The battle over releasing the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report intensified on Wednesday as Democrats in Congress insisted the attorney general, William Barr, must quickly release its full findings.

The House judiciary committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, said Barr “wouldn’t commit” to releasing the report to Congress without redactions.

Barr has said he will release at least a partial version in April. But it is clear he will miss the Tuesday deadline set by six House committee chairmen to see the full confidential report and its underlying documents. They have suggested they may eventually need to subpoena it.

Nadler, who placed a call to Barr on Wednesday, said he was “very concerned” Barr would not provide the material by the time set. Over 10 minutes, the chairman asked whether Barr would accede to Congress’s demand for the full report by 2 April. Barr said no, according to Nadler.

Skepticism mounted over Barr’s four-page synopsis, which was released on Sunday and found no evidence Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election. The longer it takes to release the full findings from Mueller, the more Democrats, in particular, warn they will question the legitimacy of Barr’s actions.

The push came as the House moved ahead with its own oversight of the Trump administration, including an intelligence committee hearing scheduled for Thursday on Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Elijah Cummings, the Democratic chairman of the House oversight committee, said he was “disappointed” Barr would take weeks, not days, to release the report.

“The president has now an opportunity for weeks, it sounds like, to do these victory laps,” said Cummings, noting that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, is among those headed to jail as a result of the investigation. “Cohen goes to jail, the president runs a victory lap.”

The attorney general told the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Senator Lindsey Graham that he is combing through Mueller’s report and removing classified, grand jury and other information in hopes of releasing it to Congress.

Graham told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he had dinner the previous evening with Barr, who said he is willing to testify before the committee after he sends Congress the report.

Trump also has said he is fine with releasing the findings. “The president said, ‘Just let it go,’ and that’s what’s going to happen,” Graham said.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has urged caution so as not to “throw innocent people who’ve not been charged under the bus”, is blocking legislation to force the disclosure of the Mueller report.

Other Republicans, however, insisted on Congress being able to review it. “I want to see it all,” said Ted Cruz, the Texas senator. “I think we should see the entire report.”

The top Republican on the judiciary committee, Doug Collins, was confident a full picture of Mueller’s report would emerge.

“People are going to be very surprised,” Collins said. “Barr is going to put out a lot of stuff.”

Beyond Mueller’s findings, House Democrats are pursuing multiple investigations into the president’s political, business and personal dealings, as they press on with their oversight agenda. Part of their work is to determine if anyone sought leverage over Trump, his family or associates.

Those investigations, including a push to release his tax returns, are not fully dependent on whether the report backs up Barr’s conclusion. By Barr’s account, Mueller made no finding on whether the president obstructed justice. Though Barr cleared Trump of obstruction, the question is now in Congress’s hands.

Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee chairman, said the Mueller report will “guide us in terms of what has been fully investigated by the special counsel, what has gone uninvestigated”.

Schiff said, “It’s very difficult to make those decisions in the absence of really knowing what’s in that report.”



