DOJ Defends Barr’s Summary of Mueller Report: We Don’t Want to Reveal Findings in ‘Piecemeal Fashion’

The Department of Justice released a statement on Thursday in defense of Attorney General Bill Barr and his summary of Robert Mueller‘s report.

Every page of the confidential report provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22nd, 2019, was marked “May contain material protected under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6-e,” a law that protects confidential grand jury information – and therefore could not be publicly released. Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report’s bottom line findings in his conclusions immediately – without attempting to summarize the report – with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process.

The statement goes on to say Barr doesn’t want the full report released in a “serial or piecemeal process,” and that the DOJ is working with the special counsel to reach an agreement on “appropriate redactions” before the full report goes public.

The DOJ’s statement comes amid reports that several members of Mueller’s team are not satisfied with how Barr’s summary characterized their findings on President Donald Trump. New York Times and Washington Post both reported that investigators are disappointed since Barr’s summary fails to explain the full connotations of their findings on obstruction of justice, and he refused to release the summary information they provided on several key sections of Mueller’s conclusions.

Watch above, via CNN.

[Photo via Getty Images]

— —

>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!