I do agree, skye. But the Democrats have every appearance of doing all the harassment to this Executive Branch as it can:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman
Adam Schiff insisted Sunday he's willing to take the Justice Department to court over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's forthcoming final report on the Russia investigation, which
sources tell Fox News is wrapping up.
The
DOJ's inspector general sharply criticized former FBI Director James Comey for publicly outlining the bureau's case against then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016
without finding criminal wrongdoing worthy of prosecution. Against that backdrop, it appeared unlikely the DOJ would be eager to release any findings by Mueller of noncriminal misconduct -- but Schiff, D-Calif., suggested he has several tools to take matters into his own hands.
"We will obviously subpoena the report," Schiff told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News' "This Week." "We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress; we will take it to court if necessary. And in the end, I think the department understands they're going to have to make this public."
It was not clear whether the Justice Department would be obligated legally to respond to such a subpoena, or whether courts -- which typically steer clear of legal and political disputes between branches of the federal government -- would force the DOJ to turn over the document.
"We need to get the facts out there, get this behind us in a way that people thought that anybody that should have been talked to was talked to any question that should have been asked, was asked," Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
But asked if he thought there could be a subpoena, Blunt, R-Mo., said, "I don't know that you can."
Still, Schiff criticized newly confirmed
Attorney General William Barr for evidencing what he called a "bias" against the Mueller probe, which Barr now oversees, and Schiff said transparency is the only realistic solution.
Barr
disclosed last month that he'd discussed Mueller's Russia probe with Vice President Mike Pence, although he insisted he neither provided legal advice to the White House nor received any confidential information from Pence.
WHAT DID BARR TELL PENCE ABOUT THE MUELLER PROBE?
Barr, in testimony during his confirmation hearings, also defended the
unsolicited memorandum he sent to the Justice Department last year that was critical of the Russia probe, explaining that it was narrow in scope and based on potentially incomplete information.
"If he were to try to withhold, try to bury any part of this report, that will be his legacy," Schiff said Sunday. "And, it will be a tarnished legacy. So I think there will be immense pressure not only on the department but on the attorney general to be forthcoming."
