House Judiciary Committee votes to hold Barr in contempt

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The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt over the Justice Department's refusal to comply with Democrats' subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted Russia report and its underlying evidence.

The 24-16 vote passed along party lines in the Democrat-led committee shortly after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over the Mueller report, an escalation of an already-intense political brawl that appears to be headed to the courts.

The vote on contempt will now head to the full House, where Democrats control a majority of seats. It was not immediately clear when that vote would be scheduled

Lawmakers fought over whether the assertion of executive privilege was valid, and traded barbs throughout the lengthy hearing about the legality and the alleged political motives behind the contempt proceedings.

Nadler’s subpoena requested "the complete and unredacted version of the report" submitted by Mueller to the Justice Department on March 22. But at the hearing Wednesday, the chairman said that "the subpoena was never intended to cover" the rule barring the release of grand jury information. Instead, Nadler said that he wanted the Justice Department to ask a court for permission to release that material, as has been done in the past.

That led to some initial confusion and protest from Republicans, prompting ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., to argue that the contempt proceedings were moving too quickly. Nadler responded that it was only until the threat of contempt arose that the DOJ opened itself to negotiations with the House panel.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement: "It is deeply disappointing that elected representatives of the American people have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics."

If both the House and Senate vote to hold Mr. Barr in contempt, what then?

Democrats at war with Trump. I wonder how much more messy they're going to make it.



Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress and nothing happened to him, so this is probably another nothing burger over the main nothing burger.

Or perhaps it's a nothing chicken:





Side note: What I found funny is Steve Cohen saying Barr is Roy Cohn for Donald Trump who is standing in the shoes of Joe McCarthy - who was the guy trying to pin collusion with Russia on people... whatever.