The House Judiciary Committee reportedly plans to authorize subpoenas for the Mueller report and its underlying evidence this week

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Jerrold NadlerGetty / Andrew Burton

  • The House Judiciary Committee reportedly plans to authorize subpoenas on Wednesday for the special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report in the Russia investigation, as well as the underlying evidence.
  • Democratic lawmakers are also pushing to obtain all the grand jury information contained in the report.
  • Attorney General William Barr is currently in the process of redacting four types of information from the report: information that went before a grand jury but didn’t result in criminal charges; information that could compromise intelligence sources and methods; information that pertains to other ongoing investigative matters; and information that could infringe on the "personal privacy and reputational interests" of third parties.
  • The Justice Department plans to release a redacted version of Mueller’s report by mid-April.

The House Judiciary Committee plans to authorize subpoenas on Wednesday for the special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on the Russia investigation, Politico reported.

The proposal would also reportedly give the committee’s chairman, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the power to subpoena the underlying evidence for the report, a key demand for Democratic lawmakers who have been pressing for the full, unredacted report since Attorney General William Barr first released a letter last month outlining its "principal conclusions."

According to Politico, the House Judiciary Committee also plans to authorize subpoenas for documents from five former Trump White House officials, all of whom were key figures in Mueller’s obstruction inquiry: former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former communications director Hope Hicks, former White House counsel Don McGahn, and McGahn’s former deputy, Ann Donaldson.

Barr’s initial review of the Mueller report said the special counsel did not find sufficient evidence to bring a criminal charge of conspiracy against President Donald Trump, the campaign, or anyone associated with it. The review also said Mueller’s team did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" as to whether Trump obstructed the Mueller probe and other federal investigations involving him.

Read more: Barr says he will not send Mueller’s report to the White House before the public and that he plans to release it by mid-April

Barr continued that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the Mueller probe for most of its duration, concluded that the special counsel’s findings were "not sufficient" to determine that Trump committed obstruction of justice.

Democratic lawmakers criticized Barr’s conclusion that Trump did not obstruct justice, arguing that Mueller’s decision not to draw a conclusion on the matter meant that it should be left to Congress to decide once they saw the full report. Nadler and several other committee chairs have since been pushing to get Mueller’s report by Tuesday, April 2.

Last week, the attorney general sent a second letter to Nadler and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, in which he said the Justice Department plans to release a redacted version of Mueller’s report by mid-April. The White House will not receive an advance copy of the report, which is nearly 400 pages, for a privilege review.

Barr added that the Justice Department is in the process of redacting the following types of information:

  • Information that went before a grand jury but did not result in criminal charges
  • Information that could compromise intelligence sources and methods
  • Information that could pertain to other ongoing investigative matters
  • Information that would "unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties."

Nadler has said that he’s "disturbed" by Barr’s reluctance to share the full report with Congress immediately and has asked the attorney general to join the House Judiciary Committee in asking for a judge’s approval to release all grand jury material contained in Mueller’s report.

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SEE ALSO: Barr says he will not send Mueller’s report to the White House before the public and that he plans to release it by mid-April

Source: Business Insider – ssheth@businessinsider.com (Sonam Sheth)

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