Democrats ready to fight to make Mueller report public

A top Democrat has threatened to call special counsel Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill, subpoena documents and sue the Trump administration if the full Russia probe report is not made public.

Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his committee will keep close watch on new attorney general William Barr to see if he were “to try to bury any part of this report”.

Mr Schiff also pledged to “take it to court if necessary”.

He said anything less than complete disclosure would leave Barr, who now oversees the investigation, with “a tarnished legacy”.

Mr Schiff’s comments come as Democrats have made it clear that they are ready for an aggressive, public fight with the Justice Department if they are not satisfied with the level of access they have to Mr Mueller’s findings.

Mr Mueller is showing signs of wrapping up his nearly two-year-old investigation into possible co-ordination between Trump associates and Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election. The report is not expected to be delivered to the Justice Department this coming week.

Mr Barr has said he wants to release as much information as he can. But during his confirmation hearing last month, Mr Barr made clear that he will decide what the public sees, and that any report will be in his words, not Mr Mueller’s.

Mr Schiff, in a television interview, suggested that anything short of Mr Mueller’s full report would not satisfy Democrats.

He pointed to a public interest in seeing some of the underlying evidence, such as information gathered from searches conducted on long-time adviser to US President Donald Trump Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman.

With Democrats taking control of the House in January and Mr Schiff now the committee chairman, he has undertaken his own investigation. That means re-examining issues covered by a now-closed Republican probe that concluded there was no evidence Mr Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia.

Mr Schiff has said the committee also will pursue new matters, including whether foreign governments have leverage over Mr Trump, his relatives or associates.

Some Democrats are pointing to documents that Justice Department officials provided to Congress in the wake of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, as well as information that Republicans demanded as part of their own inquiries.

Mr Schiff said he told department officials after they released information related to the Clinton investigation that “this was a new precedent they were setting and they were going to have to live by this precedent whether it was a Congress controlled by the Democrats or Republicans”.

Beyond that, however, is “the intense public need to know here, which I think overrides any other consideration,” he said.