Washington • Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said Saturday that the special counsel's report should be made public to help clear the names of President Donald Trump and those in his orbit who have been accused of treasonous behavior without proof.
Stewart, appearing on CNN, said he hasn’t seen the report by special counsel Robert Mueller, who submitted a written document to the attorney general on Friday. But Stewart said he doesn’t expect to find much new information when it is released.
“I don't think we're going to be terribly surprised by anything in that report,” Stewart told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Stewart has maintained that Russia attempted to intervene in the 2016 presidential election and supported investigations and the special counsel’s probe into that issue, though he has consistently said that he doesn’t believe Russia was trying to help Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
While Attorney General William Barr was reviewing the report and expected to give Congress a short summary as soon as this weekend, Stewart said that the fact there were no further indictments in the culmination of Mueller’s investigation clears the president.
“I’m relieved for the president; I’m relieved, importantly, for dozens of people who have had this cloud hanging over their head for two years now,” Stewart said. “Remember, we know that innocent people have been accused of treason essentially. In fairness to them, we need to have this report out.”
Stewart, joined by Utah GOP Reps. Rob Bishop and John Curtis and Democrat Ben McAdams, voted with 416 House members to support the release of the full Mueller report. No member opposed the resolution.
Stewart said Saturday that there is no “national security” threat to releasing the report.
“This is not [the] nuclear codes. We're not revealing any sources or methods,” Stewart said on CNN. “This is a political conversation, a political debate. And I've always said this should be released. All of this information should be released.”
The congressman added that the American people want the full details and that they “deserve them.”
“I think it’s important for the American people to have access to all of this,” he said. “One of the reasons is if the Mueller report were redacted, if any paragraph or any sentence in that were redacted, I’m afraid that people would point to that and say, ‘Look, that’s where the collusion is and they’re just not showing it to us.’”
