Within days of the announcement that special counselor Robert Mueller had submitted an 800 page report to the Attorney General, House Democrats showed they have no intention of letting the Russiagate story die before the 2020 elections.
Using their newfound power in the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats have already issued subpoenas for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s entire report.
Following Attorney General William Barr’s promise to he provide Congress with a redacted version of the Special Counsel’s report, Democrats said that isn’t enough. They want to see everything—even the parts that threaten national security and the grand jury process.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (Dem – NY) voted yesterday to subpoena Barr to provide them with the complete unredacted report. The Committee issued this statement:
Congress requires the full and complete Special Counsel report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence. Attorney General Barr has thus far indicated he will not meet the April 2 deadline set by myself and five other Committee chairs and refused to work with us to provide the full report, without redactions, to Congress. The Attorney General should reconsider so that we can work together to ensure the maximum transparency of this important report to both Congress and the American people.
The Judiciary Committee also plans to subpoena documents from former White House strategist Steve Bannon, former communications director Hope Hicks, former White House Counsel Don McGahn, former White House aide Ann Donaldson, and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
The committee is looking, in particular, for communications and documents exchanged between Trump aides and their attorneys concerning the Mueller investigation. Nadler’s aim in issuing these requests is to “waive any right to cite executive privilege or other claims from being used to block requests for documents.”
Nadler told the press that he sent document requests to at least 81 individual for his investigation into “abuse of power, corruption and obstruction of justice by the President.” Claiming some have not submitted those documents the Democrat Chairman said, “I have asked the Committee to authorize me to issue subpoenas, if necessary, to compel the production of documents and testimony.”
Last week, Nadler demanded the White House offer him Mueller’s full report. Attorney General Barr told lawmakers he cannot legally submit a fully unredacted report. Grand Jury evidence is protected by federal law and is protected from discovery.
The committee’s top Republican, Doug Collins, said that the Democrat majority has “escalated from setting arbitrary deadlines” to demanding what the law does not allow to be shared outside the Justice Department.
President Trump tweeted on Monday, “Now that the long-awaited Mueller Report conclusions have been released, most Democrats and others have gone back to the pre-Witch Hunt phase of their lives before Collusion Delusion took over. Others are pretending that their former hero, Bob Mueller, no longer exists!”
The move by Nadler sets the stage for a governmental throw down. The Justice Department may simply ignore the Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas, refuse to hand over the documents, and face a lengthy battle in the courts.
Republicans are defending Barr saying he had been transparent according to regulations adopted by the Justice Department following President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the 1990s.
Republican Representative Doug Collins said during the vote yesterday, “It’s unfortunate that a body meant to uphold the law has grown so desperate that it’s patently misrepresenting the law.”
But Barr is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and this Democrat Congress is demanding he provide what the law does not permit. One of the main reasons the law protects grand juries is because their records include the names of many 3rd party and otherwise innocent witnesses.
The Michael Cohen debacle has already shown that Democrats have no concern for protecting attorney-client privilege and now they want to rob what makes the grand jury system work so well in this country.
One thing should be evident from this latest act in the Russiagate drama. 2020 will be no different from 2016 and Trump voters had better show up.
