DOJ plans to show Senate Intel less-redacted Mueller report, filing shows

The Justice Department plans to make a minimally redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report available to all lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, a new court filing shows.

The department plans to provide access to Mueller’s report to the Senate panel under the same conditions as the House Intelligence Committee, federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., wrote in a new filing in the case involving Roger Stone, a longtime friend of President Trump who was charged with lying to Congress and other offenses in connection with Mueller’s investigation. 

The revelation comes as Democrats clamor for more access to Mueller’s evidence and full report, a redacted version of which Attorney General William Barr released in April.{mosads}

The Justice Department has agreed to allow lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee review a less-redacted version of the first volume of Mueller’s report — the section examining Russian interference in the election and links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. That offer came after the panel’s chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), subpoenaed for the full report and evidence as well as foreign and counterintelligence files generated in the course of the investigation.  

According to the new filing, the department plans to allow House Intelligence members and a “limited number” of committee staff to view the minimally redacted report in a secure space.

“Members and staff authorized to review the report will be permitted to take notes, provided those notes are properly secured, and they will be permitted to discuss the report among themselves,” the filing states.

“The government plans to make the minimally redacted report available under the same conditions to the members and limited staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,” it states.

It is not clear the extent to which the Justice Department has been in contact with the Senate Intelligence Committee about the arrangement. A spokesperson for the committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), declined to comment Wednesday. 

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the committee’s top Democrat, said at a Christian Science Monitor event earlier this month that the panel wants access to all of Mueller’s counterintelligence files. A Warner spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Prosecutors made the filing Wednesday to notify a federal judge that the Justice Department would be showing additional members of Congress the less-redacted version of the report, which contains details on Stone’s case. That information was completely restricted from the public version. 

Stone, who is currently fighting to obtain the entire Mueller report as part of his case, has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial in November.

Barr released the public version of the report on April 18 — roughly 10 percent of which was redacted to conceal grand jury material, intelligence information and details on ongoing investigations. Afterward, Barr offered to allow Gang of Eight lawmakers as well as the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees to view a less-redacted version that still restricts grand jury material, which is generally prohibited from public release by federal secrecy rules.

However, Democrats have rejected Barr’s proposal as too limited. Both the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees issued subpoenas that demand the full report and underlying evidence.

Schiff had initially scheduled a meeting Wednesday to vote on an “enforcement action” to compel Barr to turn over the files, after claiming the Justice Department had not produced the documents by the deadline stipulated in the subpoena. However, he canceled the meeting earlier Wednesday, after the Justice Department agreed to begin producing some of the foreign intelligence and counterintelligence documents sought by the committee.