House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has officially begun contempt proceedings for Attorney General Bill Barr after he refused to meet today's deadline to provide the unredacted Robert Mueller report. He has scheduled the contempt vote for Wednesday.
In the markup of the contempt proceedings, Nadler argues that the redacted version of the Mueller report “does not provide sufficient details for the Committee to perform its own constitutional duty and to engage in a thorough independent investigation based on the Mueller Report’s findings.”
Barr also refused to comply with Nadler last week by not showing up to the House Judiciary hearing because he disagreed with Nadler's decision to have staff attorneys grill him on the stand. So, instead, facing an empty witness chair, Nadler took the opportunity to accuse the AG of being too "terrified" to sit and answer questions. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) agreed and embarrassingly brought a tub of KFC and a plastic chicken to try and prove the point. The only thing is, the day before the House hearing, Barr sat for six hours of interrogation before the Senate Judiciary. Hardly a "chicken" move.
House Judiciary ranking member Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) saw through the Democrats' agenda last week, and he sees through it now.
Reaction from @RepDougCollins after House Judiciary committee Democrats announced their intent to mark up a contempt resolution against the attorney general. #AGBarr pic.twitter.com/FoZ0Yd6JBa
— Mike Emanuel ???? (@MikeEmanuelFox) May 6, 2019
Mueller's report concluded that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia to win the 2016 election. But, Democrats are still pursuing potential obstruction of justice charges.
Editor's Note: This post has been updated.