Barr defends Mueller report decisions

WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr appeared Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russian investigation. Democratic lawmakers have criticized Barr’s handling of the report, including his decision to redact portions and to hold a news conference describing the report before releasing it publicly.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Mueller wrote to Barr out of his concern that the attorney general’s four-page memo describing the special counsel’s principal conclusions “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation. Barr’s letter on March 24 noted that Mueller did not find the Trump campaign conspired with Russians to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He also said Mueller and his team found evidence on both sides of the question of whether Trump obstructed justice but didn’t reach a conclusion. After reviewing the evidence, Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence was insufficient to charge the president with obstruction.

In the letter sent to Barr on March 27 and reviewed by the Post, Mueller wrote, “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.” He also asked Barr to release executive summaries from sections of the investigation ahead of releasing the entire report to ensure public confidence in the report. A day after Mueller sent the letter, he and Barr spoke on the phone. Department of Justice officials told the Post that Mueller said he did not think Barr’s memo was inaccurate, but that “media coverage of it was misinterpreting the investigation” and leading to public confusion.

Barr ultimately chose to wait until he could release the full, redacted report on April 18. “I did not believe that it was in the public interest to release additional portions of the report in piecemeal fashion, leading to a public debate over incomplete information,” Barr told lawmakers in his opening statement on Wednesday morning.

Barr also defended the Justice Deparment’s conclusion on whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice. “The department’s principal responsibility in conducting this investigation was to determine whether the conduct reviewed constituted a crime that the department could prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “It would not have been appropriate for me simply to release Volume II of the report without making a prosecutorial judgment.”

Barr is also scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, but he may not attend due to a disagreement between the Justice Department and committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., over a plan for committee lawyers to also question Barr.