DOJ makes offer to Dems in bid to avert Barr contempt vote – POLITICO

The Justice Department offered on Tuesday to allow more congressional staffers access to a less-redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report — an attempt to head off a Wednesday vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for defying a Democratic subpoena for Mueller’s entire findings and evidence.

The concessions also included allowing a select number of senior lawmakers — just 12 have been allowed access to the less-redacted version — to keep their handwritten notes on the report.

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But importantly, the offer does not include allowing additional lawmakers to view the document, and those who can would still be forbidden from discussing it or sharing their notes with colleagues — leaving a key demand from Democrats unresolved.

According to two sources familiar with Tuesday’s negotiating session, the Justice Department offered to allow each of the lawmakers to bring two staffers — instead of just one — to view the less-redacted version.

Initially, the department said it would only allow the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, in addition to bipartisan House and Senate leaders, to view the less-redacted version.

The Justice Department also intends to continue shielding grand-jury information. Democrats have urged Barr to join them in seeking a court order to release that information.

It was not immediately clear whether those concessions allowing greater access to the less-redacted report were enough to convince House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to scrap the contempt vote, which was teed up after Barr signaled he would defy the panel’s subpoena for full, unredacted report and the underlying evidence. Nadler declined to comment.

Democrats have accused the Justice Department of stonewalling their document requests and blasted Barr for what they said was an effort to spin Mueller’s findings.

But Judiciary Committee Republicans have defended Barr and argued that he made significant disclosures surrounding Mueller’s report that he was under no legal obligation to make. They include releasing a public version of the report, offering the less-redacted report to senior lawmakers and offering to testify to Congress on it.

The sources said two Justice Department officials attended the meeting, along with two Democratic Judiciary Committee staffers: Aaron Hiller and Norm Eisen. Three lawyers to the GOP side of the committee attended as well.