CNN is reporting that Attorney General Barr has informed Congress that he should be ready to provide them with the Mueller Report by mid-April:
In a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, Barr said his department is “well along” making redactions, with the assistance of the special counsel. Barr said the report is “nearly 400 pages long,” not including appendices and tables and “sets forth the Special Counsel’s findings, his analysis, and the reasons for his conclusions.”
CNN
The question still remains on how intact the full report will be after the redactions are made. Also, it’s not mentioned whether the White House legal team (or Trump personally) will be able to make further redactions based on “executive privilege” as was previously floated.
This all makes me wonder why it was necessary at all for Barr to submit his own, personal four page summary. What possible purpose does that serve?
I can’t think of any reason for that other than the intent to enable Trump to jump out in front and create a narrative in order to set the perception that he and his people did no wrong. That makes the Barr summary a completely political action. It taints the entire investigation and poisons the process of submitting the results to the American people.
The only thing they should have done was state that Mueller submitted the report to Barr and they are in the process of going over it for redactions and they will then present the report to Congress by mid-April.
There was no need for the Barr Summary. At all.
Barr states that he will be available for Congressional testimony on the report on May 1 (Senate) and May 2 (House). We will, of course, also need to hear directly from Mueller.
If it turns out that Barr’s summary substantially misrepresents the full report, he should be impeached and charged with obstruction of justice himself.
