Attorney General William Barr is releasing Robert Mueller’s long-anticipated report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, with large portions of the more than 300-page document redacted. Barr says he’s withholding parts of the report in order to protect the personal privacy of third parties, to avoid compromising intelligence sources and methods, and to protect grand jury material and ongoing investigations. Barr is set to hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. ahead of the report’s release, which is expected some time after 11 a.m. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler said Wednesday Barr was hoping to spin the report—to paper over damning evidence of misdeeds by President Trump and his associates.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler: “The fact that the attorney general is not releasing even the redacted report to Congress until after his press conference will again result in the report being presented through his own words rather than through the words of special counsel Mueller. The central concern here is that the Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House.”
The Mueller report’s release comes after Justice Department officials reportedly held numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the document in recent days. Barr has said the report shows no evidence President Trump or his associates colluded with Russia. The Justice Department said it was sending Congress a different version of the Mueller report with fewer redactions. Democratic lawmakers are demanding the release of the full Mueller report and have said they will subpoena the entire document as early as Friday.