House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reversed herself and said Wednesday she will view a mostly unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, agreeing to a step Republicans have been urging for weeks.
Mrs. Pelosi is the first Democrat to publicly announce she would review the report.
Attorney General William P. Barr has publicly released a version of the report with redactions for classified material, privacy, ongoing investigations and grand jury secrecy. He also made a less-redacted report available to a dozen lawmakers, including all but the grand jury information, which Mr. Barr says is shielded by law.
The Democrats entitled to see the less-redacted report refused, saying they deserved to see everything, including the grand jury information.
But Mrs. Pelosi said Mr. Barr has now agreed to make the less-redacted report available more widely in Congress, and is working to provide some backup materials requested by committee chairs, so she feels more comfortable viewing it.
“When we had the offer of this less redacted for many more people than just the leadership — I accepted that because I’m afraid,” the speaker said. “I really don’t trust the attorney general of the United States and I’m afraid that he may, depending on what is in there try to shall we say deal with ongoing matters in a way that is not constructive for our Constitution.”
The thaw between the DOJ and Congress began as committees started to ramp up their efforts to hold resisting Trump officials in contempt of Congress.
Two committees have voted to recommend holding Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress.
Democrats are also eyeing bringing Mr. Mueller himself back up to Capitol Hill, rejecting his statement at a news conference in April that he would have nothing new to share with lawmakers.
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of Mrs. Pelosi’s top Trump investigators, said on CNN Tuesday that he would consider using a subpoena to compel Mr. Mueller’s testimony if necessary.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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