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Article snippet: House Democrats and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday de-escalated tensions in Washington for the first time in months by striking a deal that will provide lawmakers with critical documents underlying special counsel MORE’s report on Russia's election interference. The agreement marks a rare case of cooperation between Democrats, who are pursuing investigations into whether MORE obstructed Mueller's probe, and an administration that's largely rejected congressional requests for information and witness testimony. The breakthrough also seems to have defused — at least temporarily — a push by Democrats to punish key administration officials for their refusal to cooperate in the congressional probes. The House Judiciary Committee last month had voted to hold Attorney General MORE in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the panel’s subpoena for Mueller's full unredacted report and underlying documents. But Democrats are now opting to bring to the floor a softer resolution, one that grants the Judiciary panel new legal tools to obtain disputed information and stops short of holding any individuals in criminal contempt. "Given our conversations with the Department, I will hold the criminal contempt process in abeyance for now," Judiciary Chairman MORE (D-Calif.), who has been under similar pressure to demonstrate progress in the Democrats’ investigations of Trump’s alleged misconduct amid a growing clamor from liberal members of her caucus to adopt ... Link to the full article to read more