The Democratic-led US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has voted to authorise subpoenas for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full, unredacted report and underlying evidence from his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.
The 24-17 vote along party lines - with Democrats in favour and President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans opposed - authorised the panel's chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena Mueller's material.
The measure also authorised Nadler, a Democrat, to subpoena documents and testimony from five former Trump aides, including former political adviser Steve Bannon and former White House counsel Donald McGahn.
The committee vote escalated congressional pressure on Attorney General William Barr to hand over all that Mueller documented during his 22-month probe, including grand jury evidence.
The committee's focus shifted to subpoenas when it became clear that Barr would ignore a Democratic demand for him to turn over the full report by April 2. Barr has pledged to share a redacted copy of the nearly 400-page report with congress and the public by mid-April.
Democrats fear that Barr could use redactions to suppress evidence of potential misconduct by Trump and his campaign.
"The Trump administration has an idea. They want to redact the Mueller report before they provide it to congress," Nadler said at committee meeting before the vote on Wednesday.
"This committee has a job to do. ... That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves."
Barr's March 24 summary of the Mueller report said the special counsel did not establish that Trump campaign officials conspired with Russia during the presidential election but also did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice.
Barr himself subsequently concluded that Mueller's inquiry had not found sufficient evidence to warrant obstruction criminal charges against the president.
Trump has denied collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. Moscow says it did not try to interfere in the election, even though US intelligence agencies concluded that it secretly trying to sway US voters in Trump's favour.
Democrats have pledged to fight all the way to the US Supreme Court to enforce a subpoena and obtain the full report.
"If the department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge - not the president or his political appointee - to decide whether it is appropriate for the committee to review the complete record," Nadler said.
Nadler told reporters he would also seek a judge's permission to get access to Mueller's grand jury material, which is protected by law. Nadler said Barr has not been willing to seek a court order to release the data so far.
"We are going to work with the attorney general for a short period of time in the hope that he will reveal to us the entire Mueller report and all the underlying materials, and we'll go to court to get permission to have the (grand jury) material," Nadler said.
"But if that doesn't work out in a very short order, we will issue the subpoenas. ... The committee must see everything."
In addition to McGahn and Bannon, the committee authorised subpoenas for former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former White House deputy counsel Ann Donaldson.
