Just one day before Donald Trump’s Attorney General William Barr released his summary of the Mueller report, the president insisted he was in support of having the entire report released. Now that the summary is out, Republicans have done an about-face on releasing the full report and Trump has gone silent about that particular part of this issue.
William Barr’s four-page summary of the Mueller report “is not sufficient for Congress, as a coequal branch of government,” the Democratic chairs of six House committees said in a letter to the attorney general @HouseInSession https://t.co/AEvRPc3iE7
— Mike Shepard (@MikeShepard4) March 26, 2019
House Democrats, however, have not forgotten. On Tuesday, the chairs of six different House committees signed a letter to AG Barr demanding that the full report be released to them no later than April 2.
Bloomberg reports that:
‘The Democratic chairs of six House committees, in a letter to Barr on Monday, said the attorney general’s four-page summary of the Mueller report “is not sufficient for Congress, as a coequal branch of government,” to examine President Donald Trump’s conduct.
‘They also asked Barr to begin transmitting underlying evidence and materials used to prepare the special counsel’s report starting on April 2.’
While House Democrats scramble to get Robert Mueller’s full report, William Barr’s letter has given President Trump a head start to make exaggerated claims that he’s been fully exonerated https://t.co/j8BYuwz4dN
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) March 26, 2019
Trump can crow and act like an insufferable fool over his AG’s summary now, but the full report may actually tell a different story than the one Trump is painting. Congress, as well as the voting public, deserve to know what Mueller wrote in that report.
‘Those signing the letter include Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.’
NEW: House Judiciary Democrats will call Barr to testify about his letter to Congress summarizing Mueller's findings.
Trump appointed Barr to bury the truth. Unless he agrees to #ReleaseTheFullReport, he is. The American people deserve the evidence.https://t.co/F7nrwp1jxF
— Stand Up America (@StandUpAmerica) March 25, 2019
Unlike the GOP after ten separate investigations into Benghazi, not to mention a slew of investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, Democrats will accept Mueller’s findings on Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. The problem is that they haven’t seen the report. Rep. Elijah Cummings said that Barr’s exoneration of Trump is not sufficient and that Congress should have the power to make that decision.
‘After the letter was released, Cummings said he had “full faith and confidence in Mueller,” but pointed out that the special counsel did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr found that there wasn’t enough evidence to form an obstruction case.
‘Cummings said he believed that “what Mueller was saying by not making a finding with regard to obstruction was that he wanted the Congress to take a look at it” and see if it can reach a decision.’
Pelosi & Schumer:
"Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers…Given Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report." https://t.co/2UoIXb4iwD
— Axios (@axios) March 24, 2019
After a bipartisan, unanimous, 420-0 vote in the House of Representatives to have the full Mueller report released to Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the vote in the Senate to have the report released. It’s obvious that they’re hiding something, and their sudden silence on releasing the report speaks volumes.
Featured image via Flickr by Howard County Library System under a Creative Commons license
