Democrats to prepare subpoenas for full Mueller report

The U.S. House of Representatives judiciary committee will prepare subpoenas this week seeking special counsel Robert Mueller's full Russia report as the Justice Department appears likely to miss an April 2 deadline set by Democrats for the report's release.

The judiciary panel plans to vote on subpoenas Wednesday, a day after the deadline. The chairmen of several House committees asked for the full report last week after Attorney General William Barr released a four-page summary laying out the report's "principal conclusions."

Barr said in a letter to the House and Senate judiciary committees on Friday that a redacted version of the more than 300-page report would be released by mid-April, "if not sooner."

"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote. "I do not believe it would be in the public's interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or to release it in serial or piecemeal fashion."

The planned committee vote, announced Monday morning, would not automatically issue subpoenas but authorize House judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, to send them.

The panel will also vote to authorize subpoenas related to a number of President Donald Trump's former top advisers, including strategist Steve Bannon, communications director Hope Hicks, chief of staff Reince Priebus, White House counsel Donald McGahn and counsel Ann Donaldson. Donaldson served as McGahn's chief of staff before both left the administration.

The five were probably key witnesses in Mueller's probe of possible obstruction of justice. The meeting notice says they "may have received documents from the White House relevant to the special counsel investigation, or their outside counsel may have, waiving applicable privileges under the law." The subpoenas would be related to documents where executive privilege was waived "and related matters," the notice says.

The former White House advisers were included in a massive document request the committee made last month. Nadler sent requests to 81 people connected to Trump's political and personal dealings as he launched a wide-ranging investigation into possible obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuses of power.

Democrats won't accept redacted version

Democrats have said they will not accept a redacted version of the report, which is what Barr is preparing. Barr said in the letter Friday that he is scrubbing the report to avoid disclosing any grand jury information or classified material, in addition to portions of the report that pertain to ongoing investigations or that "would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties."

Democrats want all of that information, even if some of it can't be disclosed to the public. They are citing precedents from previous investigations involving presidents and also information disclosed about the Russia investigation to Republicans last year when they held the House majority.

Barr wrote in his summary that the special counsel did not find that Trump's campaign "conspired or co-ordinated" with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election. He said Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed the federal investigation, instead setting out "evidence on both sides" of the question.

Barr himself went further than Mueller in his summary letter, declaring that Mueller's evidence was insufficient to prove in court that Trump had committed obstruction of justice to hamper the probe.

Democrats say they want to know much more about both conclusions and they want to see the evidence unfiltered by Barr.

More subpoenas threatened

House oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings also threatened to begin subpoenaing current and former White House officials as part of his panel's investigation of security clearances issued under Trump, including that of his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

In a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Monday, Cummings said his panel would look to authorize a subpoena for former White House personnel security director Carl Kline at a committee meeting on Tuesday. He called on the White House to forestall additional subpoenas by providing documents sought by the committee.

Cummings's letter was the second sent from Congress on Monday; the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cummings also said his committee is working with a White House whistleblower, Tricia Newbold, who he said knows of more than two-dozen individuals allowed access to national security information despite recommendations that their clearance applications be denied.

The House oversight committee is investigating security clearance abuses that involve Kushner, who is a senior adviser to the president, and others, amid reports that Trump ordered his former chief of staff John Kelly to provide Kushner with clearance over objections from Kelly and Donald McGahn, then White House counsel.