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House passes resolution calling for public release of Mueller report

danarhea

danarhea

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The House of Representatives voted Thursday in favor of a resolution to encourage Attorney General William Barr to release Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full report to both Congress and the country amid fears information about the investigation would not be made public.

The resolution enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support and passed in a floor vote 420-0. Four Republican lawmakers voted present.
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The resolution is non-binding, but says plenty. Every Republican except 4 were on board with it. This is what I would definitely call a bi-partisan statement against any attempted cover-up of what Mueller has found. If a cover-up is attempted, the next step would be the Judiciary committee obtaining the report and reading it into the Congressional Record, thus making it public, and Trump has no power to stop that.

House passes resolution calling for public release of Mueller report | Fox News
 
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danarhea said:
The resolution is non-binding, but says plenty. Every Republican except 4 were on board with it. This is what I would definitely call a bi-partisan statement against any attempted cover-up of what Mueller has found. If a cover-up is attempted, the next step would be the Judiciary committee obtaining the report and reading it into the Congressional Record, thus making it public, and Trump has no power to stop that.

House passes resolution calling for public release of Mueller report | Fox News
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Now why should Mr. Trump pay any attention to a non-binding resolution that just barely squeaked through (as he will see it).
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
Now why should Mr. Trump pay any attention to a non-binding resolution that just barely squeaked through (as he will see it).
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Barely squeaked through? LMAO. Nice try, if that's the way Trump interprets it. Every single Republican, except 4 voted for it. Those other 4 voted present. Not even a single no vote.

And, again, Trump doesn't have to pay attention to it. If he won't release it, the Judiciary Committee will.
 
danarhea said:
Barely squeaked through? LMAO. Nice try, if that's the way Trump interprets it. Every single Republican, except 4 voted for it. Those other 4 voted present. Not even a single no vote.

And, again, Trump doesn't have to pay attention to it. If he won't release it, the Judiciary Committee will.
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Not up to Trump, or Congress......up to the AG, who has previously said I believe that he will release what he can barring National security issues etc, what can not be released by law.

Apparently Democrats do not understand that.
 
sjmay said:
Not up to Trump, or Congress......up to the AG, who has previously said I believe that he will release what he can barring National security issues etc, what can not be released by law.

Apparently Democrats do not understand that.
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The AG has significant leeway in interpreting what he is "allowed" to release. Democrats are urging transparency. You oppose this, I take it.
 
sjmay said:
Not up to Trump, or Congress......up to the AG, who has previously said I believe that he will release what he can barring National security issues etc, what can not be released by law.

Apparently Democrats do not understand that.
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Congress can demand it be released to them. However, anything classified cannot be released to the public, but the rest can be via the process explained to you. The AG cannot refuse to give the report to Congress, even the parts that have National Security issues.
 
ClaraD said:
Congress can demand it be released to them. However, anything classified cannot be released to the public, but the rest can be via the process explained to you. The AG cannot refuse to give the report to Congress, even the parts that have National Security issues.
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I believe to the Judiciary committee only, NOT general congress? I could be wrong on that...but yes, the JD can demand to see it.....be interesting to see what's leaked from that vs what is deemed National Security.

I think everything should be released, unless it directly puts someone in danger....
 
sjmay said:
I believe to the Judiciary committee only, NOT general congress? I could be wrong on that...but yes, the JD can demand to see it.....be interesting to see what's leaked from that vs what is deemed National Security.

I think everything should be released, unless it directly puts someone in danger....
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Congress to subpoena full Mueller report if AG Barr withholds parts, Blumenthal says
“There’ll be subpoenas from Congress, including, I hope, from the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Blumenthal said.

So, as I said....Congress, can indeed demand the report from the DOJ....it says Congress...
 
sjmay said:
But from my understanding, he does not need to hand it over, if he deems he doesn't want to.
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I sure hope "the AG can hide whatever it wants from Congress without oversight" is not actually the case, nor something you'd support.
 
ClaraD said:
Congress to subpoena full Mueller report if AG Barr withholds parts, Blumenthal says
“There’ll be subpoenas from Congress, including, I hope, from the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Blumenthal said.

So, as I said....Congress, can indeed demand the report from the DOJ....it says Congress...
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They can demand all they want. it doesn't mean a thing.
The AG is in charge of the report and he can release or not release what he wants.

Barr has stated that he will release all relevant information. there is nothing else that congress can do as the report
is technically classified.

This is an executive branch at most they could do that to mueller himself but mueller can only disclose what would be unclassified by
barr. he would not be able to speak to anything else in the report.
 
Deuce said:
I sure hope "the AG can hide whatever it wants from Congress without oversight" is not actually the case, nor something you'd support.
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then blame the obama administration etc for changing the rules if you don't like them.
 
danarhea said:
The resolution is non-binding, but says plenty. Every Republican except 4 were on board with it. This is what I would definitely call a bi-partisan statement against any attempted cover-up of what Mueller has found. If a cover-up is attempted, the next step would be the Judiciary committee obtaining the report and reading it into the Congressional Record, thus making it public, and Trump has no power to stop that.

House passes resolution calling for public release of Mueller report | Fox News
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Non-binding, means nothing has changed. Mueller's report to the DOJ will have a lot of classified information that is for the DOJ eyes only. I've never seen a report of any kind that was not redacted and in many cases heavily redacted with whole pages redacted. This release will be the same, and Adam Schiff will be screaming.
 
ludin said:
They can demand all they want. it doesn't mean a thing.
The AG is in charge of the report and he can release or not release what he wants.

Barr has stated that he will release all relevant information. there is nothing else that congress can do as the report
is technically classified.

This is an executive branch at most they could do that to mueller himself but mueller can only disclose what would be unclassified by
barr. he would not be able to speak to anything else in the report.
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Not true at all. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee can legally obtain the report, which he can then read into the Congressional Record, after redactions for national security purposes, thus making it public. Neither the AG, nor Trump, have even an iota of control over that.
 
danarhea said:
Not true at all. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee can legally obtain the report, which he can then read into the Congressional Record, after redactions for national security purposes, thus making it public. Neither the AG, nor Trump, have even an iota of control over that.
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no he can't. this was changed after the ken star debacle.
the rules previously allowed for this. the current rules do not.

Mueller reports to the AG not the judiciary Committee like Star did.
 
My prediction:

If the administration/DOJ do not release a reasonable facsimile of the report, the Dems will run hard on this into 2020, having a cudgel to pummel Trump and the Republicans on a daily basis, which I suspect will be quite effective.

I can't imagine the President & Republicans winning the politics going into the election, on this one.

My suspicion is the administration will have to make political feints, giving reasonable impression they substantively released it, even if they haven't.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
Now why should Mr. Trump pay any attention to a non-binding resolution that just barely squeaked through (as he will see it).
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The resolution actually passed quite easily with more republican votes than was needed. 23% of his republican Senate vote for the bill. Trump will almost definitely just take his loss, issue a veto and move forward.

But practically speaking, the rebuke matters. It matters because it will force what will be his first veto, thereby serving notice that Trump is officially overriding a majority of both chambers of Congress. It also could hurt him in the real venue that will decide whether his wall gets funded: the courts.
 
danarhea said:
The resolution is non-binding, but says plenty. Every Republican except 4 were on board with it. This is what I would definitely call a bi-partisan statement against any attempted cover-up of what Mueller has found. If a cover-up is attempted, the next step would be the Judiciary committee obtaining the report and reading it into the Congressional Record, thus making it public, and Trump has no power to stop that.

House passes resolution calling for public release of Mueller report | Fox News
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Barr is right about releasing Mueller’s report

By Randall D. Eliason
January 17

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-report/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.302bfdd7ed59

During William P. Barr’s confirmation hearings to be attorney general, many questions focused on whether Barr would release any report completed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Lawmakers and commentators have expressed consternation over Barr’s refusal to commit to make Mueller’s report public. But Barr is absolutely correct. It’s not Mueller’s job to prepare a public report, and there’s no reason to expect that whatever report he does prepare would necessarily be released.

Under the old independent counsel statute, authorized in the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, the independent counsel was required to write a report to Congress if he or she found any evidence of potentially impeachable misconduct. The most famous — or infamous — example of this was Kenneth Starr’s voluminous and graphic report about the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair. Public backlash over the excesses of Starr’s report arguably contributed to Congress’s decision to let that law expire in 1999.

We now have the Department of Justice special counsel regulations under which Mueller operates. Pursuant to those regulations, Mueller is much more like a typical federal prosecutor. Although he has a great deal of day-to-day autonomy, he is treated like a U.S. attorney, subject to all Justice Department rules and regulations.

But prosecutors don’t write public reports, particularly about cases they decline to prosecute. In part this is because of federal rules requiring that matters occurring before a grand jury remain confidential. Grand jury secrecy exists for important reasons, including to safeguard the integrity of the investigation and to protect the privacy of individuals who might be investigated but ultimately not charged. It continues to apply even after an investigation is concluded, and violations may be punished by contempt of court.
 
danarhea said:
Not true at all. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee can legally obtain the report, which he can then read into the Congressional Record, after redactions for national security purposes, thus making it public. Neither the AG, nor Trump, have even an iota of control over that.
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Thus what the public sees is not the FULL report, but a redacted report. And those redactions can be severe. And it may take years for the Chairman can get his/her hands on the report. The DOJ does not act everywell for document request. Like never.
 
Lindsey Graham just blocked the House resolution.
 
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