The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning authorized Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) (shown above right) to issue a subpoena for the full report by special counsel Robert Mueller — as well as all of the underlying evidence and materials that Mueller (above left) collected during his nearly two-year investigation, Politico and other outlets reported.
The vote also gives Nadler the discretion, Politico added, “to issue a subpoena at any time to Attorney General William Barr, a move that likely would launch a legal confrontation between Congress and the Justice Department.”
Nadler almost certainly will not issue the subpoena immediately.
Related: Mueller Spent Nearly Two Years on Report, Yet Schiff Feels This Is Not Enough
Instead, he said he is intending to give the attorney general “time to change his mind” about redacting the Mueller report before submitting it to Congress, Politico also noted.
The committee’s decision went along party lines, in a 24-17 vote.
JUST IN: House Judiciary Committee votes to authorize Chair Jerry Nadler to issue subpoenas for full Mueller report and the special counsel's underlying evidence. https://t.co/ZcUZnFjSYv pic.twitter.com/Gl3bkjxWy3
— ABC News (@ABC) April 3, 2019
Nadler is also authorized to issue subpoenas to five former senior aides to President Donald Trump.
Those individuals are: former chief of staff Reince Priebus; former adviser Steve Bannon, former White House counsel Don McGahn; Ann Donaldsom, McGahn’s former deputy; and former communications director Hope Hicks.
“We are dealing now, not with the president’s private affairs, but with a sustained attack on the integrity of the republic by the president and his closest advisers. This committee requires the full report and the underlying materials because it is our job, not the attorney general’s, to determine whether or not President Trump has abused his office,” Nadler said during an opening statement on the matter.
“And we require the report because one day, one way or another, the country will move on from President Trump.”
“We must make it harder for future presidents to behave this way,” Nadler added. “We need a full accounting of the president’s actions to do that work.”
Nadler in 1998: Of course you can’t release grand-jury testimony in prosecutor’s report https://t.co/oVkSJPfSHI
— Evan Sayet (@EvanSayet) April 3, 2019
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