Robert Mueller wrote letter slamming ‘confusing’ way US Attorney General William Barr portrayed report as clearing Trump
ROBERT Mueller wrote a damning letter expressing frustration about how the findings of his investigation were being portrayed to the public, it has emerged.
The Special Counsel’s letter to Attorney General William Barr last month said he was worried that a document summarising the main conclusions of the probe lacked the necessary context and was creating public confusion about his team’s work.
Mueller communicated his agitation in a letter to the Justice Department just days after Barr issued a four-page document to Congress that summarised his probe.
The Special Counsel had been investigating whether Donald Trump’s campaign had conspired with Russia and whether the president had tried to obstruct the probe.
Mueller and Barr then had a phone call where the same concerns were addressed, it has been reported.
The letter lays bare simmering tensions between the Justice Department and the special counsel about whether Barr’s summary adequately conveyed the gravity of Mueller’s findings.
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 favour.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement: “After the Attorney General received Special Counsel Mueller’s letter, he called him to discuss it.
“In a cordial and professional conversation, the Special Counsel emphasised 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.”
Barr’s letter, released just two days after the Justice Department received the special counsel’s report, said 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 surprised Mueller had not made a determination, prompting Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to step in and decide on their own that the evidence was insufficient to support an obstruction charge.
Barr’s letter did say that Mueller’s team had not exonerated Trump on obstruction nor concluded that he had committed a crime.
However, it did not detail the specific evidence Mueller’s team accumulated or describe Mueller’s legal analysis as he examined nearly a dozen episodes of potential obstruction, including the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
Barr has sought to downplay any disagreements with the special counsel, and has brushed aside allegations that he mischaracterised Mueller’s findings.
The attorney general also did not acknowledge any sort of disagreement with Mueller at a recent Justice Department hearing, saying: “I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion.”
As Mueller shared his frustrations with Barr on the phone call, the men discussed whether additional context from the report could be released.
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But officials said they decided it made more sense to release the bottom-line findings of Mueller’s report rather than include the detailed legal analysis behind them.
They also decided against releasing summaries that Mueller’s team had prepared. Barr has said such summaries run the risk of being either over-inclusive or under-inclusive.
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