On Wednesday, an op-ed by The Washington Post by the editorial board explained that Attorney General Bill Barr has created an "all-out war" over his handling and release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report.
Barr will release a redacted version of the report on Thursday morning.
"House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has prepared a subpoena demanding disclosure of the whole document to Congress. Attorney General William P. Barr has steadfastly insisted that information that is classified, stemming from secret grand jury proceedings or otherwise sensitive would not be revealed publicly," the editorial said.
However, it is unclear how much information will be redacted, and Democrats are expected to fight to get the full report made public even after the release of the redacted version.
"More importantly, Mr. Barr works for an administration preparing for all-out war with Congress over all sorts of disclosure, which would be only the latest in a string of bad-faith rejections of federal rules and traditional norms," the editorial said.
It went on to explain how President Donald Trump's team is, yet again, breaking norms by refusing to be fully transparent.
"Transparency won out during the Watergate crisis and in the Bill Clinton impeachment battle. Even if judges determine that some elements of the Mueller report cannot be shared with the public, members of Congress have a serious claim that they should have wider access, as they do regularly to classified information in other contexts," the editorial said.
Barr on Wednesday announced that he was having a morning press conference to discuss the report. However, he will not release the report to until after the press conference. Multiple Democrats and pundits have railed against Barr for this rollout and said that it was a false attempt at true transparency.
The editorial went on to explain the significance of the release of the report.
"The Mueller investigation and its report have consumed national attention for many months, and rightly so: They concern a foreign attack on the nation’s democracy, the reactions of the country’s leaders and the task that faces policymakers in securing democratic institutions against future intrusions. This is not a time for timidity on transparency," the editorial said.
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