Last updated on April 4th, 2019 at 11:41 am
Six powerful House Democratic committee chairmen will begin the process of subpoenaing the Mueller report and all related evidence on Wednesday.
Democrats aren’t wasting time waiting for Barr’s redacted Mueller report
Committee chairs House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff, Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal and Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot L. Engel wrote to Attorney General William Barr:
On March 25, 2019, we sent you a letter requesting that you produce to Congress the full report of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III and its underlying evidence by Tuesday, April 2, 2019. “To the extent you believe the applicable law limits your ability” to produce the entire report, we urged that you “begin the process of consultation with us immediately” to resolve those issues without delay.[1] On Wednesday, April 3, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee plans to begin the process of authorizing subpoenas for the report and underlying evidence and materials. While we hope to avoid resort to compulsory process, if the Department is unwilling to produce the report to Congress in unredacted form, then we will have little choice but to take such action.
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Congress is, as a matter of law, entitled to each of the categories of information you proposed to redact from the Special Counsel’s report in your March 29 letter. In the attached appendix we provide a more complete legal analysis of each of the potential redaction categories your letter identified. We expect the Department will take all necessary steps without further delay—including seeking leave from the court to disclose the limited portions of the report that may involve grand jury materials—to satisfy your promise of transparency and to allow Congress to fulfill its own constitutional responsibilities.
Full release of the report to Congress is consistent with both congressional intent and the interests of the American public. On March 14, 2019, by a vote of 420-0, the House unanimously passed H. Con. Res. 24, a resolution calling for “the full release” of the Special Counsel’s report to Congress, as well as the public release of the Special Counsel’s report except to the extent the disclosure of “any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.” The American people have also consistently and overwhelmingly supported release of the full report. The President himself has likewise called for its release in full.
House Democrats aren’t allowing Trump to stall and bury Mueller
The White House is trying to stall, spin, and bury the Mueller report. The endgame is to run out the clock and hope that people stop caring about the full report. However, early public feedback shows that this tactic is backfiring. Trump’s approval rating is down. The White House doesn’t understand the basics of political crisis management 101, which is that it is always better to release all damaging information at once than to die a death by a thousand cuts by letting details dribble out and stay in the media spotlight.
If Democrats have to go to court, it will delay getting the full report, so the House chairmen aren’t wasting time. They aren’t playing Trump‘s game, and they will get the full Mueller report and make it public for all to see.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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