Congressional Democrats vowed Friday to keep investigating President Trump, his family, and associates despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrapping up his Russia investigation with no new indictments.
Attorney General William Barr notified key congressional leaders in a letter Friday evening that Mueller finished his investigation, adding that a summary of the probe’s findings may be provided to lawmakers as soon as this weekend.
Both the investigation's end and the lack of any new indictments struck at the core of the Democrats’ messaging for the last two years that led people to believe the Mueller probe would uncover evident collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
This prompted House Democrats to somewhat downplay the Mueller probe and suggested that the left-leaning lawmakers themselves might take on the job of trying to prove collusion, not ruling out the possibility of Mueller being asked or subpoenaed to testify before congressional committees.
“If the Justice Department doesn't release the whole report or tries to keep parts of it secret, we will certainly subpoena the parts of the report and we will reserve the right to call Mueller to testify before the committee or to subpoena him,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Nadler is leading an investigation into “alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump,” a probe he announced earlier this month and has requested documents and records from 81 individuals and entities connected, in some way, to the president.
So far only a fraction of those targeted have responded or complied with the document requests by the Nadler-imposed deadline of March 18.
Democrats in the House will also ask multiple executive branch agencies to preserve the information they gave to the special counsel, the Washington Post reported.
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The Democratic chairs of the six House committees investigating the Trump administration and their Senate Democratic counterparts reportedly have penned a letter that will be sent to the Department of Justice, FBI and White House Counsel’s Office, and other agencies in an effort to preserve records in the event of the committees requesting for them.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,made similar comments to Nadler and rejected reports that no more Mueller indictments are coming.
“If necessary, we will call Bob Mueller or others before our committee, I would imagine the judiciary committee may call the attorney general if necessary,” Schiff told CNN.
This is not the first time Schiff dismissed the importance of the Mueller report. Earlier this month, he insisted that the question of whether Trump was “compromised by a foreign power” would end only when Schiff's panel's investigation ends.
“Our predominant concern on my committee is: Was this president, is this president, compromised by a foreign power?,” Schiff said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
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“Well, if there’s insufficient evidence in the Mueller report and we’re not able to produce sufficient evidence in our own investigation," Schiff said, "that ends the inquiry."
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