The Justice Department on Tuesday said it would provide the House Intelligence Committee with some materials related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as long as the panel dropped its threat to pursue an “enforcement action” against Attorney General William Barr.
The department made the offer in a three-page letter to Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) one day before the committee is slated to vote on what he has described as an “enforcement action” against Barr. Schiff has not said what shape the action would take.
The Justice Department has said it would allow the full committee to review a less redacted version of the first volume of the report — the section discussing Russian interference in which Schiff’s panel is primarily interested — and identify an initial tranche of materials the committee is demanding that it would prioritize for review and disclosure to the committee.
On Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said the department is willing to “expedite” access to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information identified by the committee as a priority if the panel confirms that it will not move forward on a vote on an enforcement action.
Boyd noted that the department needs time to process and review materials from the 12 categories of documents identified by the committee and to consult with the intelligence community before sharing them. But he said the Justice Department “may be in a position to discuss making them available to the Committee in relatively short order.”
“To be clear, should the Committee take the precipitous and unnecessary action of recommending a contempt finding or other enforcement action against the Attorney General, then the Department will not likely be able to continue to work with the Committee to accommodate its interests in these materials,” Boyd wrote.
“We hope that such a step will not prove necessary because there is no reason why the Department and the Committee cannot work out an accommodation that would meet both of our legitimate needs,” he added.
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Last week, Schiff said the department had not produced a single document in compliance with the subpoena deadline, leading him to schedule a business meeting Wednesday morning to vote on an “enforcement action” to compel the Justice Department to turn over the files.
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Justice Dept will give House Intel Mueller probe material if Schiff drops Barr contempt threat https://t.co/2JNK2W3ysr pic.twitter.com/awGxgVMNlj
— The Hill (@thehill) May 21, 2019
Oh please Schiff. Don’t be stupid and fall for this.
JUST IN: House Intel postpones enforcement action after DOJ agrees to produce some Mueller files https://t.co/DufN28q9Oa pic.twitter.com/kkXatXhsDj
— The Hill (@thehill) May 22, 2019
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement that a committee business meeting Wednesday to vote on what he has described as an “enforcement action” has been canceled and that he expected the Justice Department to begin producing the foreign intelligence and counterintelligence documents by the end of the week.“The Department of Justice has accepted our offer of a first step towards compliance with our subpoena, and this week will begin turning over to the Committee twelve categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials as part of an initial rolling production,” Schiff said. “That initial production should be completed by the end of next week.”
“As a result of the Department’s acceptance, the business meeting has been postponed. The Committee’s subpoena will remain in effect, and will be enforced should the Department fail to comply with the full document request,” Schiff said.
What could go wrong?
Barr should be in prison along with his boss.
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