Dems warn of subpoena if Mueller report and evidence not turned over to Congress

By Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb and Josh Campbell, CNN

(CNN) -- House Democrats, on their afternoon conference call, renewed their demands for full transparency of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, according to people on the call.

A day after the Justice Department announced that Mueller delivered his report to Attorney General William Barr, Democratic leaders circulated talking points to their members arguing that "the White House must not be allowed to interfere with the report's release."

The talking points include details about why they believe there's precedent supporting the release of a report, pointing to the hiring of a special counsel in 1999 to investigate the 1993 incident in Waco, Texas. They also point to precedent involving the Justice Department providing 880,000 pages of internal material last year to the House as part of the GOP probe into the FBI's Hillary Clinton investigation -- as well as the department providing records to the Hill over the Watergate probe.

"If necessary, Democrats would be prepared to use its subpoena authority to obtain the full report and underlying evidence as well as to obtain briefing and testimony from the Special Counsel, the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General and other necessary officials," the talking points said.

On the call, Democrats argued that the public will is overwhelmingly on their side for full transparency, pointing to public opinion polls to make their case.

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