by Chuck Ross
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that House Democrats will issue subpoenas and go to court, if necessary, to obtain special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation.
“We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary,” Schiff said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mueller is expected to submit a final report to the Department of Justice within weeks. From there, the Justice Department is required to provide a summary of the findings to Congress, which could then choose to make unclassified portions of the report public.
Rep. Adam Schiff tells me he is “absolutely” prepared to sue Trump administration if Mueller report is not made public: “We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary” https://t.co/lSX5poLKT9 pic.twitter.com/kKtMjf1Wo3
— George Stephanopoulos (@GStephanopoulos) February 24, 2019
But Democrats have said they are concerned Attorney General William Barr will withhold key portions of the report. Barr, who was confirmed to office Feb. 14, has said he plans to provide as much transparency as possible, though he has stopped short of committing to a full release of the document.
Schiff said in addition to the report itself, he wants to see the underlying evidence collected by Mueller during his 21-month probe. Mueller, who was appointed special counsel May 17, 2017, indicted more than three dozen individuals, including several Trump associates, during the investigation, but none for a conspiracy with Russians.
Schiff said he ultimately believes the Justice Department will release a full report to Congress.
“And in the end I think the department understands they’re going to have to make this public. I think Barr will ultimately understand that as well,” said Schiff.
“If he were to try to withhold, to try to bury any part of this report, that will be his legacy, and it will be a tarnished legacy. So I think there will be immense pressure, not only on the department, but on the attorney general to be forthcoming.”
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Chuck Ross is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Chuck on Twitter.
