House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said he will issue a subpoena for the full version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report after it was released in redacted form on Thursday.
“Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “Contrary to public reports, I have not heard from the [Justice] Department about receiving a less-redacted version of the report. Because Congress requires this material in order to perform our constitutionally-mandated responsibilities, I will issue a subpoena for the full report and the underlying materials.”
His committee has authorized the authority to use subpoena power for the document and its underlying evidence, via party-line vote earlier this month. The panel made the move after Attorney General William Barr repeatedly told lawmakers he would only be initially providing a redacted copy of Mueller’s conclusions by mid-April.
“The Attorney General’s decision to withhold the full report from Congress is regrettable, but no longer surprising. If he was willing to release this evidence, which is so clearly damaging to the President, just imagine what remains hidden from our view,” he said.
The redacted information in Mueller’s nearly 400-page report includes grand jury material, foreign intelligence that could compromise sources and methods, information about ongoing investigations, and derogatory information about people who were not charged.
Nadler, in his statement, pointed to Trump’s refusal to submit himself to in-person questioning and to provide follow-up written responses to queries from federal investigators as indications of the president’s attempts to thwart the probe into his own personal conduct and that of associates from his campaign. He reiterated that Mueller had not exonerated Trump and the responsibility now fell “to Congress to hold the President accountable for his actions.”
Barr is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 2. Nadler on Thursday also formally requested that Mueller appear before the panel on May 23.
