House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler threatens to subpoena Bill Barr after attorney general says he might not show up Thursday for Mueller report hearing over Democrats' plans to have their lawyers grill him
- Attorney General Bill Barr is scheduled to testify in a House hearing on May 2
- Democrats who run the committee want to break with tradition
- Instead of just having lawmakers question Barr, their lawyers would join in
- They also want to ability to send the hearing into 'closed session' to see what's redacted in the Mueller report
- Barr is balking and the Justice Department is suggesting he won't show
- In response, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says panel may subpoena Barr
- In a separate Republican-run Senate hearing on May 1, Barr will testify in the usual format with only senators permitted to grill him
The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee warned Attorney General William Barr that he may be subpoenaed to appear before the panel if he does not accept the terms of his testimony on the Russia investigations this week.
'The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its hearing, period,' House Rep. Jerrold Nadler told CNN on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, the Justice Department informed the House Judiciary Committee that Barr may not attend a Thursday hearing to review special counsel Robert Mueller's report.
The DOJ objects to the hearing's format, according to a Democratic senior committee aide, because the panel plans to allow the committee's lawyers from both sides to question Barr after the traditional round of questioning by lawmakers.
Justice officials also told the committee that they are opposed to the panel's plan to go into a closed session if members want to discuss redacted portions of Mueller's report.
When Nadler was asked on Sunday what the committee would do if Barr refuses to comply, the New York congressman replied: 'Then we will have to subpoena him, and we will have to use whatever means we can to enforce the subpoena.'
Attorney General William Barr might be a no-show at a scheduled May 2 House hearing on the Mueller report
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, wants committee lawyers to be allowed to grill Barr – a practice that would be unusual but not unprecedented
The aide who spoke to the Associated Press requested anonymity to discuss confidential communications with the DOJ, which declined to comment on the dispute.
Barr is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and the House panel on Thursday.
The GOP-led Senate committee is expected to have normal rounds of member questioning without allowed staff attorneys to participate.
It is unusual for committee counsels to question a witness, but committees can generally make their own rules and other panels have made similar exceptions.
In a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh last year, for example, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee hired an outside prosecutor to question a witness who had accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
The current dispute comes as tensions have escalated sharply between House Democrats and the Trump administration over full access to Mueller's report and government witnesses who have defied congressional subpoenas to testify. Democrats have been eagerly anticipating the hearing with Barr as they try to build on Mueller's findings with their own investigations into the president.
House Democrats have subpoenaed the Justice Department for the unredacted version of the Mueller report and underlying material gathered from the investigation.
In response, the Justice Department has said they will make the full report, minus grand jury material, available to a limited group of members - an offer that Democrats have so far refused. The dispute could eventually end up in court.
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller sent the Justice Department a report that Barr was forced to partially redact, and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee want the freedom to see what's under the black boxes by taking the May 2 hearing into 'closed session'
A spokeswoman for the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, noted that Barr's testimony is voluntary and criticized the Democrats for not reading the full report.
'Democrats have yet to prove their demands are anything but abusive and illogical in light of the transparency and good faith the attorney general has shown our committee,' Jessica Andrews said.
Democrats have criticized Barr for drawing his own conclusion that Trump did not obstruct justice after Mueller found he couldn't exonerate the president on that point.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Barr is involved in a 'staggering public effort' by the Trump administration to put a positive face on Mueller's findings.
The current dispute comes as tensions have escalated sharply between House Democrats and the Trump administration over full access to Mueller's report and government witnesses who have defied congressional subpoenas to testify
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, has also invited Mueller to testify and subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn.
McGahn was a vital witness for Mueller in the report, which recounted the president's outrage over the Mueller investigation and his efforts to curtail it. The White House has asserted it will fight the McGahn subpoena.
