It's unanimous—the House Judiciary Committee wants to know a lot more about the origins of the Justice Department's obstruction probe into Donald Trump. In fact, it was the ranking GOP member of the panel, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, who originally introduced the measure last week before anyone knew Robert Mueller's report was going to be delivered. But get this: Politico reports that Collins also sought to withdraw his measure once Mueller's investigation concluded without making a finding on obstruction.
No can do, said the Democrats. Now that Attorney General William Barr chose to unilaterally exonerate Trump of obstruction even though Mueller did not, Democrats are as keen as ever to learn everything possible about the evidence relating to Trump's obstruction. Barr admitted in his pittance of a summary that Trump took more obstructive actions than the public currently knows about, yet he provided absolutely none of the underlying evidence of obstruction Mueller amassed.
Collins's measure was more focused on initial discussions between Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who initiated the investigation after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey. Republicans have been up in arms over reports that Rosenstein once suggested wearing a wire to document what a nut job Trump is in support of using the 25th Amendment to oust him from office. Now Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler and his Democratic colleagues are just as interested in learning what could have led to such discussions.
"I certainly do not oppose efforts to learn more about whether, in fact, such discussions occurred and, if so, what prompted such alarm among Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. McCabe, as well as other FBI officials, that they would consider these unprecedented actions,” Nadler noted.
