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Judiciary Dem sends counter offer to DOJ on Mueller report

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Friday sent a letter to the Justice Department reiterating his demand for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report and signaling he is willing to make some concessions in order to obtain files from Mueller’s investigation in which his committee is most interested.

Nadler, who has subpoenaed the Justice Department for Mueller’s full report and underlying evidence, signaled that it was his only counter offer before moving to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to the subpoena. Nadler gave the Justice Department until the morning of May 6 – Monday – to respond.

“The Committee is prepared to make every realistic effort to reach an accommodation with the Department. But if the Department persists in its baseless refusal to comply with the validly issued subpoena, the Committee will move to contempt proceedings and seek further legal recourse,” Nadler wrote in a letter to Barr on Friday.

Nadler asked Barr to reconsider his decision not to allow all members of Congress to view a less-redacted version of Mueller’s report, and he reiterated his request that the Justice Department work jointly with Congress to petition a federal court to release the grand jury material from Mueller’s report.

Nadler also said that his panel is willing to “prioritize” the production of specific investigative files that underlie Mueller’s report, saying the committee has a “heightened interest” in obtaining files that are specifically cited in the 448-page document. These include witness interviews often referred to as “302s” and contemporaneous notes taken by witnesses.

“Since these materials are publicly cited and described in the Mueller report, there can be no question about the Committee’s need for and right to this underlying evidence in order to independently evaluate the facts that Special Counsel Mueller uncovered and fulfill our constitutional duties,” Nadler wrote. “In addition, to the extent these materials are classified or contain sensitive law enforcement information, we are prepared to maintain their confidentiality as we regularly do with similar information.”

Nadler said the panel is “prepared to discuss limiting and prioritizing” its request for all documents and investigative files from Mueller’s investigation.

Nadler’s letter represents the latest development in an ongoing standoff between Congress and the executive branch over the special counsel’s report, a redacted version of which Barr released on April 18 that restricts grand jury material, details on ongoing investigations and other sensitive data.

The letter also came one day after Barr did not appear for scheduled testimony before Nadler’s committee because Democrats insisted that committee counsels be permitted to question the attorney general – a condition the Justice Department deemed “unprecedented” and “inappropriate.”