A coalition of progressive advocacy groups representing millions of Americans is planning mass protests nationwide if Attorney General William Barr fails to release the full Mueller report by Tuesday night, the deadline established by congressional Democrats.
"We can't trust Barr to #ReleaseTheReport. Not to Congress, not to the American people. It's up to us to demand transparency."
"We are calling for a National Day of Action on Thursday, April 4, to demand that Attorney General William Barr #ReleaseTheReport if he fails to meet the deadline set by congressional leaders of Tuesday, April 2," the Trump Is Not Above the Law coalition said late Monday.
"Barr has offered an alternate timeline for a redacted version of the report," the coalition continued, "but we deserve the full report and Congressional leaders and the American people expect it now."
BREAKING We're joining @MoveOn @StandUpAmerica @Public_Citizen @peoplefor + more in announcing a NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION on April 4th to rally for the immediate release of the Mueller report! Join us & find an event near you at https://t.co/UyFXVB1pwr#ReleaseTheReport pic.twitter.com/BZsA9dQim4 — Common Cause (@CommonCause) April 2, 2019
As Common Dreams reported last week, Barr informed Congress in a letter that he plans to release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 400-page report by mid-April.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was quick to reject Barr's timeline and reiterate his demand for the full report—as well as all underlying evidence—by April 2.
On Monday, Nadler took steps to authorize a subpoena for the complete report.
Expecting Barr to miss the deadline, advocacy groups—including MoveOn, Common Cause, Public Citizen, and Stand Up America—are planning demonstrations throughout the country to demand that all of Mueller's findings be made public.
April 4th, it's time to act. People across the country are demanding Barr #ReleaseTheReport now!https://t.co/I8iwb3fVxX — MoveOn (@MoveOn) April 2, 2019
"We can't trust Barr to #ReleaseTheReport. Not to Congress, not to the American people," tweeted Stand Up America. "It's up to us to demand transparency."
ManBearScientist on April 2nd, 2019 at 14:07 UTC »
Let's be clear here, the point isn't that the average citizen deserves to see Grand Jury testimony or classified information.
It is that Congress has the right and the duty to provide oversight to the executive branch. This extends to even to classified information: the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980 explicitly "[r]equires the Director of Central Intelligence and the heads of all Federal entities involved in intelligence activities to keep the congressional intelligence committees fully and currently informed of all intelligence activities[.]"
The Mueller investigation was a counter-intelligence investigation, which puts it fully within the purview of the above law. William Barr also claims that he must redact information before the Intelligence Committee sees the report because much of the report comes from Grand Jury testimony.
This is also hogwash.
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure are procedural rules governing how prosecutions are carried out. Rule 6 covers the Grand Jury. Here is Rule 6 in its entirety. Without going into the mess that is procedural rules vs the above law, I'll direct you to the section covering exceptions to recording and disclosure rules: 6(e)(3)(D).
Barr may claim that he is legally obligated to make give Congressional intelligence committees a redacted version. He is not, and refusing to give full and current information to the congress intelligence committee breaks the law. Treating House members as if they are simply members of the public is a breach of his duty and could rise to a constitutional crisis if the effort is a deliberate strategy to undermine Congress's oversight powers.
Barr may claim that Congress would immediately risk the investigation by leaking it to the public. That isn't his call to make or his concern to worry about. Congress has the power to submit classified information into the public record as part of their oversight power, and have done so in the past: Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) read the classified Pentagon Papers covering secret expansions of the Vietnam war effort into public record, and Gravel v. United States held that even Congressional aides were covered under the Speech and Debate clause:
a_fly_effect on April 2nd, 2019 at 12:53 UTC »
What possible reason could they have for not releasing the full unredacted report to Congress? The House is not the general public and they all have security clearance. Also what ever happened to checks and balances? This is all so very strange.
Kaletsz on April 2nd, 2019 at 12:38 UTC »
Congress deserves the full, unredacted report. The American people deserve a report with grand jury and key witnesses redacted.