Several Massachusetts lawmakers urged the Trump administration this week to release the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election, arguing that a Justice Department synopsis of the findings fails to address lingering questions about the probe.
Members of the state’s congressional delegation, who have long pushed for the release of Mueller’s report, ramped up their calls for federal officials to make the information public after Attorney General William Barr released a summary of the special counsel’s findings.
With Barr concluding that the special counsel found no evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election and uncovered insufficient evidence on obstruction of justice allegations, the Democrats raised concerns about possible bias and urged the administration to put an end to such speculation.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, offered that the attorney general “should respect the wishes of the American people and Congress and release the full report and supporting evidence found in Mueller’s probe.”
“This process must be open, public and transparent,” he tweeted.
Congressman Jim McGovern, a Worcester Democrat and House Rules Committee chairman, told reporters before a Sunday event in Northampton that he would like to read Mueller’s investigation report before responding to Barr’s summary.
“I want to read the report in its entirety -- I think the American people deserve to see the report in its entirety -- not an abridged, censored version that Trump’s hand-picked attorney general provides us. And, by the way, even in his letter, he doesn’t exonerate the president from obstructing justice,” he said, noting that Mueller’s probe lasted nearly two years and led to dozens of indictments and convictions.
McGovern stressed that he and other Democrats are “not going to stop demanding a full release of that report.”
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, who joined McGovern for the Northampton town hall-style event, told reporters Sunday that he believes “all of the documents should be given over to congressional committees.”
“We should be able to evaluate all of the evidence to determine whether or not we agree with the conclusion that there was no collusion, and that we agree with the conclusion that there was no obstruction of justice,” he said. “Now it is time for the Congress to exercise its constitutional responsibility to determine whether or not there was collusion or obstruction of justice, and those should be full public hearings for all of the American people to be a part of.”
Pointing to the U.S. House’s recent 420 to 0 vote in favor of releasing the special counsel’s findings, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren added that “Congress didn’t ask for a ‘summary.’”
“The American people deserve to see the full report," the Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate added.
Congresswoman Katherine Clark, a Melrose Democrat, called Barr’s summary “Cliff Notes" and not the “full story.”