Top Democratic lawmaker says he'll 'bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress' if report not made public
Appearing on ABC's This Week on Sunday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee chair, told host George Stephanopoulos he is prepared to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether President Trump's campaign was involved with Russian election interference should Attorney General William Barr refuse to make the report public.
"In the end, I think the Department [of Justice] understands they're going to make this public," Schiff said. He argued that Barr already has "two strikes against him" because he has demonstrated a bias against the Mueller investigation in the past and has refused to follow the advice of ethics lawyers throughout the process.
The Trump administration, Schiff argued, hired Barr for those very reasons. But he said that he expects Barr to succumb to pressure to make the findings available to the public in order to avoid a "tarnished legacy." Otherwise, Schiff said, House Democrats are prepared to take the administration to court.
"We are gonna get to the bottom of this," he told Stephanopoulos. Schiff's comments echo other Democratic representatives who have already begun calling for the public release of the full Mueller report. Watch the exchange below.
Rep. Adam Schiff tells me he is “absolutely” prepared to sue Trump administration if Mueller report is not made public: “We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary” https://t.co/lSX5poLKT9 pic.twitter.com/kKtMjf1Wo3
— GeorgeStephanopoulos (@GStephanopoulos) February 24, 2019