Nadler Offers to Resume Talks With Barr After Contempt Vote

(Bloomberg) -- House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler offered to resume negotiating with Attorney General William Barr on releasing the full Mueller report to Congress two days after his panel voted to hold Barr in contempt.

Nadler noted that the House has yet to act on his committee’s resolution to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.

“The committee stands ready to resume the accommodation process to attempt to reach a compromise,” Nadler wrote Friday in a letter to Barr. There is “ample time for further negotiations if the department has any interest” before the House will vote, he said.

President Donald Trump, acting on Barr’s advice, formally asserted executive privilege on Wednesday to block the release of more information from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement Wednesday that the department had engaged in “good faith” negotiations with the Judiciary Committee but that Nadler “short-circuited these efforts” by proceeding with the contempt vote. That “forced the president to assert executive privilege to preserve the status quo,” Kupec said.

Nadler objected to the blanket declaration of executive privilege over the report, as well as the president’s stated plan to fight all House subpoenas.

Nadler earlier Friday told reporters that Democrats would hold off on a House floor vote to hold Barr in contempt because they may combine it with potential contempt resolutions for other Trump associates, such as former White House counsel Don McGahn, who are resisting Democratic subpoenas.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.