Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said early Friday he was going to issue the subpoena.
Appearing on “Good Morning America,” Nadler told anchor George Stephanopoulos, who previously worked in the Bill Clinton administration, that his committee should be able to see the full report, including information that is currently redacted in both versions.
The most heavily redacted version was published on the Department of Justice website for the public to read; another version, with fewer redactions, was sent to some members of Congress, including Nadler.
Nadler said that the members of his committee need to see the full report to make “informed decisions,” including whether or not to try and impeach President Donald Trump.
“We need the entire report, unredacted, and the underlying documents in order to make informed decisions,” he said.
Nadler said later on Friday when he issued the subpoena that he expects the Department of Justice to comply with the subpoena by May 1.
Robert Mueller, the special counsel, concluded that there was no conspiracy or cooperation—known by many as collusion—between Trump or his campaign and Russian actors who sought to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The report showed the results of an investigation that took around two years and cost some $30 million.
The redactions were made as required by law, according to Attorney General William Barr, whose team worked with members of Mueller’s team to make the redactions. That included covering information pertaining to grand jury evidence. Nadler said that he’s “open to working with the department to reach a reasonable accommodation for access to these materials, however, I cannot accept any proposal, which leaves most of Congress in the dark, as they grapple with their duties of legislation, oversight, and constitutional accountability.”
While Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded from the evidence that Mueller gathered that Trump also did not commit obstruction, Nadler said he disagrees and believes that the special counsel wanted Congress to take up the obstruction issue.
“Because Barr misled the country, we have to hear from Barr, which we will on May 2. We have to hear from Mueller and ask him a lot of questions,” Nadler said Friday.
“We have to hold hearings and hear from other people both on the question of obstruction of justice, whereas I said the special prosecutor invited Congress to look into that, not the attorney general. We have to look into all that. We need the entire report, unredacted, and the underlying documents in order to make informed decisions,” he added.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that he, too, wants to see the full report.
He is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
“After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,” he told reporters at a press conference.
Barr said that he and Rosenstein kept in mind that Trump was facing “an unprecedented situation.”
“As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the president’s personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion.”
