House panel holds AG Barr in contempt over withholding Mueller report; Trump to fight back

The United States House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt after his refusal to provide an uncensored copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.

The 24-16 vote along the party lines came Wednesday, after the highest US law enforcement official defied a subpoena to hand over the report and underlying evidence, in an apparent attempt to withhold damaging information that could be used against the president.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd had told Jerrold Nadler, the committee’s Democratic chairman, in a letter that Barr could not comply with the subpoena “without violating the law, court rules, and court orders, and without threatening the independence of the Department of Justice’s prosecutorial functions.”

The Democratic-led committee’s vote means that the full House of Representatives should now vote on holding Barr in contempt.

If he loses the vote, which is more than likely in a Democratic-led House that is fighting Trump with a vengeance, Barr would probably face a court battle, where he might get fined and even receive possible prison term.

Nadler said the full House vote would come “rapidly,” refusing to provide more details.

Barr has been handed a similar subpoena by House Intelligence Committee and has until May 15 to produce documents related to the Mueller investigation.

Representative Adam Schiff, who presides over the committee, said the Justice Department responded to the panel’s requests “with silence or outright defiance.”

Barr released a 448-page redacted version of the report on April 18. He has missed two deadlines to turn over the requested material after Nadler subpoenaed it last month, arguing that lawmakers needed them to determine whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to impede the probe.

Trump to use executive powers to prevent report’s release

The controversial vote came hours after the White House announced that upon Barr’s request and in response to Nadler’s ‘abuse of power,’ Trump would use his presidential powers to keep the full report from being released.

“Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the attorney general’s request, the president has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Nadler hit back by calling Trump’s move “an assertion of tyrannical power” and promised to continue the fight.

“We are now in a constitutional crisis,” Nadler told reporters.

Read More:

• Mueller report 'condemns' Trump's actions
• Trump blasts Mueller's Russia probe as 'coup'

Trump’s actions ‘self-impeachable’

Despite openly threatening Trump with impeachment, Democrats continue to tiptoe around the question of actually launching an impeachment process to try and remove the Republican head of state from office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said the fact that Trump wanted to thwart House subpoenas using his powers amounted to obstructing oversight by lawmakers which in itself was “self-impeachable” conduct.

“Every single day the president is making the case. He’s becoming self-impeachable,” Pelosi told the Washington Post.

PressTV-A look at how to remove a US president by impeachment

Investigations involving President Donald Trump have raised the possibility that Congress could seek to remove him from office using the impeachment process set out in the Constitution.

She also defended the committee decision to hold Barr in contempt and said Congress should follow suit. Last week, she accused Barr of committing a crime by lying to lawmakers.

This is not the first time Trump is trying to fight congressional subpoenas. He has already filed lawsuits against major financial institutions to block subpoenas seeking his financial and business records. His administration has also refused to disclose his subpoenaed tax returns.

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