Schiff subpoenas DOJ for unredacted Mueller report and counterintel info – POLITICO

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff issued a subpoena to the Justice Department on Wednesday for the unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, in addition to all of the foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information collected during the 22-month investigation.

The subpoena comes after Schiff (D-Calif.) and his Republican counterpart, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, made a rare joint request for the documents. Schiff said the Justice Department had yet to respond to the committee’s request, prompting him to issue a subpoena.

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“The department has repeatedly failed to respond, refused to schedule any testimony, and provided no documents responsive to our legitimate and duly authorized oversight activities,” Schiff said in a statement.

“The department repeatedly pays lip service to the importance of a meaningful accommodation process, but it has only responded to our efforts with silence or outright defiance,” Schiff added. “Today, we have no choice but to issue a subpoena to compel their compliance.”

The committee’s subpoena requires the Justice Department to turn over the documents by May 15.

Schiff and Nunes penned joint letters to Barr — one on March 27 and another on April 25 — demanding the full Mueller report and its supporting materials. In the second letter, the lawmakers threatened a subpoena “absent meaningful compliance” by the end of last week.

In his letter to Barr informing the attorney general of the subpoena, Schiff said the Intelligence Committee required the information in order to “discharge its unique constitutional and statutory responsibilities,” including conducting oversight, examining potential national security issues and drawing up legislation to address vulnerabilities.

Schiff said the Justice Department claimed that it was accommodating his and Nunes’ request by allowing the lawmakers — in addition to 10 other senior members of Congress — to view a less-redacted version of the report.

“Neither of these responses amounted to a good faith effort to negotiate an accommodation of the committee’s request,” Schiff wrote, adding that his staff reminded the Justice Department of its “expansive and voluminous” production of documents related to the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

“These materials were of the precise type the department now claims it is prohibited from giving to the full committee, including classified and law enforcement sensitive information, documents related to third parties, and those pertaining to ongoing investigations,” Schiff wrote.

The committee’s announcement comes the same day the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for defying that panel’s subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report and all of its underlying evidence.

Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over the full report and its underlying materials — at Barr’s urging — in order to prevent the Justice Department from complying with the committee’s subpoena.

Schiff’s and Nunes’ numerous requests for the full Mueller report come despite efforts by Republicans on the Judiciary panel to back the Justice Department’s position that Congress does not have a right to the materials — in particular, the grand-jury information.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.