Win McNamee/GettyThe House Judiciary Committee moved Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena, setting the stage for him to become only the second Cabinet member in U.S. history to face that punishment.The last Cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress was Eric Holder in 2012, when he failed to turn over documents related to the “Fast & Furious” weapons-trafficking scandal. An inspector general later cleared Holder of any wrongdoing.Barr faces the same scenario because he failed to issue the House committee the full, un-redacted Mueller report. DOJ and the judiciary committee two sides had attempted to negotiate a resolution about if and how an unredacted report would make its way to Congress but none appears imminent. TIf anything, talks appear to have completely broken down. The Department of Justice declared on Wednesday morning that the President had now “asserted executive privilege over the entirety” of the Mueller report.“This is information we are legally entitled to receive and we are constitutionally obligated to review.” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said in the contempt vote markup session. “I would remind the Members that the Mueller report is no ordinary, run of the mill document—it details significant misconduct involving the President, including his campaign’s willingness and eagerness to accept help from a hostile foreign government.”The markup for a contempt vote was the culmination of weeks of back-and-forth talks between House Judiciary Democrats and the Department of Justice over terms for lawmakers to review Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report with fewer redactions and with access to the underlying evidence he collected. The committee issued a subpoena to access those materials.As Nadler gaveled in the hearing, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would declare executive privilege on all materials that Democrats had requested. “This is not a step we take lightly,” said Nadler, calling the latest developments “a clear escalation of the Trump administration’s blanket defiance of Congress’ constitutionally mandated duties.”In addition to the back and forth over subpoenaed material, the two sides are also in disagreement over whether the Attorney General should testify before the committee. Barr has refused to do so after the Department of Justice said House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler’s demands for staff attorneys to question the attorney general about his handling of the Mueller report were “unprecedented and unnecessary.”Nadler had previously warned that the committee would seek to hold Barr in contempt if he did not appear.“If good-faith negotiations don’t result in a pledge of compliance… the next step is seeking a contempt citation against the attorney general,” Nadler said last week, adding that Barr was trying to “blackmail the committee into not following the most effective means of eliciting the information we need… He is terrified of having to face a skilled attorney.”During an interview on CNN Wednesday morning, Nadler called the impasse “a constitutional crisis.”The committee has also said it wants to hear Mueller testify. The Daily Beast reported last this week that he was willing to appear but that DOJ was reluctant to set a date. Nadler said the committee would like to hear from the special counsel on May 15. Whether Mueller ends up coming remains unclear. But experts say that the breakdown in conversations between the executive and legislative branch had already reached remarkable levels. “There is always some back and forth and negotiation over whether and when someone testifies,” said Elliot Williams, a former deputy assistant attorney general. “The two sides work out things like length of testimony, the subject matter of the hearing as well as other things. But usually they always come to an agreement.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
