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Gird your loins: The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote at 10am on a resolution finding AG Bill Barr in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena for Mueller's report and other records — DOJ says Barr will be "compelled" to ask Trump to invoke executive privilege 
Here's the Barr contempt resolution that the committee will be taking up today: judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrat… This is not the final vote, though — once the committee votes, it'll then go to the full House
The contempt proceedings represent a major escalation of the fight between Congress and the Trump administration (and Trump personally) over how much power the former has to demand information and testimony from the latter. For a deep dive on this: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
This is the first congressional contempt proceeding against a Trump admin. official. It lays the groundwork for a civil lawsuit to enforce the subpoena (which could take a long time to resolve), and a criminal referral to the US attorney's office in DC (which rarely go anywhere)
Speaking of contempt, the House Judiciary Comm. sent a letter yesterday to former White House counsel Don McGahn, saying he, too, faces contempt if he fails to show up to testify per a subpoena (unless the White House get a court order saying otherwise) judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrat…
The House Judiciary Committee markup on the Barr contempt resolution is underway, you can watch live here: judiciary.house.gov/legislation/ma…
And follow @pdmcleod, who is in the room -->
And follow @pdmcleod, who is in the room -->
@pdmcleod NOW: Per new DOJ letter, Trump has asserted executive privilege over all of the documents that the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed from AG Bill Barr re: Mueller's unredacted report and underlying evidence/records
As the House Judiciary Committee prepares to vote to hold AG Bill Barr in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena for Mueller's unredacted report and underlying docs, Trump has asserted executive privilege — the first time in his presidency buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
There's a lot of back and forth over grand jury info in the Mueller report. By law, that can't be disclosed. But parties can petition the DC federal court to unseal it — DOJ's letter last night indicated House Dems plan to make that request, DOJ refused to agree to join them
Rep. Sensenbrenner is talking about leaks of grand jury information — grand jurors and prosecutors are bound by secrecy rules, but witnesses are allowed to publicly discuss their experience testifying, which is how we got a good amount of info about what Mueller was looking at
A name to know: Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia (Rep. Cohen just referred to her) — chief judges preside over grand jury matters, so she's expected to handle legal action over unsealing grand jury info in the Mueller report
An important thing to note: DOJ's letter about Trump asserting executive privilege says this is a "protective" assertion of all the records covered by the subpoena while the White House does a "full review" to decide what is privileged buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Here's the one-page 1996 Office of Legal Counsel opinion Barr cited in asking Trump to make a "protective" assertion of executive privilege over *all* of the documents subpoenaed by House Judiciary while the White House does a full privilege review: justice.gov/file/20056/dow…
In 1996, a congressional committee issued a subpoena for a set of White House counsel documents, and was getting ready to vote on contempt when the docs weren't turned over. Then-AG Janet Reno said Clinton could do a "protective" assertion of exec privilege pending a full review
Re: Dems saying they'll go to court to get grand jury info in Mueller's report unsealed, it's worth noting that a recent 2-1 DC Circuit decision narrowed judges' authority in this area — saying they can't go beyond exceptions articulated in court rules cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opini…
The petitioner could ask the full DC Circuit to reconsider — given the timing of appellate proceedings, it's possible Dems could make their request before an en banc ruling, and ask for a stay until it's resolved. One of many ways litigation over this could go on for a long time
No vote yet on contempt in the House Judiciary Committee. They're taking a break for lunch and other votes, and will resume at 2:30pm.
On this morning's executive privilege action and what's happened in the committee so far: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
On this morning's executive privilege action and what's happened in the committee so far: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
The House Judiciary Committee markup on the resolution finding AG Bill Barr in contempt is back on after a recess. Here's where things stand right now: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
After many hours of remarks, the House Judiciary Committee is voting on the resolution to find AG Bill Barr in contempt. They're waiting for two members to come back, so we're all waiting for a final tally for an unspecified period of time
NEW: The House Judiciary Committee has voted 24-16 to find AG Bill Barr in contempt. It now goes to the full House for consideration. This is the first contempt proceeding of the Trump administration (and probably not the last, the way things are going) buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ spox Kerri Kupec on today's contempt vote in committee: "No one, including Chairman Nadler and his Committee, will force the Department of Justice to break the law."
Story: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Story: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
