President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that “all the information” from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election should be made available to the chairman of a House committee reviewing the investigation.
The former New York City mayor said findings from the special counsel’s nearly two year long probe should be made available to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who heads up the House Judiciary Committee. Giuliani made his remarks in an interview with Margaret Brennan, host of CBS’s Face The Nation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you like to respond to the congressman who says he has the right and the committee has the right for all of this information. Do you agree that the public has the right?
RUDY GIULIANI: I would like him to get all the information.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Including the things that are protected–
GIULIANI: Everything.
Giuliani’s remarks come mere days after Trump ridiculed Democrats for seeking the full release of the Mueller report, adding his voice to a chorus of contradictory statements by Republicans.
The GOP has struggled to reach consensus as to whether the Mueller report — which U.S. Attorney General Robert Barr maintains exonerates the president of both of colluding with Russia and attempting to obstruct the investigation — should ever be made public.
The president himself appears to have shifted his position on this issue. As Politico reported last week, Trump’s “previous zeal for releasing the report publicly” seemed to be waning during a series of tweets on Tuesday in which he seemed very much opposed to the Mueller report ever coming to light.
Some of Trump’s twitter barbs directly targeted Nadler, as well as the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff (D-CA): “There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!”
There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019
Continuing in this vein, Trump tweeted, “In 1998, Rep. Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr Report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM!”
A spokesperson for the Judiciary Committee responded, “Our expectation is that Attorney General Barr will be as forthcoming now as Mr. Starr was in 1998.”
Giuliani on Sunday sounded far more confident about the prospect of the report’s disclosure: “Except for little quibbles, I’m not worried about the report at all.”
Republicans in the Senate, however, are not quite on the same page. On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked a resolution that calls for the full release of Mueller’s report which had previously passed the House in a 420-0 vote. As The Hill reported, this was “the fifth time Republicans have blocked the House-passed measure.”
In a statement, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), said, “I have yet to hear a legitimate policy concern raised by my Republican colleagues who are blocking this bipartisan resolution or trying to bog it down with bizarre partisan amendments.”
Warner can now point to the president’s own lawyer as supporting the report’s release.