House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on Sunday called for Attorney General William Barr to testify before Congress over special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on alleged collusion between the 2016 Donald Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on Sunday and found that Donald Trump’s campaign did conspire or coordinate with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Nadler released a lengthy statement on Sunday, suggesting that the Department of Justice will put “matters squarely in Congress’ court.”
The House Judiciary Chairman contended that Mueller did not exonerate the president from potential charges of obstruction of justice or Russian collusion and that the committee must have Barr testify to hear more about the underlying evidence in the report.
“But Special Counsel Mueller clearly and explicitly is not exonerating the President, and we must hear from AG Barr about his decision making and see all the underlying evidence for the American people to know all the facts,” Nadler wrote.
“There must be full transparency in what Special Counsel Mueller uncovered to not exonerate the President from wrongdoing,” Chairman Nadler continued. “DOJ owes the public more than just a brief synopsis and decision not to go any further in their work.”
“Special Counsel Mueller worked for 22 months to determine the extent to which President Trump obstructed justice,” Nadler concluded. “Attorney General Barr took 2 days to tell the American people that while the President is not exonerated, there will be no action by DOJ.”
House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH) released a statement on Sunday, contending that a “handful of politically-biased” staffers at the DOJ used campaign research to launch a “coordinate partisan attack on the president.”
Jordan said in a statement:
The events that gave rise to the appointment of the Special Counsel mark a dark chapter in American history. The investigation began with a handful of politically-biased actors within the Justice Department who inappropriately used a campaign research document to launch a coordinated partisan attack on the President. Now, after 22 months and over $25 million in taxpayer funds, we know what many of us suspected all along. There was no collusion, coordination, or cooperation with Russia. All the Special Counsel’s prosecutions of U.S. persons in the course of this investigation were wholly unrelated to collusion.
“I hope this will put an end to the partisan and political investigations in Congress aimed at undermining President Trump,” Jordan said.