House panel votes to hold Barr in contempt
The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt, escalating a feud between Capitol Hill and the Justice Department.
In a 24-16 vote along party lines, Democrats made a formal recommendation to the lower chamber to hold the president’s top law enforcement official in contempt for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena.
Democrats have demanded that Barr turn over special counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report, and their subpoena of the Justice Department official to do so received fierce pushback from Republicans and the DOJ alike.
On the eve of the contempt vote, Barr sought to raise the stakes for Democrats by threatening to recommend that President Trump exert executive privilege over the redacted information in Mueller’s report as well as the underlying evidence.
Furious, Democrats announced late Tuesday night that the contempt markup would continue as scheduled. The Justice Department then revealed shortly before the vote that Trump had asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the materials the committee subpoenaed.
Developing
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/442675-house-panel-votes-to-hold-barr-in-contempt-escalating-feud