“The Justice Department outlined a longer schedule, saying that it will have its own summary ready to send to lawmakers within weeks.”
Attorney General William Barr may choose to not send to Congress the actual Mueller report – not even a redacted version – but may instead opt to send a “summary” of the Special Counsel’s 22-month investigation.
“Mr. Mueller’s full report has yet to be released, and it remained unclear if it ever would be,” The New York Times on Tuesday reported. “House Democrats have demanded that it be sent to them by next Tuesday, but the Justice Department outlined a longer schedule, saying that it will have its own summary ready to send to lawmakers within weeks, though not months.”
Barr has never promised to send Congress the full Mueller report, saying he would determine how much he could under the law, which, since he is the Attorney General, means he can determine what that actually means.
Barr has not specified he would or would not substitute a “summary” for the full Mueller report, as the Times notes, but the phrase “within weeks, though not months” echoes almost exactly Barr’s remarks in his letter to Congress this past Sunday.
That letter, experts now say, was more of a PR stunt – whitewashing the Mueller report – than anything else. Some legal experts note that Barr took it upon himself to interject his legal opinion as on Trump’s obstruction of justice, shielding the President.
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