House Democrats to Hold Contempt Vote Wednesday After Barr Misses Deadline to Provide Complete Mueller Report

By Felicia Sonmez and Rachael Bade, The Washington Post

06 May 19

 

emocrats on the House Judiciary Committee said they will vote Wednesday on whether to hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress after Barr missed a deadline to produce a complete version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report.

The panel had set a deadline of 9 a.m. Monday for Barr to provide the unredacted version of Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. It announced the planned vote in a statement Monday.

“Although the Committee has attempted to engage in accommodations with Attorney General Barr for several months, it can no longer afford to delay, and must resort to contempt proceedings,” reads the text of a contempt report released by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). “The Committee urgently requires access to the full, unredacted Mueller Report and to the investigatory and evidentiary materials cited in the Report.”

Barr had released a redacted version on April 18, but Democrats said that was insufficient and have been seeking the full report and the underlying evidence.

In response to a committee subpoena, the Justice Department said last week that it was “unable to provide” Mueller’s investigative files, citing a “compelling need to protect the autonomy and effectiveness of its investigations.”

Barr last week declined to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, rejecting Democrats’ plans to have a counsel question him alongside lawmakers. The move infuriated Democrats, who have threatened to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.

In his contempt resolution, Nadler pointed to the ongoing threat of Russian election interference as one of the reasons that Democrats are seeking to view a more complete version of Mueller’s report. Sections of the publicly-released version of Mueller’s report describing the actions of Russia’s Internet Research Agency and other Russian hacking efforts “contain significant redactions, which impair the ability of the Committee to gain a complete understanding of Russia’s actions,” the contempt report states.

“Without this information, the Committee is unable to fully perform its responsibility to protect the impending 2020 elections — and thus our democracy itself — from a recurrence of Russian interference,” the report states.

A contempt citation against Barr would set up a lengthy legal battle over the Mueller report, as Democrats take the matter to civil court.

The issue could take months or years to resolve, as was the case in 2012 when the Republican-led House sued Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. over documents related to the “Fast and Furious” investigation.

In 2012, the House also voted to hold Holder in contempt, the first sitting attorney general held in contempt of Congress.