Attorney General William Barr said on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller did not help him draft a four-page summary of the Russia investigation final report.
The revelation came during a House Appropriations panel hearing on the proposed Justice Department budget, which Democrats quickly refocused on the Mueller investigation.
“Attorney General Barr, in your confirmation hearings you said you believed it was very important that the results of the Special Counsel’s report be shared with the public. We agree on that,” said Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., the chairman of the subcommittee holding the hearing. “With regard to your March 24 and March 29 letters to the Judiciary Committee, did anyone on Special Counsel Mueller or anyone on his team have a role in drafting them or reviewing them in advance? Did you use any of the summary documents prepared by the special counsel in drafting these documents?”
Barr said in both instances he didn’t think Mueller’s team was involved.
“The letter of the 24th, Mr. Mueller’s team did not play a role in drafting that document, although we offered him the opportunity to review it before we sent it out and he declined that,” Barr said. “The letter on the 29th, I don’t believe that was reviewed by Mr. Mueller or that they participated in drafting that letter.”
Barr has said he is working with Mueller to release a redacted version of the final report for Congress to read this month, and during the hearing Tuesday, he said he will release it to the public “within a week.”
Democrats have accused Barr of trying to hide damning information about President Trump from Mueller’s Russia investigation under the guise of redactions.
Further adding fuel to their ire were reports last week from the New York Times and the Washington Post in which anonymous sources said members of Mueller’s team were frustrated with the way Barr portrayed the findings of their yearslong investigation in a four-page summary. Reacting to those reports, Trump tore into Mueller’s team on Sunday, accusing the “angry Democrats” of “illegally leaking” information to the media.
Barr provided a four-page summary of Mueller’s roughly 400-page report to Congress last month which said Mueller did not establish the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. The summary also said Mueller did not find Trump committed obstruction of justice, but Mueller also did not exonerate the president. However, Barr said he concluded there was insufficient evidence to establish a crime.
In a follow-up letter on March 29, Barr identified four categories of information that will not be made public, including material related to grand jury proceedings which by law cannot be made public, information deemed by the intelligence community to compromise sensitive sources and methods, details that could affect other ongoing investigations — including those referred by the special counsel’s office to other offices — and material that would “unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”
The Judiciary Committee, ruled by Democrats, voted last week in favor of subpoenaing Barr to turn over the entire Mueller report.
However, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Tuesday his panel will not actually issue a subpoena for Mueller’s full report until they see the redacted version provided by Barr.
