Feb. 25 (UPI) — House Democrats intend to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election if the Justice Department doesn’t release it to Congress in its entirety.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., said Sunday on ABC News’ This Week that his committee would file a subpoena for the full investigation on Russian interference into the 2016 presidential campaign if it isn’t made public.
He added that it would even request Mueller to testify before the committee if that were necessary to make the report’s contents known.
“We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary,” Schiff said, adding that the committee would “absolutely” sue the Trump administration if it came to that.
The announcement comes as Mueller’s two-year investigation nears its end amid speculation that he would be handing it over to Attorney General William Barr soon.
Worry over it being made public continues as Barr, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the new attorney general and was confirmed last week, has yet to guarantee that he’d make the report available in its entirety.
In January, he said he’d release as “much information as I can, consistent with regulations,” ABC News reported.
On Friday, four Democratic House Committee chairs, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and Schiff wrote to Barr, expressing their expectation that the report be made public.
“We write to you to express, in the strongest possible terms, our expectations that the Department of Justice will release to the public the report Special Counsel Mueller submits to you — without delay and to the maximum extent permitted by law,” they said in the letter.
Schiff’s comments come as Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who is a member of the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation that he isn’t convinced a subpoena will get the Justice Department to release the report if Barr doesn’t want it to.
Blunt said his committee also wants to see the report in order to conclude its probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“His report will help us write our final report. We’ve given Mueller full access to all of our interviews, all of our investigation,” he said. “We haven’t had that reciprocated.”
He said the government is “very strong” and when asked if he expected Mueller to testify, he said, “I think we should wait and see what’s in the report.”
