Report: Mueller investigators wrote summaries they assumed would be made public

Authored by theweek.com and submitted by maxwellhill
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When Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and the possibility of President Trump obstructing justice, it was prepared so every section had its own summary, with the belief each would be made available to the public, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

With that in mind, some members of the Mueller team have told associates they are frustrated with Attorney General William Barr sending a four-page letter to Congress that summarized the report in his own words. "There was immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney general had characterized their work instead," the official told the Post, adding that Mueller's office prepared their summaries in "a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself."

Barr's letter said Mueller did not establish criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia's government, and also didn't reach a conclusion on obstruction. The investigators found the obstruction evidence, however, to be "alarming and significant," the Post reports, with one person telling the paper "it was much more acute than Barr suggested." The New York Times first reported about the frustration felt by some investigators. Catherine Garcia

mongster2 on April 4th, 2019 at 16:04 UTC »

It's fucking wild that Barr would have gotten away with his 4-page summary if Republicans had kept the House

tank_trap on April 4th, 2019 at 13:53 UTC »

From the original Washington Post article

But members of Mueller’s team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant.

“It was much more acute than Barr suggested,” said one person, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.

Some members of the office were particularly disappointed that Barr did not release summary information the special counsel team had prepared, according to two people familiar with their reactions.

“There was immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney general had characterized their work instead,” according one U.S. official briefed on the matter.

Summaries were prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could made public, the official said.

finfan96 on April 4th, 2019 at 13:15 UTC »

Serious question: could Mueller simply release the summaries himself, or would that be against the law?