Schiff plans 'enforcement action' against DOJ over Mueller probe

WASHINGTON -- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Thursday his panel will vote on "enforcement action" against Attorney General William Barr or the Justice Department next week, yet another escalation in the standoff between Congress and President Donald Trump's administration over documents and testimony.

Schiff is scheduling the vote after the Justice Department missed a Wednesday deadline to hand over an unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report. The department also declined to hand over what Schiff described as "a dozen narrow sets of documents" referred to in the report.

He said he requested those documents in order to gauge whether the department was acting in good faith.

"The deadline came and went without the production of a single document, raising profound questions about whether the department has any intention to honor its legal obligations," Schiff said.

He would not say whether "enforcement action" meant a vote to hold Barr in contempt, as the House Judiciary Committee did last week, or some sort of civil action. Democrats have also been suggesting they might impose fines through what's called inherent contempt of Congress.

Schiff, D-Calif., said he encouraged the Justice Department to cooperate before the vote, which he said would be held sometime next week.

"If they don't demonstrate some good faith we will be forced to compel them to honor their legal commitments," Schiff said.

Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "nothing is off the table" in pushing the White House to comply with subpoenas for information, including fines.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said she hopes it doesn't come to that. But she called the White House counsel's Wednesday letter to the Judiciary Committee resisting all requests for information "a joke" and "beneath the dignity of the president of the United States."

White House counsel Pat Cipollone sent a 12-page letter to the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., labeling congressional investigations as efforts to "harass" President Donald Trump in the wake of Mueller's probe into Russian election interference. The letter said current and former administration officials will not be permitted to testify and the administration will fight subpoenas as Democrats move to investigate Trump's presidency and finances.

Cipollone also argued in the letter Congress is a legislature, not a law enforcement body, and does not have a right to pursue most investigations.

Nadler responded to Cipollone with his own letter Thursday evening saying the White House's refusal to comply is "astounding and dangerous."

He said a Justice Department opinion stating a president can't be indicted holds the president above the law, so Congress "is therefore the only branch of government able to hold the president to account."

The Judiciary Committee "urgently requires the subpoenaed material to determine whether and how to proceed with its constitutional duty to provide checks and balances on the president and executive branch," Nadler said, adding the panel needs to better understand Russia's efforts to try and influence the 2016 election.

Pelosi also noted one of the constitutional purposes of congressional investigations is impeachment. "It doesn't mean you're going on an impeachment path," Pelosi said. "It means if you had the information you might."

She said House Democrats aim to "subpoena friendly," then "subpoena otherwise."