Get the goods

‘Let’s just get the goods’: Pelosi rallies dejected Dems post-Mueller

By ANDREW DESIDERIO and HEATHER CAYGLE

Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to rally House Democrats behind closed doors Tuesday morning in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month investigation.

“Be calm. Take a deep breath. Don’t become like them. We have to handle this professionally, officially, patriotically, strategically,” Pelosi said, referring to Republicans, during a closed-door meeting with House Democrats.

“Let’s just get the goods,” she said of Mueller’s report.

Pelosi’s comments came after the chairs of six key committees demanded that Attorney General William Barr hand over Mueller’s entire report by next Tuesday, a formal request that followed a four-page memo from Barr summarizing Mueller’s findings. According to Barr, Mueller was unable to establish that Trump associates conspired with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign and he left unresolved the key issue of whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice.

“The president was not exonerated,” Pelosi told Democrats, referring to Trump’s claim on Sunday that Mueller’s report amounted to a “total exoneration.”

Democrats are demanding that Barr turn over all of the underlying evidence that Mueller uncovered so they can use it as part of their own wide-ranging investigations, which focus on allegations of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, corruption and foreign influence.

“If any of us have foreign governments approach us with information about our opponents, we should go straight to the FBI,” Pelosi joked, according to Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), who recounted Pelosi’s remarks to POLITICO. It was a reference to Russian outreach to Trump campaign officials during the 2016 campaign.

She also projected optimism, telling lawmakers: “Some people are viewing it as the glass half empty. I think it is half full.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have suggested that the panel would move to issue a subpoena for the Mueller report if Barr refuses to turn it over by April 2. Lawmakers said on Tuesday that they expect Barr to send Congress a heavily redacted version of the highly anticipated report. The panel has already called on the attorney general to testify about his involvement in crafting the four-page summary released Sunday. A Justice Department official said the Barr review will be done in a matter of “weeks not months."

On the Senate side, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he planned to speak with Barr later Tuesday about releasing a version of the special counsel’s report to Congress. Graham wants Barr to come before his committee, too.

House Democrats sought to highlight the fact that Barr declined to recommend a criminal prosecution of Trump for obstruction of justice, noting his previously expressed view that a president could not obstruct justice.

“We have not seen the report. We’ve only gotten a summary that was created by a man who was appointed by the president, who clearly said before his appointment that he didn’t believe a sitting president could be charged, if you will, with obstruction of justice,” said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a member of the Judiciary Committee.

The Judiciary panel unanimously approved a measure later Tuesday calling on the Justice Department to turn over documents about the origins of its obstruction probe into Trump. The Republican-authored resolution was introduced before Mueller completed his inquiry, but Democrats said they, too, wanted to know more about why then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe chose to launch that investigation.

Democrats insisted they aren‘t singularly focused on the Mueller investigation and the other probes their committees are conducting, noting that the House is taking up legislation this week on the gender pay gap, the Trump administration’s transgender troop ban, heath care and climate change.

“At this point, the ball is in the court of the attorney general,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters. “House Democrats are focused on kitchen-table, pocketbook issues.”

Mueller’s findings on Trump-Russia collusion in particular rattled Democrats, who had been claiming for the past two years that the president or his associates conspired with the Kremlin. It also appeared to stifle a push by some Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump — although at least one lawmaker is still championing the cause post-Mueller.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is asking lawmakers to sign on to her resolution calling on the Judiciary Committee to launch an impeachment inquiry. Tlaib’s push did not come up during Tuesday’s meeting.

“There are some Democrats who are disappointed,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) acknowledged. “And I’ve said to five or six of them, the fact that the president of the United States is not in a criminal conspiracy with a foreign enemy is cause for celebration, not for disappointment. And if you get your head into a place where you think it’s a bad thing that the president is not a traitor, you’ve got to reorient your head.”