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Washington, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), and Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) released the following joint statement in response to Attorney General William Barr’s letter summarizing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report:
"After reading the Attorney General’s four-page summary of the Special Counsel’s findings, we reiterate our call for the release of the Special Counsel’s full and complete report and all underlying documents. We also call for Attorney General Barr to come forward to testify before the House Judiciary Committee without delay. Far from the ‘total exoneration’ claimed by the President, the Mueller report expressly does not exonerate the President. Instead, it ‘sets out evidence on both sides of the question’ of obstruction—including the evidence that PresidentTrump attempted to obstruct justice.
"It is unacceptable that, after Special Counsel Mueller spent 22 months meticulously uncovering this evidence, Attorney General Barr made a decision not to charge the President in under 48 hours. The Attorney General did so without even interviewing the President. His unsolicited, open memorandum to the Department of Justice, suggesting that the obstruction investigation was ‘fatally misconceived,’ calls into question his objectivity on this point in particular.
"Attorney General Barr states that the Special Counsel did not find evidence sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt, for purposes of prosecution, that the Trump campaign conspired to join Russia’s election-related online disinformation and hacking and dissemination efforts, notwithstanding multiple offers from Russian-affiliated parties to assist the Trump campaign.
"Although we have confidence that Special Counsel Mueller made the right prosecutorial judgement in these two specific areas—notwithstanding the very public evidence of Trump campaign contact with and willingness to receive support from Russian agents—it will be vital for the country and the Congress to evaluate the full body of evidence collected by the Special Counsel, including all information gathered of a counterintelligence nature.
"The only information the Congress and the American people have received regarding this investigation is the Attorney General’s own work product. The Special Counsel’s Report should be allowed to speak for itself, and Congress must have the opportunity to evaluate the underlying evidence.
"These shortcomings in today’s letter are the very reason our nation has a system of separation of powers. We cannot simply rely on what may be a partisan interpretation of facts uncovered during the course of a 22-month review of possible wrongdoing by the President.
"The American people deserve to see the facts and judge the President’s actions for themselves.
"Earlier this month, the House passed a resolution calling for the release of the Special Counsel’s report by a vote of 420-0. The Attorney General must release the report and the underlying evidence in full, and appear before the House Judiciary Committee to answer our questions without delay."
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