House Votes 420-0 for Public Release of Mueller Report – By Natasha Bach (Fortune) / March 14 2019
The House of Representatives wants special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be made available to them—and the public.
Lawmakers today overwhelmingly passed a resolution, 420 to 0, urging the Justice Department to publicly release Mueller’s report on whether there was Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Six committee chairs in the Democratic-controlled House introduced the resolution Friday, calling for “the public release of any report Mueller provides to the attorney general, except to the extent the public disclosure of any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.”
The resolution, however, is non-binding, meaning that Mueller and Attorney General William Barr are not required to publicly disclose the report. Nevertheless, the Democrats who introduced the resolution hope it will serve to pressure Barr.
Excluding themselves from the bipartisan House consensus were four members, who instead chose to vote present: libertarians Rep. Justin Amash (Ky.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (Mich.), and President Donald Trump Republican loyalists Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.).
As it stands, Mueller is to present the report to Barr, who in turn will review the materials. He must then notify Congress, but has not indicated to what extent he intends to share the information with lawmakers or the public. House Democrats have previously indicated they would be willing to use their congressional subpoena power if Barr withholds substantial information from the report.
No date has been mentioned for the Mueller report’s release.
The Republican-controlled Senate is not expected to follow with a resolution of its own.
