Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) announced that he had reached an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over obtaining key evidence in the Mueller Report related to possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.
Chairman Nadler made the following statement:
"I am pleased to announce that the Department of Justice has agreed to begin complying with our committee's subpoena by opening Robert Mueller’s most important files to us, providing us with key evidence that the Special Counsel used to assess whether the President and others obstructed justice or were engaged in other misconduct. The Department will share the first of these documents with us later today. All members of the Judiciary Committee—Democrats and Republicans alike—will be able to view them. These documents will allow us to perform our constitutional duties and decide how to respond to the allegations laid out against the President by the Special Counsel.
"Given our conversations with the Department, I will hold the criminal contempt process in abeyance for now. We have agreed to allow the Department time to demonstrate compliance with this agreement. If the Department proceeds in good faith and we are able to obtain everything that we need, then there will be no need to take further steps. If important information is held back, then we will have no choice but to enforce our subpoena in court and consider other remedies. It is critical that Congress is able to obtain the information we need to do our jobs, ensuring no one is above the law and bringing the American public the transparency they deserve."
BACKGROUND
On April 19, the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report and key underlying evidence. The Department of Justice refused to comply with the May 1 deadline for production of those materials. Although the Committee made repeated attempts to negotiate for the materials responsive to the subpoena, the Department cut off negotiations on the evening of May 7. On May 8, the Committee voted to recommend that the House hold Attorney General Barr in contempt of Congress. On May 24, Chairman Nadler wrote to White House Counsel and the Attorney General to remind them that, "[n]otwithstanding the President’s stated intent to block all congressional subpoenas, the Committee also remains prepared to meet with the Department and the White House to ascertain if an acceptable accommodation can be reached."
Tomorrow, the House is expected to consider H. Res. 430, a resolution authorizing the Committee to enforce its subpoenas in federal court. Some enforcement action may be necessary to obtain documents and testimony outside the scope of today’s agreement with the Department of Justice, including testimony from former White House Counsel Don McGahn.
