After a long two days of anticipation from members of Congress and the public, Attorney General William Barr delivered his “principal conclusions” from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report to lawmakers on Sunday.
Mueller submitted the confidential report of the findings of his 22-month investigation to Barr on Friday. While President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Mueller’s investigation, he hasn’t said much about the report this week, aside from telling reporters Wednesday, “Let it come out. Let people see it. Let’s see whether or not it’s legit.” He was seen at his golf club in Mar-a-Lago Sunday.
As my colleagues Inae Oh and Dan Friedman wrote on Friday, Mueller’s report doesn’t call for any further indictments. Over the course of the last two years, however, “the probe has resulted in 34 indictments or guilty pleas, including those of top Trump campaign officials and allies.”
It’s unclear if the report in its entirety will be made public. In his letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees on Friday, Attorney General Barr wrote that he would determine “what other information from the report can be released to Congress and the public consistent with the law.”
The House voted earlier this month 420-0 in favor of publicly releasing Mueller’s report—and both individual Democrat and Republican lawmakers have urged Barr to release the document. Democrats also promised to subpoena the Justice Department for the Mueller report, if necessary. And on Sunday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told CNN he would be willing to take the issue all the way to the Supreme Court.
“The Attorney General’s offer to provide the Committees with a summary of the report’s conclusions is insufficient,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Saturday. “Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents so that the Committees can proceed with their independent work, including oversight and legislating to address any issues the Mueller report may raise. The American people have a right to the truth. The watchword is transparency.”
Read Barr’s summary here:
