Of Course William Barr Is Trying to Get in Front of the Mueller Report

By Sophie Weiner  |  April 17, 2019 | 11:40pm
Trump Administration

Attorney General William Barr, the man who wrote the summary of the Mueller report that was so pleasing to President Donald Trump, is scheduled to give a press conference with his deputy Rod Rosenstein at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow to discuss the redacted report, according to NBC. But the actual report won’t be released by then. What the fuck?

Tomorrow, as everyone on Earth by now knows, Barr will release a redacted version of the 400 page report by special counsel Robert Mueller detailing the Trump 2016 campaign’s involvement with Russia. But the power to decide which parts of the report the public gets to see was apparently not enough for him—Barr also wants to preempt the report’s release with a press conference.

Congress is scheduled to receive the report by 11 a.m. tomorrow, a full hour and a half after Barr’s press conference. There are also reports that the White House will be briefed on the contents of the report before Congress sees it.

Democrats in Congress are not pleased.

“Here’s the question—why are they trying so hard to control the narrative? What are they trying to hide?” a Democratic Senate aide told NBC.

In March, Barr released a summary of the Mueller report in which he reported that it had found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. But he also wrote that Mueller hadn’t cleared Trump of all crimes.

Democrats have already made demands to see unredacted versions of the report, and are considering issuing subpoenas.

 
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