Washington, .- The Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives, under a Democratic majority, today adopted the first step to accuse of disrespect to the Attorney General, William Barr, for not delivering to Congress a complete uncensored version of the report of the so-called Russian plot .
The president of that committee, the liberal Jerrold Nadler, set for next Wednesday, May 8, at 10 a.m. (ET) the vote to see whether or not Barr is declared in contempt, according to a statement posted on the website of the body he chairs.
This step comes after this morning passed the time given by Nadler himself to the Secretary of Justice to deliver the full report prepared by special prosecutor Robert Mueller on the possible links between the electoral team of President Donald Trump and Russia during the campaign for the 2016 elections.
In that report, of which the Justice Department has published a censored version with numerous deletions, Mueller found no evidence of links between Trump’s environment and Moscow, but casts doubt on an alleged obstruction of the president’s justice.
In his statement, Nadler explained the reason for the vote on Wednesday: “The failure of the attorney general to comply with our citation, after extensive efforts to accommodate (a date), leaves us no choice but to initiate proceedings for contempt for enforce the citation and access to the full report, not censored, “he said.
“If the Department (of Justice) presents us in good faith an offer to access the full report and the underlying evidence, I reserve the right to postpone these procedures,” said Nadler.
The members of the Judicial Committee will debate and vote on Wednesday a resolution of contempt against Barr, which if passed would go to the Chamber of the Lower House, which should decide to authorize a legal procedure.
According to The Washington Post, a contempt summons would mark the beginning of a long legal battle over Mueller’s report, since with this action the democrats could put the matter in the hands of justice.
The case could take months or even years to resolve, as it did in 2012 when the lower house, then controlled by the Republicans, accused Attorney General Eric Holder of contempt for the so-called “Fast and Furious” case, as he refused to surrender documents about a failed operation that allowed the illegal transfer of arms to Mexico in 2009.
The measure, the first of its kind against a head of Justice active in the history of the country, did not entail the resignation of Holder, but opened the doors to a judicial process by both criminal and civil, although the department He decided not to open it and the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice exempted him from guilt after an investigation. (EFEUSA)
