Just a few weeks ago, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler voted for a nonbinding resolution calling for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report to be made public. But on Wednesday, Reschenthaler and other Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee voted against a committee measure to subpoena the report.
“For nearly two years, Democrats misled the American people about the Special Counsel’s investigation,” Reschenthaler said in a statement, referring to Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of the report. “Now that it is clear there was no collusion with Russia, my colleagues across the aisle are grasping at straws.”
Reschenthaler, along with fellow Republicans on the committee, said it goes against federal law and Department of Justice rules to ask Attorney General William Barr to provide a completely unredacted report. Some Republicans on the committee said that doing so would expose confidential grand jury details.
“Now the House Judiciary Chairman is asking the attorney general to disregard those regulations and break the law by releasing the unredacted report and underlying evidence,” the Pittsburgh-area Congressman said. “I cannot support such reckless and misguided congressional overreach, and I will continue to back Attorney General Barr’s push for transparency as he works to make as much of the report public as possible.”
The committee, controlled by Democrats, ultimately voted along party lines, 24-17 to subpoena the full report.
“This committee has a job to do,” said chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in his opening statement Wednesday. “The Constitution charges Congress with holding the President accountable for alleged official misconduct. That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves – not the Attorney General’s summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence.”
Nadler plans to give Barr several days to comply with the committee’s request before issuing a subpoena. The committee also voted to subpoena former White House counsel Don McGahn, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former communications director Hope Hicks, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House lawyer Ann Donaldson.
Updated on April 4 at 4:21 pm
After publication of this story, Reschenthaler's office noted that the nonbinding resolution the Congressman supported would make the report available to the public "as allowed by law.” Reschenthaler and Republicans on the committee argued that the Democratic initiative could illegally expose grand jury information that would violate that provision. Rep. Nadler rejected that argument on Wednesday, saying the full report would only be available to Congress and not to the public.
