House Republican Argues It Would Be ‘Illegal’ To Release Mueller Report

Last week, special counsel Robert Mueller finally released his report after a nearly two-year-long investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with Russia. After numerous indictments and sentences handed out to President Donald Trump’s employees and members of his campaign, people were becoming more and more anxious for the final result of his report.

Upon the release of the report, Attorney General William Barr released a summary of the lengthy document, stating that Mueller had recommended no further indictments. While he did not fully exonerate Trump either, he didn’t have enough evidence to find him guilty of obstruction of justice. Of course, the entire report has not been released publicly, only Barr’s summary of it.

House Democrats have been calling for it to be released in full, while one report indicates that the president will be able to redact it before its release. One House Republican, however, has claimed that it would be illegal for the report to be released, according to Reuters.

Representative Doug Collins, who is the top Republican on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, has said that Barr would be “breaking the law” if he were to decide to release the report to the public in full.

U.S. House Republican says it would be illegal to release full Mueller report https://t.co/K3G01LIusG pic.twitter.com/FSGjSMt5VM

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 30, 2019

“Attorney General Barr is following his word in publicly releasing the special counsel’s report to the maximum extent permitted by law and department policy,” Collins said on Twitter.

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Democratic member Jerrold Nadler has also been criticized by Collins over Twitter for deciding to refuse Barr’s offer to testify on the findings in the Mueller report in May, almost two months after the report’s release on March 22.

“(Nadler) stands alone in setting arbitrary deadlines for that release and in calling the attorney general to break the law by releasing the report without redactions.”

So far, congress is still waiting to actually see the report themselves, and Nadler has expressed his concern that Barr is being given so much time to create a summary for congress to see by the middle of April. Collins, on the other hand, feels that Barr’s offer to testify at the beginning of May is acceptable.

“I also welcome the attorney general’s testimony before the committee on May 2.”

According to Fox News, following the release of the report, Collins also took aim at another Democrat in the House, demanding that Rep. Adam Schiff apologize for “repeatedly claiming that there was evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.”