Mueller frustrated with Barr over portrayal of findings


Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Special counsel Robert Mueller expressed frustration to Attorney General William Barr last month about how the findings of his Russia investigation were being portrayed, saying he worried that a letter summarizing the main conclusions of the probe lacked the necessary context and was creating public confusion about his team’s work, a Justice Department official said Tuesday night.

Mueller communicated his agitation in a letter to the Justice Department just days after Barr issued a four-page document that summarized the special counsel’s conclusions about whether President Donald Trump’s campaign had conspired with Russia and whether the president had tried to illegally obstruct the probe, the official said. Mueller and Barr had a phone call the following day where the same concerns were addressed.

The letter lays bare a simmering rift between the Justice Department and the special counsel about whether Barr’s summary adequately conveyed the gravity of Mueller’s findings, particularly on the key question of obstruction. The revelation is likely to sharpen attacks by Democrats who accuse Barr of unduly protecting the president and of spinning Mueller’s conclusions in Trump’s favor.

And it will almost certainly be an expected focus of today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which the attorney general will defend his handling of Mueller’s report.

“After the attorney general received Special Counsel Mueller’s letter, he called him to discuss it,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.

“In a cordial and professional conversation, the special counsel emphasized that nothing in the attorney general’s March 24 letter was inaccurate or misleading. But, he expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the special counsel’s obstruction analysis,” she added.

In a March 24 letter, released two days after the Justice Department received the report, Barr said Mueller did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. The letter also noted how Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether the president had obstructed justice despite presenting evidence on both sides of the question.

Justice Department officials were confused because Mueller had not made a determination, prompting Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to step in and decide the evidence was insufficient to support an obstruction charge.

The letter did not detail the obstruction evidence Mueller’s team accumulated and did not describe Mueller’s legal analysis as he examined nearly a dozen episodes of potential obstruction.

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