US congressional Democrats edged closer to fighting two legal battles - one over the Mueller report and one over President Donald Trump's tax returns - after administration officials stonewalled lawmakers' requests for those documents.
The House Judiciary Committee set a vote for Wednesday on whether to cite Attorney General William Barr with contempt over his refusal to provide the panel with a full, un-redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report and underlying evidence from the probe.
Separately, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would not provide the House Ways and Means Committee with six years of Trump's individual and business tax returns, despite a formal request by Chairman Richard Neal under a law authorising such actions.
"I have determined that the committee's request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose ... the department is therefore not authorised to disclose the requested returns and return information," Mnuchin said in a letter on Monday to Neal.
Both developments put the two oversight committees on a course leading to federal court action to obtain the documents, as the Trump administration escalated its push to block multiple probes by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Republicans in Congress have rejected the efforts of both Democratic-led committees as political gamesmanship intended to appeal to the Democratic Party's voting base ahead of the 2020 presidential election, in which Trump is seeking re-election.
"The attorney general's failure to comply with our subpoena ... leaves us no choice but to initiate contempt proceedings," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement released along with a committee report citing Barr with contempt of Congress.
"If the department presents us with a good faith offer for access to the full report and the underlying evidence, I reserve the right to postpone these proceedings," he said.
