Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Friday he wants “everything” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be released to the public.
The federal inquiry is widely expected to wrap up in the near future, after reports indicated Attorney General William Barr was preparing to receive Mueller’s report as early as this week.
During an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he doesn’t think the report will present anything “worthwhile or have anything new.”
While he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee last term, a GOP-led effort conducted its own inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and found no evidence of collusion. Democrats argued the probe was wrapped up prematurely.
In speaking with the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, Nunes said it is “fine” that there are bipartisan calls for Mueller’s report to be made public, including from 2020 presidential candidates on the Democratic side.
But he wants the public disclosure to be taken a step further.
“I want everything that Mueller did made public. I want every email, everybody that they wiretapped, every warrant that they got,” he said. “Every single thing that Mueller used needs to be made public for all of America to see.”
The comment, sure to raise some national security concerns, was met with some immediate critiques. Matthew Miller, a former spokesman for the Justice Department, tweeted, “I don’t think he has thought this through very well.”
Nunes said he was pinning his hopes on Barr to not only clear the Justice Department and FBI for alleged bias at their highest levels, regarding which he is expected to make several criminal referrals in the near future, but also for the sake of transparency.
Barr said in his confirmation hearing he wanted to be as “transparent” as possible in terms of whether a report would be released to Congress and the public.
Justice Department guidelines require Mueller to submit a confidential report to Barr upon completion of the inquiry. The report must explain why prosecutors decided or chose not to bring charges against any matters under investigation. Justice Department regulations do not require Mueller’s report to be shared with Congress or with the public, but the attorney general must file his own report to lawmakers and inform them whether the department prevented Mueller’s team from taking any action.
Nunes argued the Trump administration has “never had control of the Justice Department” and said former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ single-biggest mistake was recusing himself from the Russia investigation because of his role in the Trump campaign.
Nunes also knocked the intelligence community for slow-walking the release of the House Intelligence Committee’s transcripts of interviews for its Russia investigation after the panel vote unanimously to make them public last fall.
Nunes said ultimately it will be up to Trump to secure their release.
[Opinion: Attorney General Barr should release the full Robert Mueller report]
