senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday blocked a non-binding resolution to publicly release special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Following Mueller’s submission of his final report on Friday, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the report released Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for unanimous consent for the House-cleared resolution to be passed by the Senate. “Whether or not you’re a supporter of President Trump… there is no good reason not to make the report public,” Schumer told lawmakers. “It’s a simple request for transparency. Nothing more, nothing less.”
But McConnell blocked the request on the grounds that Barr and Mueller are still working together to determine which parts of the report can be made public and which cannot.
“The special counsel and the Justice Department ought to be allowed to finish their work in a professional manner,” McConnell said. “To date, the attorney general has followed through on his commitments to Congress. One of those commitments is that he intends to release as much information as possible.”
When news broke that McConnell blocked the resolution, those eager to see the report flooded Twitter with posts ridiculing and condemning the Republican leader’s decision, with some users even accusing McConnell of attempting to cover up the truth.
“Starting to seem like it’s really important to Mitch McConnell that nobody ever know what happened, for some reason,” Jamison Foser, from NextGenAmerica, tweeted.