team following the discovery of the texts and was later fired from the FBI. Page has since left the bureau.
In a statement Thursday, Strzok attorney Aitan Goelman said his client welcomed the release of the transcript.