Barr Plans to Take Weeks, Not Months, to Do Next Mueller Report
Barr Plans to Take Weeks, Not Months, to Do Next Mueller Report
(Bloomberg) -- Attorney General William Barr is planning to release his report on Robert Mueller’s probe into President Donald Trump in a matter of weeks, not months, according to a Justice Department official.
Democrats have been demanding the release of the special counsel’s full report, as well as the evidence behind it. Six House chairmen wrote Barr a letter on Monday giving him an April 2 date to submit to the full report to Congress, although it’s all but certain he won’t meet that deadline.
Barr offered his timeline in a conversation with Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, the official said, who said there are no plans at this time to share the Mueller report with the White House.
A Justice Department attorney who was detailed to Mueller’s team is now working with Barr and his staff to determine whether grand jury material in Mueller’s report has to be withheld, the official said. Barr has said he also needs to review Mueller’s work for information that’s classified or related to ongoing investigations.
Barr released a four-page summary of Mueller’s findings on Sunday, saying that the special counsel found no evidence Trump or his team colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Barr also disclosed his own determination that Mueller’s evidence didn’t warrant charges for Trump on obstruction of justice.
According to Barr’s summary, Mueller said that “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Barr’s summary was hailed by Trump and his allies as exonerating the president. But the brief account of Mueller’s 22-month investigation has left many questions unanswered.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that it’s too early for Congress to compel Barr to make Mueller’s report public but didn’t rule out that lawmakers could do so in the future.
But he said that putting out the report without protecting some information could “throw innocent people under the bus."
--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Bill Faries
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