Trump news: Congress votes to subpoena full Mueller report from attorney-general, as senior Republicans turn on president's 'catastrophic' border closure plan
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Your support makes all the difference.The House Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas Wednesday for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full Russia report as Democrats pressure the Justice Department to release the document without redactions.
The committee voted 24-17 to give Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler permission to issue subpoenas to the Justice Department for the final report, its exhibits and any underlying evidence or materials prepared for the investigation.
Mr Nadler has not yet said if he’ll send the subpoenas, which would be the first step in a potentially long fight with the Justice Department over the materials.
The Judiciary panel also voted Wednesday to authorise subpoenas related to five of Donald Trump’s former top advisers, stepping up a separate, wide-ranging investigation into Trump and his personal and political dealings.
The vote further escalates the Democrats’ battle with the Justice Department over how much of the report they will be able to see, a fight that could eventually head to court if the two sides can’t settle their differences through negotiation. Democrats have said they will not accept redactions and want to see the evidence unfiltered by Mr Barr.
In the letter last week, Mr Barr said he is scrubbing the report to avoid disclosing any grand jury information or classified material, in addition to portions of the report that pertain to ongoing investigations or that “would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”
Democrats say they want access to all of that information, even if some of it can’t be disclosed to the public. Nadler said he will give Mr Barr time to change his mind on redactions, but if they cannot reach an agreement they will issue the subpoenas “in very short order.” He also said he is prepared to go to court to get the grand jury information.
Mr Trump is meanwhile being urged not to follow through on his threat to close the US border with Mexico as senior Republicans warn of the cost of prioritising security over trade and scramble for alternatives to tackling the illegal immigration “crisis”.
“Closing down the border would have potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country and I would hope we would not be doing that sort of thing,” said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday, a quote the president has since attacked The New York Times for publishing on Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load.
A reminder Jerrold Nadler's House Judiciary Committee will begin its debate on subpoening the Mueller report from William Barr at 2pm GMT (9am EST).
The Democrats are fully expected to carry the day and force the attorney-general's hand.
Morgan Ortagus, a former Fox News contributor, is set to become the Trump administration's new State Department spokesperson, CNN reports.
Which is surprising, given that she referred to her potential new boss as "disgusting" and "not serious" in January 2016 and loudly attacked his "isolationist foreign policy approach".
She was (rightly) particularly critical of the then-candidate for "making fun of people with mental and physical disabilities. That's disgusting; there's no other way around it."
"Quite frankly, I don't want someone with the temperament of a middle school pubescent boy in the president's office," she added.
Life comes at you pretty fast in Washington.
Ladies and gentlemen, your top candidate to be Trump's "border czar".
Here's Sarah Harvard on the two decidedly iffy characters jostling for the new role.
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis with more golf-related revelations from Rick Reilly's book Commander-in-Cheat.
Jerrold Nadler's House Judiciary Committee are taking their seats for the vote on subpoening the Mueller report.
Nadler begins by looking back to the precedent of Watergate.
He says his committee has a right by law to see all the evidence the FBI special counsel has accumulated.
Nadler's resolution orders subpoenas for the full, unredacted Mueller report. All 400 pages of it.
It will also call on five former White House employees to submit documents related to their work with the administration: ex-political adviser Steve Bannon, former counsel Don McGahn, ex-White House communications director Hope Hicks, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House deputy counsel Ann Donaldson.
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