Rep. Devin Nunes is the Democrats’ best hope for obtaining the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on Wednesday.
Despite “very different perspectives” on the Russia investigation, Schiff said he and Nunes, R-Calif., have put up a united front in demanding documents from the Justice Department.
“I think we both recognize … they must comply,” Schiff, D-Calif., said on MSNBC. “It’s going to be a lot more difficult in respect to our request for the administration to say this just a Democratic partisan thing when you do have both members who are otherwise in strong disagreement about the Russia investigation uniting around this demand for information.”
Both the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees have demanded access to the full, unredacted 448-page report, but the intelligence panel’s request is different as it also seeks intelligence and counterintelligence information gathered by the special counsel.
The judiciary panel, which is also seeking Mueller’s underlying documents, held a hearing Wednesday morning on a resolution to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for full access to the report, but the White House asserted executive privilege.
Granting executive privilege girds the Justice Department for a court fight in case the House votes to hold Barr in contempt.
Schiff, who said the committee has not been briefed on the counterintelligence investigation since FBI Director James Comey was fired in May 2017, has gotten “nothing” in terms of documentation.
He said the next step is for the House Intelligence Committee to also seek a contempt resolution. Asked if Nunes, an ally to Trump, would back down from a contempt effort, Schiff said “I think that he is pretty determined to get the underlying information as well,” even though they believe the documents will show very different things.
“We are united in the belief that Congress ought to have … that to do their oversight,” he said. “I would hope we can maintain this unity.”
