Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller's report. 2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct. 3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances.
^ Breuninger, Kevin (February 14, 2019). "Senate confirms Trump's attorney general pick William Barr, who will now oversee Mueller probe". CNBC.
^ Mueller Report, vol. II, p. 105: "After consulting with the President on the issue, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told the media that the President 'certainly didn't dictate' the statement, but that 'he weighed in, offered suggestions like any father would do.'
"White House lawyer mocks Mueller report as 'law school exam paper ' ". Politico. Retrieved May 6, 2019. ^ Gurman, Sadie (April 11, 2019). "Rod Rosenstein Defends Justice Department Handling of Mueller Report".
This was first reported on April 30, 2019. Mueller thought that the Barr letter "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the findings of the special counsel investigation that he led. "There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation". Mueller also requested Barr release the Mueller report's introductions and executive summaries. The March 27 Mueller letter made no mention of media coverage.
In July 2019, Mueller testified to Congress that a president could be charged with crimes including obstruction of justice after the president left office. In 2020, a Republican-appointed federal judge decided to personally review the report's redactions to see if they were legitimate.
Democrat Ted Lieu asked Mueller whether the reason he did not indict Trump was that Department of Justice policy prohibits the indictment of sitting presidents. Mueller originally confirmed that this was the reason. However, later that day, Mueller corrected his comments, stating that his team did not determine whether Trump committed a crime. Additionally, Mueller answered Republican Ken Buck that a president could be charged with obstruction of justice (or other crimes) after the president left office.
According to its authorizing document, which was signed by then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 17, 2017, the investigation's scope included allegations that there were links or coordination between President Donald Trump 's presidential campaign and the Russian government as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation". The authorizing document also included "any other matters within the scope of 28 CFR § 600.4 (a) "; enabling the special counsel "to investigate and prosecute" any attempts to interfere with its investigation, "such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses ".
The report was submitted to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019, and a redacted version of the 448-page report was publicly released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 18, 2019. It is divided into two volumes.
The Mueller report found that the Russian government "interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion" and "violated U.S. criminal law".
See also: § Mueller Report findings compared to Barr letter. The letter from Attorney General William Barr (known as the Barr letter) on March 24, 2019, to leaders of the House and Senate judiciary committees describing the principal conclusions of the special counsel's investigation.
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller told Attorney General William Barr that the initial account of the Mueller report in Barr's four-page letter caused public confusion. Justice Department officials said that in a letter and a subsequent phone call, Mueller said Barr's March 24 letter, a four-page description of what Barr called ...
Mueller sent his letter to Barr three days later, saying the resulting confusion threatened to undermine public confidence in the investigation. Justice Department officials said they were surprised by the tone of the letter, but they said Mueller was less pointed in their subsequent phone call. They said Barr also repeated ...
April 30, 201900:39. Barr is scheduled to testify about the investigation on Wednesday morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Members of Mueller's team have previously expressed frustration that Barr cleared Trump of obstruction of justice in his summary letter in March. A U.S. official who spoke with the members of Mueller's team told NBC News early this month that they believed the evidence that Trump sought to impede the investigation was stronger than Barr suggested.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime member and former chairman of the committee, said in an interview with the New York newspaper Newsday that Barr was acting like Trump's personal lawyer, not the nation's lawyer. He promised to "ask him questions and give him a chance to show some independence.". "We'll see if he does," Leahy said.
Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told NBC News on Tuesday night that he had not been aware of Mueller's letter and that he did not understand what Mueller was taking exception to. "If he didn't want confusion, he should have made a decision," Giuliani said. "He was made special counsel to make decisions, ...
The officials said that Mueller did not describe Barr's letter as inaccurate but that he thought it was resulting in misleading news coverage about the report. "He expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the special counsel's obstruction analysis," a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
Mueller used a grand jury to interview more than 500 witnesses and issue more than 2,800 subpoenas and 500 search warrants throughout his 22-month-long investigation. The attorney general will redact these materials from the report Thursday morning.
The report will also redact any classified information that, if publicly released, would disclose secret intelligence sources and methods, or, put someone’s life at risk.
Barr also said he would redact any information in the report that pertains to ongoing investigations stemming from the special counsel’s original probe.
The report will also have redacted any information that could be damning to “peripheral third parties,” as Barr put it. This follows a long-standing Justice Department precedent to not release damaging information about uncharged individuals because they cannot defend themselves in court.
The Mueller report, officially titled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, is the official report documenting the findings and conclusions of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald …
On May 9, 2017, President Donald Trump dismissed former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, who had been leading an ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into links between Trump associates and Russian officials. This investigation, code named Crossfire Hurricane, began in July 2016 after the Australian government advised US aut…
Volume I starts on page 1 of the report and focuses on Russian interference and allegations of "conspiracy" or "coordination" between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, "not the concept of 'collusion'".
The Mueller report found that the Russian government "interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion" and "violated U.S. criminal law". The report relayed two met…
The report was submitted by the special counsel to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019. Barr assumed oversight of the investigation on February 14, 2019, after being approved by the Senate and sworn in as Attorney General. Barr had been previously critical of the investigation before Trump announced his intent to nominate Barr for Attorney General on December 7, 2018. Barr's pred…
On April 18, 2019, a redacted version of the special counsel's report was released to Congress and the public. About one-eighth of the lines are redacted. The report is 448 pages long across two volumes and four appendices. It contains about 200,000 words and over 1,100 footnotes. About 11% of the text is redacted. 40% of the pages had at least one redaction, and there were over 900 redacted text blocks in all.
Trump has vacillated in his view of the report, initially saying, "The Mueller report was great. It could not have been better," then one month later characterizing it as a "total 'hit job'", then one month later as "a beautiful report".
The Mueller report reported that Donald Trump's campaign staff, administration officials, and family members, his Republican backers, and his associates lied …
On April 18, Barr said: "the president confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the special counsel's report".
Congressional committees had wanted more answers about the process and findings of the Special Counsel investigation. The Associated Press described …
A less-redacted version of the report "with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information", which is required to be redacted by federal law, is expected to be available two weeks after the initial public release, to "a bipartisan group of leaders from several Congressional committees".
On April 19, 2019, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler issued a subpoena for the full…