Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday held a marathon reading of the redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The reading began at noon EDT (1700 GMT) and was expected to take 12 to 14 hours. For those who could not make it to the Capitol hearing room to listen, it was being broadcast on C-SPAN and lawmakers plan to release a podcast version.
DEMS READ THE ENTIRE MUELLER REPORT: Members of Congress are holding a marathon reading of the entire 448-page redacted Mueller Report to draw attention to its findings.
https://t.co/ZMAR1AuxjL— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 16, 2019
Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, one of the top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, started the reading and nearly two dozen of her colleagues were to take part.
“There a lot of average people who have not seen the Mueller report,” Representative Sylvia Garcia, another Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said ahead of Scanlon kicking off the reading.
“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.”
At one point, Democratic Senator Bob Casey read several pages, making it a bicameral effort.
The most entertaining part of today’s marathon Mueller report reading will be whichever Dem gets to read this page, which I’m told will be around hour 7. pic.twitter.com/HdjN7qUxM0
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) May 16, 2019
Mueller’s report described numerous links between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and various Russians but did not find sufficient evidence to establish there was a criminal conspiracy with Moscow.
The report also described numerous attempts by Trump to impede Mueller’s investigation but stopped short of declaring the president had committed a crime.
Democrats, who control the House, are sparring with the White House over numerous investigations into Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia, the president’s business dealings and administration policies.
Democrats have requested an unredacted version of Muller’s report, six years of Trump’s individual and business tax returns and background on decisions made by the administration on security clearances and the separation of migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border.
THURSDAY: @HouseDemocrats Read Mueller Report – LIVE at 11:30am ET on C-SPAN3 https://t.co/Rd1wTjl29N pic.twitter.com/ppdftr1MoB
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 15, 2019
The deadline for the administration to respond to a subpoena for the unredacted report passed without being met. Trump has sued to block a congressional subpoena for financial records from his accounting firm. The White House has directed key staff not to cooperate with various House probes.
Democrats are now considering contempt resolutions against top administration officials, with votes expected as early as June.
A group of more than 25 House Democrats is taking turns reading the entire redacted report from special counsel Robert Mueller out loud on Capitol Hill https://t.co/JF7ZFHZhdX
— CNN (@CNN) May 16, 2019
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers’ newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.