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NYT: Some on Mueller’s Team Say Report Was More Damaging Than Barr Revealed

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The New York Times reports that some of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team members say the report as briefly summarized by Attorney General William Barr — which led President Donald Trump to declare himself totally and completely exonerated — was more damaging that Barr revealed. This comes as the clamor for the full report to be released increases, and as Barr missed a Congressional deadline to deliver the full report to Congress.

Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.

At stake in the dispute — the first evidence of tension between Mr. Barr and the special counsel’s office — is who shapes the public’s initial understanding of one of the most consequential government investigations in American history. Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public.

Mr. Barr has said he will move quickly to release the nearly 400-page report but needs time to scrub out confidential information. The special counsel’s investigators had already written multiple summaries of the report, and some team members believe that Mr. Barr should have included more of their material in the four-page letter he wrote on March 24 laying out their main conclusions, according to government officials familiar with the investigation. Mr. Barr only briefly cited the special counsel’s work in his letter.

However, the special counsel’s office never asked Mr. Barr to release the summaries soon after he received the report, a person familiar with the investigation said. And the Justice Department quickly determined that the summaries contain sensitive information, like classified material, secret grand-jury testimony and information related to current federal investigations that must remain confidential, according to two government officials.

And:

Mr. Barr was also wary of departing from Justice Department practice not to disclose derogatory details in closing an investigation, according to two government officials familiar with Mr. Barr’s thinking. They pointed to the decision by James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, to harshly criticize Hillary Clinton in 2016 while announcing that he was recommending no charges in the inquiry into her email practices.

Read Attorney General William Barr’s Summary of the Mueller Report
The letter, by Attorney General William P. Barr, details the main findings of the special counsel’s two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The officials and others interviewed declined to flesh out why some of the special counsel’s investigators viewed their findings as potentially more damaging for the president than Mr. Barr explained, although the report is believed to examine Mr. Trump’s efforts to thwart the investigation. It was unclear how much discussion Mr. Mueller and his investigators had with senior Justice Department officials about how their findings would be made public. It was also unclear how widespread the vexation is among the special counsel team, which included 19 lawyers, about 40 F.B.I. agents and other personnel.

This is a significant story:

  • It suggests members of Mueller’s team aren’t happy with how they see their report being presented.
  • Trump has (easily) shattered many norms during his time in office (and in his campaign). But there was always an underlying assumption expressed by some non-Trumpista commentators that Mueller and the intelligence community would never allow their findings to be buried. It seemed as if this was a false assumption as well (as they saying goes “assume” makes an “ass” of “u” and “me”).
  • This suggests more leaks may be in the offing and it may indeed be that much of the report’s findings will come to light and not in as delayed manner as Trump and Barr apparently desire.








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