Updates On The Release Of The Mueller Report

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Published April 18, 2019 at 9:38 AM MDT

U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks about the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report as U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (R) and U.S. Acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan listen at the Department of Justice on April 18, 2019.

The Department of Justice released the report by special counsel Robert Mueller regarding his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. You can read it here. Fair warning, it’s over 400 pages.

Attorney General William Barr briefed the press this morning about the contents of the report.

Barr says that he and DAG Rosenstein “disagreed with some of the Special Counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law,” but accepted Mueller’s legal framework in doing their analysis

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) April 18, 2019

Barr said the Mueller report examined 10 potential episodes of obstruction of justice. Barr also talked about White House interactions with the department over the past few weeks and said that the president did not issue any invocations of executive privilege. “No one outside the department has seen the unredacted report,” Barr said, with the caveat that some sections were available to the intelligence community.

Wow. Barr reasoning for the president — “important to keep in mind the context” and he was “frustrated.”

— Domenico Montanaro (@DomenicoNPR) April 18, 2019

Prior to Barr’s comments, Congressional Democrats criticized Barr for the way in which he issued this statement.

From NPR:

Wednesday evening, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Barr “appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report.”

Nadler also said ” a central concern” is that Barr “is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves…”

Those comments were followed Thursday morning by even tougher comments by Congress’ two top Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement that Barr’s ” regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report … [has] resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality.”

We’ll bring you what we know so far.

This story is developing. Stick with your NPR member station and NPR.org to hear the latest updates.

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