Mueller report release spirals into political gamesmanship
WASHINGTON — After nearly two years of waiting, America will get some answers straight from Robert Mueller — but not before President Donald Trump’s attorney general has his say.
The Justice Department on Thursday is to release a redacted version of the special counsel’s report on Russian election interference and Trump’s campaign, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country.
Even the planned release of the nearly 400-page report quickly spiraled into a political battle Wednesday over whether Attorney General William Barr is attempting to shield the president who appointed him and spin the report’s findings before the American people can read it and come to their own judgments.
Barr will hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation after Mueller’s appointment in May 2017. But Mueller and other members of his team will not attend, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said.
The news conference, first announced by Trump during a radio interview, provoked criticism from congressional Democrats because Barr will present his interpretation of the report before Congress or the public sees it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had “thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect” Trump. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “The process is poisoned before the report is even released.”
A Justice Department official confirmed that before the report’s public release, Barr plans to present his overview of it and discuss his review process. After the news conference, the report will be delivered to Congress on a CD between 11 a.m. and noon. It will then be posted on the special counsel’s website. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
At a later date, the Justice Department also plans to provide a “limited number” of members of Congress and staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public version, according to a court filing Wednesday.
Barr has said he is withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged “peripheral” people. But how liberally he interprets those categories is yet to be seen.
