House Judiciary Committee votes to hold Barr in contempt

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to find Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress hours after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege to block a subpoena for the full special counsel report and supporting documents.

The 24-16 vote came after the White House tried to shield Barr from handing over documents from special counsel Robert Mueller after Justice Department negotiation to accommodate the committee broke down.

“This is not a step we take lightly,” Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in introducing the contempt citation. He said it was House’s constitutional right to carry out its oversight role.

Nadler said the committee’s fight was not just about the Mueller report, but the right of Congress to hold the administration accountable.

The chairman said the last-minute executive privilege assertion was an “unfounded claim” that came two months after the Justice Department ignored the committee’s first attempts to get the information.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the president had no further option than invoking executive privilege.

Democrats want a redo

Sanders said Barr has been transparent and accommodating in releasing the redacted “no-collusion, no-conspiracy, no obstruction Mueller report to the public and offering to testify before the committee.”

She said Democrats “didn’t like the results of the report, and now they want a redo.”

Executive privilege allows a president to keep confidential information related to his decisionmaking.

Trump did not assert executive privilege when White House aides and confidants testified before the special counsel during a two-year investigation.

Mueller found no collusion between the president and Russians who meddled in the election. But the report notes several incidents where the president allegedly sought to interfere with the special counsel investigation, including firing Mueller.

In the report, Mueller specifically did not exonerate Trump for the interference, but left it to Congress to investigate further and determine to prosecute for obstruction of justice.

Extraordinary action

The extraordinary action by the committee moves the contempt citation to the full House for consideration, and raises the spectre of impeachment as the White House and Trump administration dig in their heels against House Democrats who have launched other investigations into the president’s behavior and business deals.

Nadler said the committee had to act after the Justice Department ignored the panel’s demands for information.

Barr had offered to allow lawmakers on key committees to view the documents in a secured room, but Democratic leaders balked and demanded access to the report and underlying documents to carry out their oversight responsibilities.

Last week, Barr appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee where he was confronted by Democrats who questioned him about a March 27 letter from Mueller complaining that Barr’s characterization of the report lacked context and downplayed the findings.

Barr told the Senate panel that it was likely the “snitty” letter was written by an aide, and that no rift existed between he and Mueller.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a public Washington Post forum that Barr should be held in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents sought by the committee.

But she again urged caution when asked whether the recent Trump administration actions to block congressional investigations, and disturbing details of the president’s attempts to obstruct the special counsel probe, could lead to impeachment.

Take a deep breath

“Well, nothing is ever off the table, but I would say that…there’s… I wish everybody would take a deep breath and be almost prayerful about this,” Pelosi said.

No date for a House vote has been scheduled.

Democrats in the Nevada congressional delegation have backed party leaders to seek the full, unredacted version of the Mueller report.

Rep. Steven Horsford said through his office that he would vote to hold Barr in contempt.

Horsford has argued that it is Congress’ authority as a co-equal branch of government to hold the executive branch accountable, and the attorney general has a constitutional obligation to cooperate.

The full Mueller report is needed by Congress, according to Rep. Dina Titus, who said Barr misrepresented the findings in a summary the attorney general put out before the unredacted report was released to lawmakers.

Republicans have called the battle with Barr and the contempt citation part of a proxy war by Democrats enraged that special counsel Robert Mueller found no collusion on the part of the president in the two-year investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the ranking Republican on the committee, accused the majority of going to “war against the administration.”

Republicans accused Nadler of a blatant misuse of power.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, accused the administration of its Republican supporters of “taking a wrecking ball to the Constitution.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.

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