House Democrats on Friday subpoenaed the full, unredacted report from special counsel Robert Mueller, setting up a legal showdown with Attorney General William Barr.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler demanded the material by May 1, in one of the few instances House Democrats have used their subpoena power against President Donald Trump.

'My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice,' he said in a statement. 'Even the redacted version of the report outlines serious instances of wrongdoing by President Trump and some of his closest associates. It now falls to Congress to determine the full scope of that alleged misconduct and to decide what steps we must take going forward.'

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler announced Friday morning he was subpoenaing the full Robert Mueller report 'in the next couple of hours'

Nadler wants the full, unredacted Mueller report

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Democrats don't know when to stop.

'Jerry Nadler is irrelevant in this situation,' Gidley told Fox News on Friday. 'The American people now know that regardless of what the Democrats were saying about the president, lies they were telling with zero evidence and zero proof, now he wants to do deeper. When does this ever stop? I mean if we gave them the unredacted report, if we gave them all the tax returns, unredacted as well he would still want something else.'

Nadler had warned earlier in the day the subpoena was coming.

'We need the entire report unredacted and the underlying documents in order to make informed decisions,' he told ABC's 'Good Morning America.' 'We will subpoena that entire report today.'

He said his subpoena will be for the special counsel's full findings, including grand jury evidence, which Barr said he would with hold.

'Including the grand jury evidence, yes. Because we have to see the entire report. By the way, in every previous instance, Congress has seen all the evidence,' Nadler said.

Barr said in a news conference on Thursday that he would allow a bipartisan group of lawmakers to see the redacted material but not the redacted grand jury information.

'In an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information. Thus, these members of Congress will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselves — with the limited exception of that which, by law, cannot be shared,' he said.

Federal law prevents government lawyers from releasing grand jury information but does allow certain exceptions.

Nadler slammed Barr's offer.

'I've been invited to read the less redacted versions of the report on condition we take no notes and tells nobody of that,' the New York Democrat told CBS' 'This Morning.'

'What's the point of that? If I read something and I can't tell the others about it or members of Congress,' he added. 'Frankly it's insulting the Congress. We will work to have an accommodation with the attorney general, but in terms of seeing the rest of the report and the underlying documents. But it can not be under such restrictions we can't function.'

The battle over how much information lawmakers can see from the investigation will likely end up in the courts.

The attorney general is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 2, in what is expected to be a contentious hearing.

Democrats have Barr in their sights and are targeting him with heavy fire.

'Barr has revealed himself as an agent of the president. He's a defense attorney for the people. He clearly misled over a period of four weeks from March 24th right through his press conference yesterday, he consistently misled the American people as to what was in the report. He said that they found no collusion whereas the special prosecutor specifically said collusion is not a legal term and he didn't make any findings that we hadn't reached a finding on criminal conspiracy,' Nadler told ABC Friday morning.

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer went after Barr in the wake of the report's release, accusing him of 'deliberately distorting' the Mueller Report which they say 'paints a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies'.

The pair issued a joint, blistering statement Thursday evening in response to the release of the 448-page report, outlining 'at least four significant ways that Mr. Barr has misled the public on the contents of the Mueller report'.

'The #MuellerReport paints a disturbing picture of a president who has been weaving a web of deceit, lies and improper behavior and acting as if the law doesn't apply to him.'

The statement adds: 'But if you hadn't read the report and listened only to Mr. Barr, you wouldn't have known any of that because Mr. Barr has been so misleading.'

Also on Thursday Nadler released a letter he sent to Mueller requesting him to testify before Congress no later than May 23.

'I request your testimony before the Judiciary Committee as soon as possible – but, in any event, no later than May 23, 2019. I look forward to working with you on a mutually agreeable date,' the letter stated.

Attorney General William Barr, seen at his Thursday press conference with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, is being targeted by Democrats

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, pictured here in January, have slammed Attorney General William Barr, accusing him of 'deliberately distorting' the Mueller Report

Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had pushed for Mueller's public testimony earlier in the day on Thursday, claiming Barr's 'partisan handling' of the report has resulted in a 'crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality.'

Barr told reporters during his press conference: 'I have no objection Bob Mueller personally testifying.'

Nadler's threat comes as House Democrats plan a Monday conference call to regroup on their next steps.

'The Caucus is scheduling a conference call for Monday to discuss this grave matter, which is as soon as our analysis and this Holy Season's religious traditions allow,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote to her Democratic lawmakers Thursday evening.

'The Mueller report states, 'We concluded Congress has authority to prohibit a president's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,' which 'accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.' Congress will not be silent,' she added.

Pelosi's challenge in the weeks ahead will be to manage Democrats who are calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment with those who want to take a more deliberative approach.

Nadler will be a key ally for the speaker in this battle.

And he said he believes Trump obstructed justice.

'I believe he committed obstruction of justice, yes,' Nadler said on ABC, saying he'd want to hear from Barr and Mueller.