The House Judiciary Committee has "no choice" but to proceed a vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for boycotting a committee hearing last week, despite a Department of Justice letter that warned President Donald Trump will assert executive privilege on everything related to special counsel Robert Mueller's report, committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.
"The House must protect the right of the public through Congress to get information about how the government is running," Rep. Nadler told CNN's "New Day," calling the impasse a "constitutional crisis." "Otherwise we have a monarchy, and we do not intend to have a monarchy in this country."
With the letter, Barr has gone from being an attorney for the president to heading an entire Justice Department that "enables the president to defy the law," Nadler said.
Nadler said the matter will go to the courts, but he has no doubt about the outcome, as congressional oversight is "well-established old law."
Negotiations held with the White House were cut off Tuesday after House Democrats insisted all Judiciary and Intelligence committee members see the unredacted Mueller report, and the White House said it was willing to have 12 members of Congress see it, Nadler said.
Meanwhile, he said he hopes it will not be necessary to hold former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt and he will still come to testify, even though Trump has told him not to appear.
Nadler said he also anticipates Mueller will testify, but he could not comment about what is taking him so long to appear. However, he does expect Trump to try to stop him.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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