Subpoenas to impeachment proceedings and everything in between.
The Mueller report is expected to be released Thursday, but we may not learn that much. Attorney General William P. Barr has said he’ll redact along four broad categories, meaning key information could remain undisclosed.
As a result, congressional Democrats are gearing up to fight for the unredacted report. It’s probably the only chance lawmakers and the public have to learn all that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found in his nearly two-year investigation into Russian collusion and how it intersected with the Trump campaign.
Here’s a guide to the coming, possibly lengthy legal battle over the Mueller report:
Congress subpoenas this report from the Justice Department
This is the opening salvo from Democrats in Congress. And it will center on the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department. Its chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N. Y.), has said he has every intention of issuing a subpoena to demand that Barr hand over the full report to Congress — he already had his committee vote (along party lines) to authorize him to issue it.
„Anything short of the entire report and underlying evidence would be inadequate,” Nadler said.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) has used his authority as head of the House Intelligence Committee to request any information in the report related to “the counterintelligence investigation” — which, translated, means anything tied to Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. (The top Republican on the committee backs him up on this request.)
Rep. José E. Serrano (D-N. Y.), chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department’s budget, hasn’t ruled out withholding or putting conditions on the agency’s budget until Barr complies.
Don’t expect Barr to hand over the full report now that it’s subpoenaed. He’s argued that it contains information that by law should remain secret, such as grand jury testimony, classified information, information related to ongoing investigations and information that could “unduly infringe” on people’s personal privacy. That means much of it won’t be readable, because most of the investigation centered around testimony before a grand jury.
