What is Mueller report that Trump wants to hide? Sanders asks
US President Donald Trump is creating a "constitutional crisis" by refusing to cooperate with lawmakers over the outcome of the so-called Russia probe, says 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
"President Trump seems determined to engineer a constitutional crisis by refusing to comply with a standard congressional subpoena," said the Vermont senator in a tweet Wednesday, after the US leader exerted executive privilege over the full version of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
"If the Mueller report exonerates him, then why is he trying to block lawmakers from simply reading the full report? What is he trying to hide?"
Attorney General William Barr, who refused to produce an un-redacted version of report, could consequently be held in contempt following a vote in the House Judiciary committee.
"Every single day the president is making a case — he's becoming self-impeachable, in terms of some of the things he's doing," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, noting that impeaching Barr is “not off the table.”
Exertion of executive privilege over the information in Mueller’s report as well as the underlying evidence was reportedly recommended to Trump by Barr.
“As we have repeatedly explained, the attorney general could not comply with your subpoena in its current form without violating the law, court rules and court orders, and without threatening the independence of the Department of Justice’s prosecutorial functions,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote in a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler. “Accordingly, this is to advise you that the president has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials.”
Nadler, for his part, accused Trump of “unprecedented obstruction,” noting that the administration waived executive privilege “long ago.”
“This decision represents a clear escalation in the Trump administration’s blanket defiance of Congress’s constitutionally mandated duties,” Nadler said. “I hope that the department will think better of this last minute outburst and return to negotiations.”
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