Day 831: Mueller to Barr: you mischaracterized my report

Robert Mueller didn’t spend nearly two years investigating all things Donald Trump-Russia to have his report spun for political gain by a partisan attorney general, it seems.

According to a report by The Washington Post, Mueller was exasperated watching William Barr mischaracterize the special counsel’s report’s findings, going so far as to write Barr a pointed letter.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by The Washington Post.

The letter and a subsequent phone call between the two men reveal the degree to which the longtime colleagues and friends disagreed as they handled the legally and politically fraught task of investigating the president. Democrats in Congress are likely to scrutinize Mueller’s complaints to Barr as they contemplate the prospect of opening impeachment proceedings and mull how hard to press for Mueller himself to testify publicly.

The issue bubbled for Mueller almost immediately after Barr began to do Trump’s bidding.

Days after Barr’s announcement, Mueller wrote the previously undisclosed private letter to the Justice Department, laying out his concerns in stark terms that shocked senior Justice Department officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Mueller requested that the 448-page report’s executive summaries and introductions be released to the public after saying Barr’s comments caused “public confusion” and “undermine[d] a central purpose” of the investigation: “assur[ing] full public confidence in the outcome of the investigation.”

Mueller’s letter guaranteed a record of his displeasure in a way that a simple phone call would not. He likely did not want his comments later interpreted or reported wrong by Barr.

Barr is set to testify in front of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. The Post’s report is certain to generate a number of questions — and heat — directed toward Barr.

831 days in, 631 to go

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