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The decision to postpone the work meeting – where Schiff threatened to take unspecified action against Attorney General William Barr for failing to comply with the Mueller counter-espionage committee subpoena – is a rare sign that the Trump administration and a panel of the House successfully negotiate a democratic writ of documents.
This evolution also stimulates Schiff in his attempt to see the special council's investigative documents beyond what was contained in the Mueller public report, particularly given the Trump government's typical position of total resistance to subpoenas. to appear and Democrats' inquiries.
Schiff had issued a subpoena for all Mueller counterintelligence documents, but had proposed that the Department of Justice begin its work by providing 12 specific sets of counterintelligence materials, mentioned in the Mueller report. The Justice Ministry wrote Tuesday in a letter to Schiff that it was continuing to review the initial tranche of 12 categories of documents requested by Schiff and would make them available "in a relatively short time", as long as He was not pursuing the action holding Barr in contempt of Congress.
"The Department of Justice has accepted our offer as a first step towards complying with our subpoena and this week the Committee will begin transmitting to the Committee twelve categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence documents in the United States. This initial production should be: completed by the end of next week, "said Schiff in a statement Wednesday morning.
Schiff told reporters Wednesday that the committee's subpoena remained in effect until he got all the documents he was looking for, and also noted that the agreement did not remove not his request to have Mueller appear before his panel, and publicly before the Judiciary Committee.
"This does not remove the need for the subpoena, we will keep it in force until we get all the documents we are looking for," Schiff said. "But this production will begin now, and we hope it will continue through the ministry."
Kerri Kupec, spokesperson for the Justice Ministry, said in a statement: "We appreciate the ongoing dialogue with the Committee and look forward to working to respond appropriately to their requests."
Schiff said last week that he had asked 12 rounds of documents to verify whether the Justice Department was acting in good faith in negotiations with the committee. He did not specify what documents he requested, but he said that it was foreign counter-intelligence and intelligence documents mentioned in the Mueller report and that were not obviously not covered by the privilege of the executive power. The documents are likely to help Schiff in the separate investigation of his committee on the president and his administration, in which Schiff has focused on the president's finances and his possible foreign influence.
"Our first priority is to get to the bottom of things that the counter intelligence must demonstrate, that there are steps that our commission or Congress must take to protect the country," Schiff said Wednesday. "It's the first use that will be made of it, but that's part of our ongoing investigation into Russia's interference in our business."
In his letter to Schiff on Tuesday, the Justice Ministry stated that he "had already begun the process of identifying, locating and reviewing documents that could respond to categories of documents." The letter also reiterated the department's offer to put a less redacted version of the Mueller report – which omits the grand jury documents – available to all intelligence committees of the House and Senate.
Until now, Democratic leaders of both chambers have rejected the Justice Department's proposal to read the report less redacted, saying that they should see the entire document without redaction. It is unclear whether this position will change now that House and Senate Intelligence Committees are allowed to access the less redacted report.
This story has been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.
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