DOJ: Congress has yet to see Mueller team’s notes from McGahn, Hicks interviews
The Justice Department revealed on Tuesday that it had yet to share with Congress any of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s notes from his team’s interviews with several former Trump administration officials and advisers, including former White House counsel Don McGahn, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump aide Steve Bannon and former White House communications director Hope Hicks.
In fact, the department indicated Congress has yet to receive any of the notes — known as FBI-302s — from 16 of Mueller’s interviews with senior Trump administration, Trump confidants and Justice Department officials, despite an agreement reached in June to provide access to the documents.
In a new court filing demanded by Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, the department revealed it had provided portions of 17 sets of Mueller witness interview notes to the House Judiciary Committee. These include interviews provided by Chris Christie, Michael Cohen, Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, Rod Rosenstein, Chris Ruddy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sean Spicer. Though several of these include light redactions to protect personal information, others — such as the interview notes of former Trump staff secretary Rob Porter, a crucial witness to potential obstruction of justice — were heavily redacted, perhaps by as much as 75 percent, the Justice Department revealed. Department officials indicated that the redactions were necessary because Porter had “direct conversations with the President.”
The Judiciary Committee struck a deal with the Justice Department in June to access the interview notes of 33 witnesses as part of its ongoing probe of potential obstruction of justice and abuse of power by Trump — which committee members say is part of the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry. The committee, chaired by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), is seeking access to Mueller’s grand jury evidence and has petitioned Howell to force the government to turn it over. In response, the Justice Department said the committee had failed to show why it needed the information when lawmakers were already receiving access to substantial amounts of Mueller’s interview notes.
Howell, during a Tuesday hearing, asked for details about the degree of cooperation between the Justice Department and the committee to determine whether Democrats’ demand for grand jury material has merit.
The department indicated that it intends to make the remaining 16 sets of witness interview notes available “as processing is completed” and as long as they don’t interfere with ongoing cases. In addition to notes from discussions with McGahn, Flynn and Hicks, the House has yet to receive any portions of notes from interviews with McGahn’s former deputy Annie Donaldson, former FBI Director James Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Witnesses whose notes the House has seen parts of include former campaign and White House aide Rick Dearborn, former White House chief of staff John Kelly, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and current senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
