“If the president cannot be indicted … as a matter of law, then the only way to hold the president accountable is for Congress to consider it and act, if warranted,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said on “Fox News Sunday.” | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Congress Nadler to DOJ: Don’t hide evidence of Trump wrongdoing

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on Sunday called for special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be released publicly along with any underlying evidence, arguing that doing less could be considered a “cover-up.”

Mueller did not drop new indictments as he wrapped up his nearly 2-year-old probe, but Nadler said President Donald Trump might have been shielded from criminal indictments because of the office he holds. If that is the case, Nadler said, Congress would hold him accountable.


“If the president cannot be indicted … as a matter of law, then the only way to hold the president accountable is for Congress to consider it and act, if warranted,” Nadler said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Congress can only do that if it has the information,” he added. “For the department to take the position that, ‘We’re not going to give information because he’s not indicted, like a normal person who’s not indicted because of lack of evidence,’ is equivalent to a cover-up and subverts the only ability to hold the president accountable.”

He also said it was possible that there had been abuses of power that did not technically constitute a crime.

On another interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Nadler said his committee would use subpoenas, if necessary, to continue gathering information, but he said it would first try to negotiate.

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“We’re already hearing the president may want to claim executive privilege for some of this, but the fact is he has no right to claim executive privilege on any evidence of wrongdoing,” he said.

But Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the committee’s top Republican, said it would be more logical to assume, based on the lack of additional action recommended by Mueller, that nothing criminal had occurred.

“If Mr. Nadler is saying that our committee is supposed to be a paintbrush that just simply tries to taint the presidency and paint the presidency with doubt and innuendo then I would disagree with that,” said Collins, who was interviewed after Nadler on Fox. “That’s an abuse of power.”

Asked if it were possible Mueller had not recommended indicting Trump because he is the president, Collins said it’s unclear that is the reason.

“Probably what the facts showed was that there was no collusion,” he said. “Let’s go to the logical choice that nothing happened.”