Judiciary Committee Democrats Seek Memo on Trump's Obstruction
Justice Department document dates back to Robert Mueller's investigation
All of the Democratic members on the Senate Judiciary Committee are expressing serious concerns to Attorney General Merrick Garland about apparent misrepresentations to a federal court by the Trump-era Justice Department, regarding a March 24, 2019 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum on then-president Donald Trump’s obstruction of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
In their letter, the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats requested that the Justice Department provide the complete, unredacted OLC memo to the Committee.
Former FBI director Robert Mueller had been charged as special counsel to investigate whether Trump, his 2016 campaign or his associates colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. He was also to probe any attempts to obstruct that investigation.
“The OLC memo purported to aid [then-attorney general William] Barr in determining whether the Mueller Report contained facts that would support charging President Trump with obstruction. In a recent court filing, DOJ contended that the OLC memo memorializes pre-decisional advice on which Attorney General Barr relied when summarizing the Mueller Report in his March 24, 2019 letter,” the senators wrote. “In the interest of transparency and given the March 24, 2019 OLC memo’s apparent role in misleading the Committee about Mueller’s findings, the Committee requests that you produce the full memo without redactions.”
Ultimately, Mueller and his team released a two-volume report of their findings. The second volume was devoted to instances of Trump's obstruction of the investigation, which members of his administration at the time were eager to try to cover up.
The Judiciary Democrats also highlighted the committee’s longstanding interest in the transparency of OLC’s memos, including issuing a subpoena for several post-September 11, 2001, OLC memos regarding the Bush administration’s detainee interrogation and detention practices. The committee also undertook lengthy efforts to obtain memos containing OLC’s justification for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program and an Obama-era drone strike targeting an American citizen.
The senators continued, “The transparency of OLC memos remains of utmost concern to the Committee given the role OLC plays in justifying executive branch policies of enormous consequence. Only in rare circumstances should OLC legal opinions be kept confidential, and even then they should be provided to the Committee, which has a constitutional responsibility to oversee DOJ on behalf of the American people.”
The following senators joined Durbin in sending today’s letter: Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), Chris Coons (D-Del), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Alex Padilla (D-Calif), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga).
Full text of Wednesday’s letter is available here