Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee are trying to paint Attorney General William Barr as a bad person and have "run roughshod" over accommodations that should have been made before they voted for a subpoena to compel his testimony, Rep. Doug Collins, the committee's ranking Republican, said Thursday.
"The subpoena is asking for something he can't do," the Georgia lawmaker told Fox News' "America's Newsroom," pointing out that it took over a year for former Attorney General Eric Holder to be subpoenaed over documents in the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal.
The seven-year battle over Holder's subpoena finally ended this week, following seven years of legal wrangling after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee demanded the documents from him.
In Barr's case, Collins said he wants to know how he can be held in contempt for not releasing the full Robert Mueller report, which has had grand jury information redacted.
"He gave more than what the law required for him," said Collins, adding that Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler has had opportunity to see a copy of Mueller's report that is "99%" redacted, but hasn't looked at it.
"The bottom line in rushing it they want to paint Bill Barr as something bad,' said Collins. "They don't like the results of the Mueller report...the chairman of the committee said the subpoena is to start a dialogue. Any attorney in this country would have laughed at that. It's not what a subpoena is for. It is to produce something that is a legal and binding agreement."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.