Barr's Worse Nightmare: Three DEM House Committees (Judiciary, Intel, Oversight)

Judiciary (Nadler); Intel (Schiff); Oversight (Cummings)

This story: DEMS combating Barr's BS cover up plan from the LA TIMES – this headline: “Dems to Battle Barr.”

A House committee plans to vote soon (Wednesday, April 3, 2019) on whether to authorize subpoenas for special counsel Mueller's full report, underscoring how aggressively Democrats will pursue its release in a potential showdown with AG Barr.

The decision comes after Barr said Friday that he would provide a redacted version of the report to Congress in mid-April, “if not sooner,” blowing past the Tuesday deadline that had been set by the House.

Historically Important Point: House Dems argue that Congress has a right to review information from grand jury testimony and pointed to prior circumstances in which Congress received similar material. Examples:

(1) Congress received the full Grand Jury material during Watergate (President Richard Nixon investigation) – and they kept it confidential for 45 years; only talked about it openly and publicly after a Federal judge unsealed it late in 2018. 

(2) They also had full access to the entire Starr report on President Bill Clinton during his investigation.

Trump and Mueller, since the investigation are now undertaking a very elaborate process to redact grand jury information out of the special counsel’s report. That is unfair and unlawful to block congressional oversight and keep the public in the dark.

Option: The House Judiciary Committee could ask a judge to unseal the grand jury-related information, but has suggested that Barr could make a joint request with Congress.

Also, Barr said he would be willing to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1, and Senate Chairman Graham (R-SC) accepted. Barr said he would appear before the House Judiciary on May 2, but House Chairman Nadler (D-MD) did not accept that.

Plus: The House Judiciary Committee is also expected to authorize subpoenas for five individuals who received document requests from the committee last month.

The panel will vote on subpoenas for former White House strategist Stephen Bannon, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, former White House counsel Donald McGahn, McGahn’s former deputy counsel Annie Donaldson, and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

All of them, the committee said, may have received documents from the White House relevant to Mueller’s investigation.

Last month, the committee demanded documents from 81 people in Trump’s orbit as part of its investigation into obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuses of power by the president and people around him.

My 2 cents: This about the above points - to get clarity one of two things need to happen:

(1) We need to see the whole Mueller report ASAP.

(2) To see, if necessary, Mueller under oath to hear say what he wrote and why he did so. 

Mueller is a straight shooter and the public trusts him more than Trump and Barr combined.

We are about to see how this all unfolds – stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.