Judiciary plans to authorize subpoenas

House Judiciary plans to authorize subpoenas for Mueller's full report

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN and KYLE CHENEY

The House Judiciary Committee intends to authorize subpoenas Wednesday morning for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report and his underlying evidence, escalating a fight with the Justice Department as it reviews the special counsel’s work.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman, said Monday he’s moving ahead with plans to press for the nearly 400-page Mueller report via subpoena despite written assurances from Attorney General William Barr that he plans to release the document by mid-April or sooner.

Under the proposal, Nadler would determine when to actually issue the subpoenas, which may depend on the level of cooperation and transparency Democrats get from the Justice Department. Nadler has said he’s “disturbed” by Barr’s reticence to share the full report immediately and has asked him to join the committee in seeking a judge’s approval to release all grand jury information in Mueller’s report.

Barr is reviewing the document to scrub it of four categories of information — including grand jury information and material he deems derogatory to “peripheral third parties.” Barr has also indicated he intends to redact classified information and material relevant to ongoing investigations.

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, blasted Nadler's move as an unnecessary escalation against Barr.

“Judiciary Democrats have escalated from setting arbitrary deadlines to demanding unredacted material that Congress does not, in truth, require and that the law does not allow to be shared outside the Justice Department," Collins said. "It’s unfortunate that a body meant to uphold the law has grown so desperate that it’s patently misrepresenting the law, even as the attorney general has already demonstrated transparency above and beyond what is required.”

In a New York Times op-ed Monday morning, Nadler picked apart Barr's decision to withhold elements of the Mueller report from Congress and to issue his own judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice. Though Mueller indicated he did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on obstruction after his 22-month investigation, Barr quickly issued his own last week, saying Trump could not be charged with the crime in part because there was no underlying crime to obstruct.

But Nadler noted in his op-ed that numerous Trump associates were charged in the Mueller investigation — and that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was previously a federal prosecutor in Maryland, "routinely charged individuals with obstruction without charging the underlying crime." Trump, too, has been implicated — though remains uncharged — in a campaign finance-related crime that stemmed from Mueller's probe as well, Nadler noted.

Nadler suggested he expects Congress to craft a legislative response to the entire episode. "Put another way: If President Trump’s behavior wasn’t criminal, then perhaps it should have been," he said.

Democrats on the panel on Wednesday also intend to authorize subpoenas for documents from five former Trump White House officials: Former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former senior adviser Steven Bannon, former communications director Hope Hicks and former White House counsel Don McGahn, as well as McGahn’s former deputy Ann Donaldson.

All of the individuals may have materials from the White House relevant to the Mueller probe or their outside lawyers, which Democrats say waives their ability to assert protection privileges.

A DOJ spokeswoman declined to comment about Nadler’s latest subpoena move. Attorneys for Priebus, McGahn, Bannon and Hicks also declined comment. Donaldson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.