Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
The Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for Mueller’s full report without redactions on Wednesday in a 24-17 vote.
The resolution also authorized the Judiciary Committee to issue subpoenas and testimony from five current and former Trump aides.
The aides include White House Counsel Don McGahn, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, former communications director Hope Hicks, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former White House aide Ann Donaldson.
“The Constitution charges Congress with holding the president accountable for alleged official misconduct. That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves, not the attorney general’s summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said in his opening statement Wednesday.
Nadler also said that so far, Bill Barr has “refused” to work with him to help obtain access to materials.
“The Department is wrong to try to withhold that information from this Committee. Congress is entitled to all of the evidence. This isn’t just my opinion. It is also a matter of law,” Nadler added.
Nadler also indicated that he isn’t planning on immediately issuing the subpoena and that he would “give [Bill Barr] time to change his mind.”
“But if we cannot reach an accommodation, then we will have no choice but to issue subpoenas for these materials,” Nadler warned. “And if the department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge, not the president or his political appointee to decide whether or not it is appropriate for the committee to review the complete record.”
WATCH:
.@RepJerryNadler on subpoenas and the Mueller Report: " The Department is wrong to try to withhold that information from this Committee. Congress is entitled to all of the evidence. This isn’t just my opinion. It is also a matter of law." pic.twitter.com/NR3vGXmktp
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 3, 2019
Mueller’s team interviewed 500 witnesses and issued 2800 subpoenas in an investigation that spanned over 675 days with a total of 19 high-powered lawyers.
Under special counsel rules, Mueller is to give Attorney General Bill Barr a confidential report.
Barr is redacting people’s names who were not indicted — the law protects people named in the report who have not been indicted — especially if it’s grand jury material.
“It’s a crime to release grand jury material without the approval of the courts and it’s even a crime to release it to Congress without the approval of the courts,” Alan Dershowitz said.
