Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement in response to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to meet on Wednesday, the day the Committee is scheduled to markup a contempt citation for Attorney General William Barr’s failure to comply with a subpoena for the full, unredacted Mueller report:

“I am pleased that the Department of Justice has agreed to meet with my staff tomorrow—and not Wednesday afternoon, as originally proposed by DOJ.    

“It remains vital that the Committee obtain access to the full, unredacted report and the underlying materials. At the moment, our plans to consider holding Attorney General Barr accountable for his failure to comply with our subpoena still stand. My hope is that we make concrete progress at tomorrow’s meeting towards resolving this dispute. The Committee remains committed to finding a reasonable accommodation.”

Background:

• On April 19, 2019, Chairman Nadler issued a subpoena for the full Mueller report and key underlying evidence. Attorney General Barr had an obligation to provide those materials by May 1.

• On May 1, 2019, the Department missed its deadline.

• On May 2, 2019, Attorney General Barr declined to appear for a scheduled hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

• On May 3, 2019, Chairman Nadler wrote to the Attorney General, asking him to make a good faith effort to comply with the subpoena by Monday, May 6, at 9:00 a.m.

• On May 6, 2019, the Committee noticed a markup of a contempt citation for the Attorney General. The markup is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, at 10:00 a.m.

• Later, on May 6, 2019, the Department wrote back to the Committee—proposing a meeting to begin “to negotiation an acceptable accommodation” on access to the full report on Wednesday afternoon.  Chairman Nadler has asked for this exact meeting five times over the past six weeks: in letters on March 25, April 1, April 11, April 19, and May 3.

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