Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report about alleged Russian election interference in the 2016 election on behalf of the Donald J. Trump for President campaign has finally been delivered.
CNN’s Manu Raju is reporting that Attorney General William Barr has sent a letter informing the House and Senate Judiciary Committees that Mueller’s report is complete and that Congress may be briefed on the report’s contents as soon as this weekend, after he makes a “determination” about what can be released to the public.
In letter, Bill Barr tells chairs and rankings of House and Senate Judiciary Committees that he may be in a position to brief them on Mueller’s “principal conclusions as soon as this weekend.” He says he will make a determination about what can be released to public and Hill https://t.co/qnLlnmT3BW
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 22, 2019
Most importantly, the letter contains a mandatory disclosure of every time the Special Counsel was denied any indictment or action his team requested. He wrote:
The Special Counsel has submitted to me today a “confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions” he has reached…
Special Counsel Regulations require that I provide you with “a description and explanation of instances (if any) in which the Attorney Genera” or acting Attorney general “concluded that a proposed action by a Special Counsel was so inappropriate… that it should not be pursued.
There were no such instances during the Special Counsel’s investigation.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) released Barr’s letter only minutes after its contents were read over the air live on MSNBC.
The Attorney General says in the letter that he is determining what can be released to Congress with Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Mueller’s prosecution of Trump associate Roger Stone is still pending, and The Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand reports that his associate Andrew Miller’s grand jury testimony is still being sought.
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1109168161348292608
While the White House has announced that no further indictments are expected, the White House has also admitted they have not seen the report and have not been briefed on it either.
The White House does not have the report, according to a Justice official. The attorney general’s chief of staff called White House lawyer Emmet Flood and read the information in Bill Barr’s letter to the Hill, per @LauraAJarrett https://t.co/Ern2ubIUPc
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 22, 2019
We don’t know how many pages Mueller’s report is yet, nor if there are any other actions planned based upon it.
But it is a momentous day, now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference is in the books.
Attorney General Barr’s letter is not the end of the Mueller report, but it is definitely the end of the beginning.
Here’s the letter:
A.G. Barr has confirmed the completion of the Special Counsel investigation. We look forward to getting the full Mueller report and related materials. Transparency and the public interest demand nothing less. The need for public faith in the rule of law must be the priority. pic.twitter.com/QYA2xCR1QW
— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) March 22, 2019
