House Judiciary Committee issues subpoena for 'complete and unredacted' Mueller report

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Jerry Nadler issues 8-page subpoena for unredacted Mueller report, including underlying documents

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler takes the next step in what is shaping up to be a lengthy political and legal battle between Democrats and Republicans over the Mueller report; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., issued a subpoena Friday to obtain the "complete and unredacted" version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report, as well as the underlying materials -- the next step in what is almost certain to be a lengthy political and legal battle between Democrats and Republicans over the report.

"This includes, but is not limited to, all summaries, exhibits, indices, tables of contents or other tables or figures, appendices, supplements, addenda or any other attachments whether written or attached in a separate electronic format," the subpoena says.

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Nadler's push comes a day after a redacted version of the report was made public. The White House has hailed the report, which found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government in 2016, as a victory.

But Democrats have pointed to Mueller's review of 10 instances where Trump may be considered to have obstructed justice -- although the special counsel did not conclude that Trump committed a crime -- as well as other details in the report as justification for Congress to see the full report, and for Mueller to testify to Congress.

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Nadler and other Democrats have been particularly opposed to Attorney General William Barr's decision to release a redacted version of the report to Congress. Barr said that he, along with special counsel, identified four areas of the report that needed redactions, including grand jury material, information the intelligence community believes would reveal intelligence sources and methods, any material that could interfere with ongoing prosecutions, and information that could implicate the privacy or reputational interests of “peripheral players.”

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But Nadler has claimed that the committee needs to see the full report, as well as the underlying evidence, in order to determine any further action they may choose to take against the president or his associates.

"My Committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice," he said in a statement. "The redactions appear to be significant. We have so far seen none of the actual evidence that the Special Counsel developed to make this case. Even the redacted version of the report outlines serious instances of wrongdoing by President Trump and some of his closest associates. It now falls to Congress to determine the full scope of the alleged misconduct and to decide what steps we must take going forward."

Nadler is requesting the information on May 1, a day before Barr is set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. If the Justice Department doesn't respond, Democrats could hold officials in contempt of Congress or fight it out in court. Nadler's committee also holds the power to launch impeachment proceedings, something that a number of House Democrats and 2020 presidential hopefuls have indicated they may support.

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Republicans immediately pushed back on Nadler's demand. Ranking Member Doug Collins, R-Ga., accused him of "rushing to subpoena material" and of disregarding "good faith transparency without even taking the department up on its offer to review material under the redactions."

"As a result, today's subpoena is wildly overbroad," he said. "It commands the department to provide Congress with millions of records that would be plainly against the law to share because the vast majority of these documents came as a result of nearly 2,800 subpoenas from a grand jury that is still ongoing."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.