In the midst of a battle with the Department of Justice to obtain the full, unredacted Mueller report, House Democrats are conducting a marathon reading of the 448 page redacted Mueller report to highlight the findings of the report, ABC reports. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena requesting the full, unredacted report be turned over to Congress. That motion is awaiting a full House vote, per PBS NewsHour.
The reading of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election started at noon on Thursday and is being conducted in shifts in a Capitol hearing room. More than 20 Democrats are participating in the marathon reading which is expected to take 12 to 14 hours, according to Reuters. Democrats plan on releasing the reading on podcast and it is being streamed live on CSPAN and other channels.
Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, Vice Chair of the Judiciary Committee, kicked off the reading after comments from her colleague Sylvia Garcia [D-TX] who serves on the Judiciary Committee. Garcia said, “There are a lot of average people who have not seen the Mueller report. So this is an attempt to make sure that person who is curious, who doesn’t have the full time to dive through all this, to be able to listen to it and to understand what this is really all about.”
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee [D-TX], Mike Takan [D-CA] and Senator Bob Casey [D-PA] are among the Congress members who are joining Scalon in the reading.
The Republicans are calling the Democrats reading a political stunt because it is available online. Recent polls however, have shown that only 3% of Americans have read the report.
Particularly of interest during the reading of Mueller’s thorough and detailed report will be where President Trump’s actions are detailed by the special counsel, as on page 78.
