The House Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to authorize the issuance of a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full and unredacted report.

The move, which was approved on a 24-17 party-line vote, is one step closer to forcing Attorney General William Barr to turn over the roughly 400-page report.

He has said he plans to publicly release the documents with redactions later this month.

“We need these materials to fulfill our constitutional obligations,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the committee chair, ahead of the vote.

The vote gives Nadler authorization to issue a subpoena to the Justice Department for the final report, its exhibits and any underlying evidence or materials prepared for Mueller’s probe.

He has not said when, or if, he would do so.

The Democrat-led committee also approved subpoenas for five of President Trump’s former top advisers: Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus, Donald McGahn and Ann Donaldson. The five served as key witnesses in Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Earlier, the committee rejected a GOP amendment that sought to block the subpoena from seeking grand jury information.

But afterward, Nadler told reporters he would “absolutely” go to court to get that information.

Nadler earlier hinted that he would delay the issuance of the subpoena to give Barr “time to change his mind.”

The move to compel the Justice Department to release the Mueller report comes one day after Barr missed a Nadler-imposed deadline to turn over the massive document. He told lawmakers last week that he couldn’t make the deadline but promised to release it in mid-April, if not sooner.</s>The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 24-17 to authorize a subpoena for the full, unredacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the U.S election and alleged obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump, NBC News reported.

The committee took the action after Attorney General William Barr told Congress that he intends later this month to provide a report to lawmakers with certain material removed. The subpoena for the nearly 400-page report, along with underlying documents, will not be issued until that is approved by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

The resolution calls for the final Mueller report as well as “any accompanying exhibits, annexes, tables, appendices, other attachments and all evidence referenced in the report” as well as “underlying evidence collected, materials prepared, or documents used by” Mueller’s office.

The measure also authorizes the committee to issue subpoenas for documents and testimony from five individuals: former White House counsel Don McGahn, former Trump adviser and White House strategist Steve Bannon, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House deputy counsel Ann Donaldson.</s>The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Monday that the Committee is preparing to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on his Russia investigation on Wednesday and the evidence he used to write it.

Representative Jerry Nadler said that he was “disturbed” by Attorney General William Barr’s decision not to release the full report right away, and that the Committee would vote on the subpoenas if the Justice Department fails to deliver the report by the end of the day Tuesday.

Barr submitted a four-page summary of the report to Congress last week and promised in a meeting with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Friday to release a redacted version of the almost-400-page Mueller report by “mid April, if not sooner.” The summary said that Mueller did not find any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, but that he left open the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation.

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are currently combing through the report to redact classified material before releasing it to Congress.

“When the full scope of the president’s misconduct has been revealed, when his lies are debunked and his abuses have been laid bare, I believe that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will draft legislation to curb the worst of his offenses,” Nadler wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times published Monday. “Put another way: If President Trump’s behavior wasn’t criminal, then perhaps it should have been.”
• Trump’s AG Nominee Will Vow to Let Mueller Complete Investigation
• Giuliani: Trump Will Use Mueller Probe Anniversary to Push for Conclusion</s>'The Constitution charges Congress with holding the president accountable for alleged official misconduct.'

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday authorized its chairman, New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena the full, unredacted Mueller report from Attorney General William Barr, NBC News is reporting.

The amount of the Mueller report that has been released to Congress, and by extension the general public, has been the subject of consternation in Washington even before it was released. Barr has the legal authority to release as much or as little of any report that crosses his desk as he sees fit, and even before Robert Mueller submitted his final report, Barr had hinted that he’d only release a summary once he got it. And indeed, he did just that, days after Mueller submitted his final report into possible interference in the 2016 election by Russian agents.

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has been adamant that Barr release the full report, even before Mueller had completed it. Now, only a summary has been released, and it will be weeks before any more of it is released. Even then, Barr has said that when he does release the full, 400-page report, much of it will be withheld or redacted.

Nadler is not having it.

What’s more, Nadler says that Barr has been “refusing” to work with him.

Nadler doesn’t intend to issue the subpoena right away, however, according to The Hill. Rather, he intends to give Barr “some time” to change his mind about releasing the report.

Even if the Judiciary Committee issues the subpoena, it’s far from the last word on the release of the report. A judge would have to review the subpoena and then approve or deny it. Whichever decision the judge makes could very well be challenged by the losing side, setting up a lengthy court battle that could go as far as the Supreme Court.

Republicans, meanwhile, continue to insist that Barr’s summary of the Mueller report fully exonerates Donald Trump, and that any attempt at getting Barr to release more of it is little more than “political theater,” as Georgia Republican Doug Collins called it.

Donald Trump, for his part, had initially said that he welcomes the release of the full Mueller report. However, on Tuesday he appeared to have changed his mind.</s>WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted to authorize a subpoena for the full, unredacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the U.S. election and alleged obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

The committee took the action after Attorney General William Barr told Congress that he intends later this month to provide a report to lawmakers with certain material removed. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., wanted to have the subpoena power ready in case Barr doesn't comply with Democrats' demands for the nearly 400-page report.

"The Constitution charges Congress with holding the president accountable for alleged official misconduct. That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves — not the attorney general's summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence," Nadler said in his opening remarks Wednesday, adding that so far, Barr has "refused" to work with him to help obtain access to materials the chairman said his committee is entitled to under the law.

Nadler indicated in his opening statement that he doesn’t plan to immediately issue the subpoena and would “give [Barr] time to change his mind.”

“But if we cannot reach an accommodation, then we will have no choice but to issue subpoenas for these materials,” Nadler warned. "And if the department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge — not the president or his political appointee — to decide whether or not it is appropriate for the committee to review the complete record.”

The resolution calls for the final Mueller report as well as “any accompanying exhibits, annexes, tables, appendices, other attachments and all evidence referenced in the report” as well as “underlying evidence collected, materials prepared, or documents used by” Mueller’s office.

The measure also authorizes the committee to issue subpoenas for documents and testimony from five individuals: former White House counsel Don McGahn, former Trump adviser and White House strategist Steve Bannon, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House deputy counsel Ann Donaldson.

“We believe that these individuals may have received documents from the White House in preparation for their interviews with the special counsel. We also believe that these individuals may have turned this information over to their private attorneys,” Nadler said.

During the meeting, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., introduced an amendment that would have eliminated grand jury information from the documents requested in the subpoena, which failed on a party-line vote.

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., ranking member on Judiciary, blasted Democrats’ decision to move toward issuing subpoenas, saying that the move is “reckless and that they’re “desperately searching for something on the president.”

“This is all preemptive,” Collins said. “Five of the people listed in this subpoena have been cooperating.”

He also argued that the subpoena for the Mueller report would command the attorney general to break the law. "The attorney general's entire mandate is to enforce the law, and he’s expressly forbidden from providing grand jury material outside of the department, with very limited and narrow exceptions. Congress is not one of those exceptions, and the chairman knows it," Collins said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, suggested that Democrats should just be patient. “The attorney general has said he’s going to turn this over in a matter of days. Let’s wait.”

Barr said in a letter last Friday to Nadler and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that he planned to release the report to Congress “in mid-April, if not sooner,” but also said that there would be redactions.

In a letter to Barr on Monday, Nadler and five other Democratic committee chairmen wrote that that pledge wasn't enough. “On Wednesday, April 3, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee plans to begin the process of authorizing subpoenas for the report and underlying evidence and materials," they wrote. "While we hope to avoid resort [sic] to compulsory process, if the Department is unwilling to produce the report to Congress in unredacted form, then we will have little choice but to take such action."

During the meeting, several Republicans repeated an argument raised by Trump a day earlier in which they claimed that Nadler strongly opposed the release of independent counsel Ken Starr’s report on President Bill Clinton related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Nadler, however, said he wanted to set the record straight.

“In 1998, the debate was not about Congress receiving evidence. Congress had already received the full, 445-page report and 17 boxes of additional documents, including grand jury material. We are owed that same opportunity today,” he said.

"In 1998, the central debate was about the public release of some of the materials accompanying the Starr report — materials that Congress already had, and that described private sexual acts in lurid detail," he added. "Congress has no business broadcasting graphic accounts of the president’s sex life. It was inappropriate in 1998. It would be inappropriate today.”</s>Updated at 11:3o a.m. ET

As the Justice Department prepares a redacted version of the Mueller report for release later this month, the House Judiciary Committee authorized subpoenas for the full report and its underlying investigative evidence.

The committee also authorized subpoenas for figures in the Trump orbit, including former White House counsel Don McGahn; McGahn's former chief of staff Ann Donaldson; former adviser Steve Bannon; former spokesperson Hope Hicks; and former chief of staff Reince Priebus.

"We are dealing now, not with the President's private affairs, but with a sustained attack on the integrity of the republic by the President and his closest advisors," said Democratic Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York. "This Committee requires the full report and the underlying materials because it is our job, not the Attorney General's, to determine whether or not President Trump has abused his office."

The panel split along partisan lines, resulting in a vote tally of 24-17 to back the subpoenas.

During the contentious session, Republicans objected even to small procedural measures such as proceeding without verbally reading out the subpoena resolution in its entirety.

"Why is the chairman doing this?" asked the committee's top Republican, Doug Collins of Georgia. "Because even full compliance from these individuals wouldn't satisfy him. ... He's picking the fight because fighting makes good headlines, and because his caucus is desperate for dirt on this president."

Attorney General William Barr has promised to release a redacted version of the approximately 400 page Mueller report by "mid-April, if not sooner."

Barr said that the version he releases then will include redactions to grand jury information, intelligence information, information related to ongoing investigations and information that would "unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties."

But congressional Democrats have demanded both a full accounting of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and for it to be provided to Congress sooner.

A deadline set by six House Democratic committee chairs for these materials passed on Tuesday without action by the attorney general.

Following the committee vote, Nadler said that he would continue negotiations with the attorney general to obtain the full report, but if that failed he would move to issue a subpoena for those documents — which could set up a lengthy court battle.

"We're going to work with the attorney general for a short period of time in the hope that he will reveal to us the entire Mueller report, and the underlying materials, and will go to court to get permission to have the [grand jury] material," Nadler told reporters. "But if that doesn't work out in a very short order, we will issue the subpoenas."

The president weighed in Tuesday, before the committee's proceedings, arguing on Twitter that "with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM!"

The Justice Department declined to comment on the House Judiciary Committee vote.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee was expected to vote on Wednesday to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full, unredacted report and underlying evidence from his investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

If the motion passes, it would be a marked escalation of congressional pressure on the Trump administration to hand over all that Mueller documented during his 22-month probe, including grand jury evidence.

Lawmakers were expected to vote along party lines to authorize the panel’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena Mueller’s material, as well as documents and testimony from five former Trump aides, including one-time political advisor Steve Bannon and former White House Counsel Donald McGahn.

The committee’s focus shifted to subpoenas when it became clear that Attorney General William Barr would ignore a Democratic demand for him to turn over the full report by April 2. Barr has pledged to share a redacted copy of the nearly 400-page report with Congress and the public by mid-April, if not sooner.

Democrats, who hold a seven-seat majority on the 41-member Judiciary Committee, fear that Barr could use redactions to suppress evidence of potential misconduct by Trump and his campaign that could be vital to their congressional oversight agenda.

Barr’s March 24 summary of the Mueller report said the special counsel did not establish that Trump campaign officials conspired with Russia during the presidential election but also did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. Barr also said Mueller’s team had not found enough proof to warrant bringing obstruction charges against the president.

Trump has long denied any collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. Moscow says it did not try to interfere in the election, even though U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that it secretly trying to sway U.S. voters in Trump’s favor.

A subpoena would open a new legal front against the Trump administration by Democrats who won control of the House in last year’s congressional elections. But it is not clear if the Justice Department would simply hand over all the documents they now seek.

The Department could ignore the subpoena, running the risk of being held in contempt of Congress, and prepare for a lengthy battle in the courts.

Democrats have pledged to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce a subpoena and obtain the full report.

“We need that report turned over. Look at every prior case of independent counsel and special counsel, they’ve turned over the entire report within a day or two,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, a House Judiciary Democrat. “What’s taking place here is a sharp break from precedent.”

It was not clear when Nadler might start issuing subpoenas, if authorized to do so.

Trump took a dig on Tuesday at Nadler and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, one of the president’s strongest critics in Congress about the Russia investigation.

“There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!”

Republicans contend that Barr is being transparent under Justice Department regulations adopted after former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the 1990s, which allow the attorney general to be circumspect in what he releases. They also contend that Democrats are seeking grand jury material that federal law precludes the Justice Department from sharing.

“It’s unfortunate that a body meant to uphold the law has grown so desperate that it’s patently misrepresenting the law,”

Representative Doug Collins, the committee’s top Republican, said this week.

The committee was due to meet to consider the subpoena resolution after Nadler and five other Democratic House oversight committee chairs wrote to Barr, giving him one last chance to produce an unredacted Mueller report.

In addition to McGahn and Bannon, the committee was expected to authorize subpoenas for former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former White House deputy counsel Ann Donaldson.

The five former Trump aides were among 81 people, agencies and other entities that received document requests on March 4 as part of the committee’s obstruction and corruption investigation of Trump and his associates.</s>The majority Democrats on a House of Representatives committee are moving this week to subpoena the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and five former White House officials.

The House Judiciary Committee had called for full disclosure by Tuesday of the nearly 400-page report and its underlying evidence. Attorney General William Barr said last week that he would release the report by mid-April, “if not sooner,” after confidential material had been redacted.

With its Tuesday deadline unlikely to be met, the House panel plans to vote to authorize the subpoenas on Wednesday, allowing the committee’s chairman, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, to actually issue them as he sees fit.

The House committee also plans to subpoena some of President Donald Trump’s closest one-time advisers — White House strategist Steve Bannon, communications director Hope Hicks, his first chief of staff Reince Priebus, White House counsel Donald McGahn and McGahn’s chief of staff, Ann Donaldson.

The five officials were likely key witnesses during Mueller’s investigation of whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the prosecutor’s 22-month probe.

A week ago, Barr released a four-page summary of the Mueller report, telling top lawmakers that the prosecutor had concluded that while Russia had interfered with the U.S. election, Trump and his campaign did not collude with Moscow to help him win.

At the same time, Barr reported that Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. He quoted Mueller as saying that on the obstruction issue, “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, after their review of the report, decided that obstruction charges against Trump were not warranted.

The notice for the Judiciary panel’s meeting said the former White House officials it plans to subpoena “may have received documents from the White House relevant to the special counsel investigation, or their outside counsel may have.”

After assailing Mueller and his investigation for months as a “witch hunt,” Trump has claimed complete exoneration from both the collusion and obstruction allegations, while Democrats have started to accuse Barr, a Trump appointee, of trying to protect the president with his abbreviated summary.

On Monday, however, Trump unleashed new attacks on opposition Democratic lawmakers for pursuing their investigations.

Trump said on Twitter, “Now that the long awaited Mueller Report conclusions have been released, most Democrats and others have gone back to the pre-Witch Hunt phase of their lives before Collusion Delusion took over. Others are pretending that their former hero, Bob Mueller, no longer exists!”

He added, “Everybody is asking how the phony and fraudulent investigation of the No Collusion, No Obstruction Trump Campaign began. We need to know for future generations to understand. This Hoax should never be allowed to happen to another President or Administration again!”</s>The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to subpoena the Department of Justice to turn over special counsel Robert Mueller’s entire unredacted report, as well as the materials supporting its findings.

The Hill reported the resolution authorizing multiple subpoenas passed the committee in a straight party line vote, 24-7.

“The resolution also authorizes the committee’s Democratic chairman to subpoena testimony related to the special counsel’s report,” The Hill reported.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said he would give Attorney General William Barr a limited number of days to comply with the demand before issuing the subpoena for the full unredacted report on the findings of Mueller’s investigation into collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

“This committee requires the full report, because it is our job, not the attorney general’s, to determine whether or not President Trump has abused his office,” Nadler argued Wednesday before the committee. “We must make it harder for future presidents to behave in this way.”

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Barr has promised to deliver as much of the Mueller report as he legally can to Congress, without redactions, by the middle of April.

The attorney general has noted that Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) prevents him from disclosing matters occurring before a grand jury, including the testimony of witnesses, without a judge’s approval.

“I will give him time to change his mind,” Nadler said, according to The Hill. “But if we cannot reach an accommodation then we will have no choice but to issue subpoenas for these materials.

“And if the department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge — not the president and not his political appointee — to decide whether the committee can review the complete record.”

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia accused Democrats of engaging in “political theater” and defended Barr, saying he is following the law.

“The regulations we put in place are still there,” Collins said. “At this point in time, the attorney general, although he is being smeared, repeatedly, is doing exactly what the regulation says.”

Nadler told reporters after the committee meeting that he is not willing to negotiate with the DOJ concerning his demand the entire report and its underlying materials be handed over.

“The committee must see everything, as was done in every prior instance,” he said. “We handle confidential materials all the time. We have facilities to do that. We make those judgments.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, the New York Democrat addressed the controversy regarding his opposition in 1998 to publicly releasing independent counsel Ken Starr’s complete report regarding then-President Bill Clinton because it contained “salacious” material and unverified testimony versus calling for all the materials to be released to Congress now.

He said the controversy in 1998 was releasing materials from the Starr report that Congress already had.

“Congress has no business publishing graphic accounts of the president’s sex life,” Nadler said. “We are dealing now not with the president’s private affairs, but with a sustained attack on the integrity of the republic by the president and his closest advisers.”

Trump responded to Nadler and his fellow Democrats’ demands for the entire report and its underlying materials on Tuesday, saying, “It’s ridiculous. We went through two years of the Mueller investigation. …

“So there’s no collusion, there’s no obstruction and now we’re going to start this process all over again? I think it’s a disgrace.”

The president said of the Democrats, “Anything we give them will never be enough.”

He pledged to stand by what Barr decides should be released.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>The Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee has approved subpoenas to get the full, unedited report and other evidence related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The committee voted 24-17 along party lines on April 3 to authorize Chairman Jerrold Nadler to issue subpoenas to the Justice Department for the final report.

Included in the subpoenas would be any underlying evidence or materials prepared for the investigation by the special counsel.

The action also authorized Nadler to subpoena documents and testimony from five former Trump aides, including ex-political adviser Steve Bannon and former White House Counsel Donald McGahn.

Democrats in the House had given Attorney General William Barr until April 2 to provide the full report to Congress.

The Justice Department did not meet the deadline. Barr told Nadler that an edited version of the 300-page report would be provided in mid-April, "if not sooner."

Democrats have expressed concerns that Barr, recently appointed by President Donald Trump, would use redactions to cover up any evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

"The Trump administration has an idea. They want to redact the Mueller report before they provide it to Congress," Nadler said.

Mueller officially closed his investigation when he submitted the report on March 22. Barr then sent a four-page letter to Congress, detailing Mueller's "principal conclusions."

Barr wrote that the special counsel did not find that the Trump presidential campaign coordinated or conspired with Russia to win the election and did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary approves a subpoena to obtain, in its full and unredacted form, the final report written as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's recently concluded investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.