Barr Misrepresents Mueller Report
🟣 Cover-ups & Obstruction ·
Mar–Apr 2019
Summary
When Special Counsel Mueller delivered his 448-page report to AG William Barr on March 22, 2019, Barr then issued a 4-page letter to Congress declaring Mueller had found no collusion and that Barr himself had decided there was no obstruction. Trump immediately claimed ‘total exoneration’, a phrase Mueller’s report explicitly rejects. Three days after Barr’s letter, Mueller wrote to Barr that his summary ‘did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance’ of his work and was causing ‘public confusion about critical aspects of our investigation.’ Barr then held a press conference before releasing the report, once again echoing Trump talking points. A federal judge later reviewed the dispute and found Barr had not been ‘candid’ with the court about his characterization of Mueller’s obstruction analysis. Mueller’s own team expressed frustration that Barr had unilaterally cleared Trump of obstruction, a determination Mueller had deliberately left to Congress, not the AG.
Key Figures
William Barr, Robert Mueller, Donald Trump
Institutions Involved
Sources
- Mueller’s Letter to Barr
- Barr releases Mueller’s report - and feels the heat
- Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election