Barr: Mueller report will be public ‘within a week’

WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr told congressional lawmakers Tuesday he expects to release a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to Congress and the public within a week. Barr appeared at a House Appropriations Committee hearing to testify about the White House’s 2020 budget request for the Department of Justice, but questions about Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. president election quickly took center stage.

Democrats questioned whether Barr’s four-page summary of Mueller’s findings, which he gave to Congress in late March, accurately described the investigation. They also asked Barr to explain his decision not to prosecute President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice after Mueller declined to make a judgment one way or the other.

Barr said he stood by the accuracy of his summary and would wait to comment further on the report after it is released. He plans to redact from the report any grand jury material, information that would compromise sensitive sources and methods, facts that could affect ongoing investigations, and anything that could infringe on the personal privacy and reputation of “peripheral third parties.” He said members of his team and Mueller’s will provide notes explaining the reason for each redaction.

Barr also reminded Democrats on the panel that he is following redaction guidelines established under the Clinton administration after the public release of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s full report. Starr investigated President Bill Clinton’s real estate dealings, accusations of sexual assault, and extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which eventually led to Clinton’s impeachment trial in the Senate. The Senate voted mostly along party lines not to remove Clinton from office.