Attorney General William Barr, exactly one hour less than the full seven days since he received the complete Mueller report, says he will not meet the Democrats’ April 2 deadline of sending it to Congress.
Instead, as The Washington Post was first to report, Barr says he will be sending not a full report, but a redacted version of the Mueller report to Congress by “mid-April,” which is consistent with his previous statement of delivering a report “within weeks, not months.”
It is not known how extensive the redactions will be. Barr again refuses to say how many pages the full Mueller report spans, but narrows it down this time to “nearly 400 pages long.” It’s unclear why he refuses to reveal the exact number of pages.
Barr is “sticking to his guns,” says NBC’s Pete Williams, suggesting that Barr is not offering any compromises or changing what he has previously said.
In contrast, Democrats have said they want the exact version – without any redactions or White House “executive privilege” changes.
In the letter, Barr says Special Counsel Robert Mueller is assisting in preparing the redacted version that will be sent to Congress.
The letter, below, courtesy of The Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand, offers more specifics:
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