In addition to confirming that the Attorney General Bill Barr would not show up to his scheduled testimony on Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said Wednesday that the Department of Justice had also rejected the committee’s subpoena for an un-redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report.
“The Department of Justice has also told us that they will not comply with our subpoena for the full un-redacted Mueller report, a subpoena that was returnable today,” Nadler told reporters.
He continued: “I will continue to work with the attorney general to reach a reasonable accommodation on access to the full report and the underlying evidence, but not for much longer. Compliance with congressional subpoenas is not optional, and if good faith negotiations don’t result in a pledge of compliance in the next day or two, the next step is seeking a contempt citation against the attorney general.”
Nadler’s committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice for the un-redacted report on April 19.
In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said that Barr “voluntarily released the Special Counsel’s confidential report with minimal redactions to Congress and the public, made an even-less redacted report available to Chairman Nadler and congressional leadership (which they have refused to review), and made himself available to the Committee by volunteering to testify this week.”
Democratic leadership has refused to view that less-redacted version because they’ve asserted the conditions for viewing it are too restrictive, and that the less-redacted version should be available to more of Congress.
Nadler confirms that AG Bill Barr will not attend hearing before House Judiciary Committee on Thursday pic.twitter.com/bAVKsoKHQT
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 1, 2019
