US House committee votes to hold AG in contempt over Mueller report

WASHINGTON - 9 May 219: The US House Judiciary Committee voted to advance a resolution to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report, after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over Mueller's findings, ABC News reported.

The moves marked an escalation in tensions between Democrats and the Trump administration, and set up a likely battle in the courts as Democrats work to review Mueller's conclusions.

"There can be no higher stakes than this attempt to take all power away from Congress and away from the American people. We are in a constitutional crisis," the committee's chairman Jerry Nadler said following the committee action.

The resolution, passed after more than six hours of sharp debate, could receive a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks.

"Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the Attorney General’s request, the President has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.