Justice Department threatens to advise Trump to invoke executive privilege over Mueller report amid Democrats' plan to hold Attorney General Barr in contempt
- The Justice Department threatened it would advise President Donald Trump to invoke executive privilege over the special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report on the Russia investigation in light of the House Judiciary Committee's plan to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.
- In a letter on Tuesday evening, the Justice Department complained of "counterproductive" demands from the Democrat-led committee and its tentative plans for a House vote to hold Barr in contempt.
- Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York responded to the Justice Department's letter and described its argument as "without credibility, merit, or legal or factual basis."
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The Justice Department threatened it would ask President Donald Trump to invoke executive privilege over the special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report in light of the House Judiciary Committee's plan to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.
In a letter on Tuesday evening, the Justice Department complained of "counterproductive" demands from the Democrat-led committee and its tentative plans for a House vote to hold Barr in contempt.
"Such unreasonable demands, together with the Committee's precipitous threat to hold the Attorney General in contempt, are a transparent attempt to short-circuit the constitutionally mandated accommodation process and provoke an unnecessary conflict between our respective branches of government," Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said in the letter.
"If the Committee decides to proceed in spite of this request ... the Attorney General will advise the President to make a protective assertion of executive privilege over the subpoenaed material," the letter added.
Barr originally released a redacted version of Mueller's report in April. Congressional Democrats have since claimed that the redacted version is insufficient and have issued a subpoena for more information to a select group of lawmakers.
Democratic lawmakers reasoned that there are lingering questions surrounding the report and have considered calling Mueller to testify.
Barr has argued that releasing the full report would disclose sensitive grand-jury information. The Justice Department offered to allow a small number of lawmakers to view a less-redacted version of the report; however, Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the committee's chairman, rejected the offer.
Nadler responded to the Justice Department's letter on Tuesday night and described it as "without credibility, merit, or legal or factual basis."
"Worse, this kind of obstruction is dangerous," Nadler said in a statement. "The Department's decision reflects [Trump's] blanket defiance of Congress's constitutionally mandated duties. In the coming days, I expect that Congress will have no choice but to confront the behavior of this lawless Administration."
"I hope that the Department will think better of this last minute outburst and return to negotiations," he added.
Nadler noted in his statement that the committee will proceed with its plan on Wednesday to take a procedural vote to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.