Bill Barr, Jerry Nadler
The Dem-controlled House Judiciary Committee has taken the first formal step to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for Mueller’s unredacted report as well as the underlying grand jury materials.
The Judiciary Committee announced Monday that it will vote on a contempt citation against Bill Barr on Wednesday morning.
The vote of approval will then send the resolution to the full House for consideration in a couple weeks.
“The attorney general’s failure to comply with our subpoena, after extensive accommodation efforts, leaves us no choice but to initiate contempt proceedings in order to enforce the subpoena and access the full, unredacted report,” Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said in a statement.
“Attorney General Barr failed to comply with the committee’s request for these documents and thereby has hindered the committee’s constitutional, oversight, and legislative functions,” the contempt citation states.
“Congress is therefore the only body able to hold the president to account for improper conduct in our tripartite system, and urgently requires the subpoenaed material to determine whether and how to proceed with its constitutional duty to provide checks and balances on the president and executive branch,” the contempt citation states. “Otherwise, the president remains insulated from legal consequences and sits above the law.”
Ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) blasted Nadler in response to the contempt citation.
“Democrats have launched a proxy war smearing the attorney general when their anger actually lies with the president and the special counsel, who found neither conspiracy nor obstruction,” Rep. Doug Collins said in a statement.
Democrats have launched a proxy war smearing the attorney general when their anger actually lies with the president and the special counsel, who found neither conspiracy nor obstruction. Full statement below → pic.twitter.com/BgCWMqRJW4
— Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) May 6, 2019
Nadler gave the Justice Department a 9 AM Monday deadline to comply with the committee’s new offer, which includes allowing more members of Congress to look at a less-redacted version of Mueller’s report. Nadler also wants Barr to seek a court order to grant lawmakers the right to view the underlying grand jury material — Barr blocked the grand jury material from the public and Congress to protect innocent people who have not been indicted – and Barr held his ground.
Under special counsel rules, Attorney General Bill Barr didn’t even need to release Mueller’s report to the public or to Congress. The unredacted version of the report is in a SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility] for certain lawmakers to view, however, only two lawmakers have actually viewed the less-redacted version of the report.
Barr was scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee last Thursday but things began to go sideways after Chairman Jerry Nadler proposed changes to the format.
Bill Barr was a no-show and refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday morning.
House Judiciary Committee members under the leadership of Chairman Nadler voted last Wednesday morning to have staffers and experts question Attorney General Bill Barr in their committee hearing on Thursday — this kind of format is unheard of.
In over 206 years of the House Judiciary Committee, staffers have never questioned a witness, let alone the US Attorney General, in an oversight hearing.
Nadler and the Democrats did this on purpose to create chaos and make it appear that Attorney General Barr has something to hide so they could hold him in contempt.
