AG Barr Ignores Full Mueller Report Subpoena Request

has passed and the Attorney General has ignored it. Attorney General William Barr defied the Monday deadline imposed by a House subpoena to provide lawmakers with the full text of the Mullah report, and he is as he ignored the deadline last week. What happens when the top law enforcement

official in the country ignores legal process. Joining me is brad moss apartment Mark zad so Brad The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, has scheduled a vote on Wednesday on whether to hold the a G in contempt. If they do hold him in contempt and the House also votes on contempt, Canada enforced the contempt citation on its own by its inherent Contempt authority, So this the honest answer is, yes, it can, but it's highly unlikely

they will. Congress has not relied upon its inherent contempt authority in a criminal context since the nineteen thirties. It's just something they don't do. This is a lot about political posturing right now, and this is somewhat normal for Congress and the executive branch when one party controls the Oval Office and one party controls at least one or two of the branches of Congress. We saw this with

Eric Holder during the Obama administration. This is all about leverage, negotiating stanzas, and trying to get as much out of the just Department as House Democrats can do. We'll see, certainly the contempt vote. There will be a bunch of political hyperbolean writer that comes out of it. What will matter in the end is what change in legal position the o J ultimately takes to try to de escalate the situation, reduce tensions, and bring this to a point

where the two sides can find a consents. I assume there'll be some additional information. House Democrats will budget, will a bid on their spot, and DJ will do the same. There's not going to be a criminal prosecution of this. Do you think it may end up with Congress going to a federal judge to enforce its subpoena. If they do, it will be only in a civil context, which I certainly expects some manner of a fight on this again, just like just like we did had with Eric Holder

on the Fast and Furious documents. There's going to be um, some legal wrangling and some fights in court about it. And that's certainly, you know, the way the system is expected to work. It's the way it's set up. And I think that's part of the Trump administration's game planet. They know they'll ultimately lose to some extent on the law and on the merits, but they're dragging it out. They're delaying things as long as they can to try

to push it off until after. Holder was the first Attorney General I believe to be held in contempt of Congress. So if bar is the second, have we reached a point where, you know, congressional subpoenas don't really matter, where the process is just to ignored by the highest law enforcement official in the country. I think it speaks somewhat to the d function of the subpoena process. Yeah, I mean it's gay. I mean there's always been politics to

play with any you know, Congress in presidency. That's not new, that's nothing out of the ordinary, but I think it's become so tribalistic and the use of congressional oversight has gotten to such a ridiculous point of over politicization that you have what you've gotten out, just as you know, I think holding Eric Holder in contempt was just political posturing.

I think it's the same year with William Barr. It's really more about negotiating tactics and prepping you know, talking points for you know, yours, for your five minutes segments on cable news at night, more than so that it is about any true legal position. And like I said, in the end, there'll be more documents of will come out. This is all politics. Let's talk a little bit more broadly about the subpoenas and President Trump's vow to fight

every congressional subpoena. One of the articles of impetement against Richard Nixon was ignoring subpoena's basically, will this lead to impeachment proceedings and perhaps give Congress more push for enforcing their subpoenas. I certainly think, you know, if the president maintains this current position, which I think is you know, completely ridiculous, Yeah, I think it'll it'll egg on certain Democrats to push a little harder towards appeachment, if only

to try to exercise some true oversight. I mean, look, every Congress will overreach, will always get a little excessive in their attempt to scrutinize an opposing party in the White House. But never have I seen a presidency so completely and categorically refused to apply with anything this whole. We're not going to comply with any Subpoena's nonsense. It's just not how the system works. So you know, like

I said, a lot of us is poppic. A lot of its delaying things, trying to push off through oversight until after when the president does have to worry about re election anymore. There will be a lot of fights in court over it. The President team ultimately lose on aspects of it, and they'll end up turning over documents. This is just about delayed tactics, also defying requests by Congress to have various people testify. Let's deal first with

the White House. Former White House counsel Don McGann, who was one of the most notable people repeatedly mentioned in the Mueller Report. Can the President now say, as he has said that he doesn't want to let him testify. Can he assert executive privilege when Don McGann has basically

testified in the Mulla Report. Yes, so my my view, especially now that the even beyond McGann having simply testified, but having that testimony outlined and repleases the public due to Muller Report, as far as I'm concerned, waive the privilege. But will the president is still try to argue that he can still invoke it. Yes, Will he try to

delay things by doing so? Yes? Will he likely lose in the end pretty much, But if he can kind of pressure McGann to hold off, make McGan uncomfortable, and make him wait till the presidents fought this legal war over executive privilege, it delays the time frame for McGann to ultimately testify. In the end, you know, Congress has its leverage. It can bring over former officials like McGann that can't bring on existing officials like William Barr. They can,

you know, can they can hold McGann in contempt. They can try to find him and McGann might decide he doesn't care what the President says, But ultimately again, more than anything else, this is just trying to hold off these guys testifying during trying to push it to just about forty five seconds here. But McGann, who the President has called him a liar basically what he said about about trying to stop the investigation, the Muller investigation. So

if McGann wants to, he can testify before Congress. He doesn't have to have the president's permission, correct, I mean, I certainly think the McGann team could conclude that he has the ability that there's the president that can't truly prevent him from doing. Though now there might be some legal wrangling over what he can discuss to lead, depending on whether it's in the court flight or executive privilege. He just got to worry about his own existing bar

our license picture. He isn't doing to break any ethic about all right. Thanks so much, Brad. That's Brad Moss of partner at mark Z. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg