With growing demand for the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller III's findings, it could be the courts—not Attorney General William Barr—that have the final say over the disclosure.

The efforts to wrest Mueller's findings into public view could play out on three separate legal tracks, beginning with a push by congressional Democrats to subpoena the Justice Department. The other two prongs could involve open records lawsuits and defendants involved in the few remaining special counsel cases still in court.

Democratic lawmakers, who have long called for special counsel Robert Mueller III's findings to be publicly released, began their effort Monday with the heads of six congressional committees demanding the release of Mueller's report and its underlying records.