In a party-line 229-191 vote, House Democrats on Tuesday passed a civil enforcement resolution that Democrats say effectively holds Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress — just a day after a key Democrat-led committee postponed its own contempt vote and said the Justice Department was cooperating with its investigation.
The whiplash of legislative action appeared intended to mollify progressives but infuriated House Republicans, who said Democrats were violating committee rules and that federal law and executive privilege prevented Barr and McGahn from turning over all the requested documents. The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Doug Collins, accused his colleagues of seeking a “re-do” of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation for political gain.
The DOJ, for its part, pushed back on the vote. A senior DOJ official said it was not a “civil contempt vote,” calling the terminology a “Democratic talking point.”
President Trump did not invoke executive privilege to shield any aspects of the Mueller report, but matters related to ongoing grand jury proceedings have been redacted pursuant to federal law, even from members of Congress. Mueller, in a rare public appearance before reporters, remarked in May, “I certainly do not question the attorney general’s good faith” in deciding to make the report “largely public.” – READ MORE