The House Judiciary Committee still intends to vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress on Wednesday despite plans to meet with Justice Department officials to negotiate over access to the full version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Tuesday, according to the committee’s schedule.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) confirmed the vote was still on in a statement late Monday. The Justice Department originally asked for a Wednesday meeting, but Nadler pushed for Tuesday because of the scheduled vote.
“It remains vital that the Committee obtain access to the full, unredacted report and the underlying materials. At the moment, our plans to consider holding Attorney General Barr accountable for his failure to comply with our subpoena still stand,” he said. “My hope is that we make concrete progress at tomorrow’s meeting towards resolving this dispute. The Committee remains committed to finding a reasonable accommodation.”
The Justice Department sent a letter to Nadler earlier in the day on Monday inviting the chairman and his staffers to meet to discuss an “acceptable accommodation” for lawmakers to review a less redacted version of the report and “possible disclosure of certain materials” that Nadler and the Judiciary Committee have asked for. The letter came a few hours after the deadline that Nadler set for beginning proceedings to hold Barr in contempt of Congress for defying the committee’s subpoena for the documents.
