There is no “legal basis” for Attorney General William Barr to release special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, according to Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

"I think, even if Barr were hypothetically to refuse to issue anything, there would be no legal basis for a court to compel him to do that," Dershowitz said during an interview with Fox News on Monday.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., is paving the way to a subpoena fight with the Justice Department to obtain the Mueller report later this week. Mueller spent years investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin. After he concluded his investigation, Barr submitted a four-page summary of his findings to Congress which said there was no collusion found.

"The special counsel, under the rules, has an obligation to file a report with the attorney general,” Dershowitz said. “There’s nothing in the rules that require the attorney general to make the report public, particularly if it contains information critical of people who were not indicted. So, this is a political issue. This is a media issue. This is not a legal issue."

"This rush to release is understandable,” Dershowitz said. “The American public wants to see this report. They’re curious. But the law has to be complied with, and the law generally protects subjects of investigations who haven’t been indicted."