House Democrats have decided that sooner is better than later when it comes to a public release of Mueller’s report. On Monday, Democrats sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr requiring that a “complete and unredacted” copy of the report be in their hands by April 2. Just think of that date as “No more fooling around” Day.
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The Barr letter is not the Mueller report. In fact, it contains not a single full sentence of the Mueller report. Every single tweet, press release, and new story claiming to be based on the Mueller report is not based on that report—it’s based on the three-and-a-fraction page letter cranked out by Barr that may, or may not, accurately reflect what’s in the Mueller report.
The only way to know for sure what the special counsel’s office reported to the attorney general is to see the actual findings from that office as Barr received them, and as much as Trump keeps saying “let it out” he has made no move to make that happen. Trump could issue an order to release the report. He has not done so. In fact, the only Republican who has done anything about getting the report out there is Mitch McConnell … who blocked a bill demanding its release by the Senate. Actually, that’s not quite true. There’s also Lindsay Graham, who blocked an earlier resolution.
If Republicans aren’t concerned about America seeing the complete report, then why have Graham and McConnell made extraordinary moves to block it in the Senate? And if Trump wants the report out, why hasn’t he ordered it released?
The answer is simple enough: Republicans are content with the Barr letter, which gives Trump a big shot of “No collusion! No obstruction!” without all the messy details of exposing all the evidence. Of collusion. And obstruction. As TPM reports, House Democrats insist that Congress is required to review the evidence uncovered by the special counsel investigation including the “full body of facts and evidence” on all topics.
The letter to Barr is signed by Democratic Representatives Jerry Nadler (NY), Elijah Cummings (MD), Adam Schiff (CA), Maxine Waters (CA), Richard Neal (MA), and Eliot Engel (NY). In looking at the letter from Barr they say, “Your four-page summary of the special counsel’s review is not sufficient for Congress as a coequal branch of government” to perform its oversight role.
Barr has stated that he doesn’t know when he might make more information from the report available, in part because he has to redact sections of the report that might deal with matters still under investigation. But that shouldn’t be a concern for two reasons: Barr has already demonstrated that he can read the full report, consider all the evidence, and give Donald Trump a pass on obstruction in a single day … so handling a few redactions should be a breeze; more importantly, the House is asking for a “full and unredacted” copy of the report, so Barr can just economize on magic marker ink and pass the report straight over.
But of course, it seems highly unlikely that Barr will hand over the full report by April 2. Or perhaps, by any date. Despite Trump’s pretense at openness, and despite Barr’s talk about wanting transparency, neither has taken steps to see that the report gets seen by anyone not appointed by Trump. And McConnell and Graham have done their part to make sure the Barr letter gets seen, but the Mueller report … not so much.
However, House Democrats don’t need Mitch McConnell’s permission to demand that documents be turned over, to issue subpoenas, or making a finding of contempt. Start the countdown clocks for April 2. And keep a Sergeant at Arms handy.