Source: ANDREW DESIDERIO

The Justice Department issued a double-barreled rebuff to Democrats Wednesday, informing the House Judiciary Committee that Attorney General William Barr would not show up for his scheduled testimony before the panel and that the department would not comply with a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report.

“The administration has the nerve to dictate our procedures. It’s simply part of the administration’s complete stonewalling of Congress — period,” Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) told reporters.

The Thursday hearing, which was set to examine Barr’s handling of Mueller’s report, would have included an extra hour to allow committee lawyers to question the attorney general. The Justice Department had argued it would be inappropriate for staffers to question a Cabinet member, and as a result, Barr backed out.

“Given his lack of candor in describing the work of the special counsel, our members were right to insist that staff counsel be permitted to question the attorney general,” Nadler told reporters, referring to Barr’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony earlier Wednesday.

“I understand why he wants to avoid that kind of scrutiny,” Nadler added. “He is terrified of having to face a skilled attorney.”

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec countered that Nadler had established “unprecedented and unnecessary” conditions for the hearing, adding, “Congress and the executive branch are co-equal branches of government, and each have a constitutional obligation to respect and accommodate one another’s legitimate interests.”

In a separate letter, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd told Nadler that his subpoena for the full, unredacted Mueller report plus the underlying evidence and grand jury information was “not legitimate oversight.”

“The department has long resisted congressional attempts to rummage through its files,” Boyd wrote, adding that Nadler issued the subpoena “knowing that the department could not lawfully provide the unredacted report, that the committee lacks any legislative purpose for seeking the complete investigative files, and that processing your requests would impose a significant burden on the department.”

The moves by the Justice Department are sure to intensify the ongoing war between the Trump administration and Capitol Hill over House Democrats’ various investigations and oversight demands.

Nadler said he would seek to hold Barr in contempt of Congress if the department doesn’t turn over the unredacted Mueller report and all of the underlying evidence “in the next day or two.” The chairman also said he could issue a subpoena to compel Barr’s attendance at a future hearing.

The committee had teed up the clash earlier Wednesday after a tense party-line vote on establishing the ground rules for Thursday’s hearing. Under the motion adopted by the committee, the attorneys for the Democratic and Republican sides of the panel would have had an hour, equally divided, to question Barr, who had threatened to back out of the hearing if that was the arrangement.

Democrats said that despite DOJ claims, there is ample precedent to use staff attorneys. Republicans, meanwhile, have jumped to Barr’s defense, asserting that it would be “disrespectful” to have anyone but lawmakers question the attorney general.

Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused Nadler of “torpedoing” the hearing over an unnecessary demand.

“By rejecting the chance to question Attorney General Barr or read the materials he’s provided, Democrats are trying to prolong an investigation the special counsel completed,” Collins said in a statement.

“What we have here is simply another opportunity to sidetrack and have a serial sideshow,” Collins said earlier Wednesday in opposing the Democrats’ ground rules for the hearing. “This has become nothing but theatre.”

Indeed, the committee’s meeting degenerated into a shouting match at times, with Republicans haranguing Democrats with demands that it be adjourned.

Barr testified earlier Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, just hours after it was revealed that Mueller expressed concerns to Barr that his four-page summary of the special counsel’s findings “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation.

In his March 27 letter to Barr, Mueller also said the attorney general sowed “public confusion” about the investigation, undermining public confidence in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

“I think there are great difficulties with the attorney general at this point. He seems — besides the fact that he clearly misled the American people, he seems to have testified non-truthfully to the Senate and to the House, which raises major questions,” Nadler said Wednesday.

During his Senate testimony, Barr consistently challenged Mueller’s legal theories and appeared to undercut many aspects of the special counsel’s report, rankling Democrats who accused the attorney general of seeking to protect the president.

The revelation about Mueller’s letter prompted even more Democratic lawmakers to call for Barr’s resignation, including some Judiciary Committee members as well as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

Nadler also said on Wednesday that the committee is eyeing May 15 as the date for Mueller himself to testify before the committee. Barr has said he does not oppose allowing Mueller to testify, but Nadler told reporters that the committee is still negotiating with the Justice Department.

Jordyn Hermani contributed to this report.