Donald Trump hired Attorney General (AG) William Barr to be his Roy Cohen. POTUS was looking for a man who would cover anything the president did, even at the expense of his own career and place in history. Remember how 45 complained that former attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself — legally? If the president thinks Democrats are harassing him, ask Sessions what it was like working for Trump after that. Well, people are getting tired of Trump’s right-hand man Barr.
House Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has been wary of Barr and just requested all of Barr’s communications between the AG and special counsel Robert Mueller. Americans sat on the edges of their chairs waiting for the AG to release the Mueller report after two years of silence. Barr’s three and one-half page interpretation freeing Trump of the investigation, set the president on a victory and revenge dance.
Nadler’s letter requested the public release of all the versions of the summaries that Mueller’s report provided the AG. On top of that, he requested any communications between Mueller’s office and the DOJ regarding the report. That included anything prepared by his investigators.
The New York Times reported a day earlier that associates of some of those investigators said that some of the Mueller team complained Barr had misrepresented report. This was of vital interest, because the special counsel’s team had not leaked one word until then. The Times‘ article said that these team members were frustrated with Barr’s letter’s conclusions and that none of their summaries had been quoted.
Nadler wrote to Barr regarding the March 24 letter that the AG sent to Congress, according to CBS News:
‘You have already provided an interpretation of the Special Counsel’s conclusions in a fashion that appears to minimize the implications of the report as to the President. Releasing the summaries — without delay — would begin to allow the American people to judge the facts for themselves.’
Nadler noted that he and other members of the House Democrats had already requested the “complete and unredacted report:”
‘(Barr’s letter was) no substitute for providing to Congress the complete and unredacted report and underlying evidence.’
Nadler requested Barr release Mueller office’s summaries to the public before the attorney general testifies before Congress:
‘Additionally, if the Special Counsel’s summaries fit the summary you provided on March 24, that would alleviate substantial concerns that the House Judiciary Committee may wish to discuss when you appear to testify. If there is significant daylight between his account and yours, the American people should know that too.’
Spokesperson for the Department of Justice Kerri Kupec released a statement indicating that the DOJ was worried about releasing possible confidential grand jury information. This is a stamped message used on every page of a sensitive document, so that no one will leave it laying around. Kupec’s statement read that the DOJ was still redacting:
‘Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report’s bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately — without attempting to summarize the report — with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process. As the Attorney General stated in his March 29th letter to Chairman Graham and Chairman Nadler, he does not believe the report should be released in ‘serial or piecemeal fashion.’
