Mueller investigators: Trump's AG hiding how bad the report is for Trump

Americans don’t know what’s in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, thanks to Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, covering it up. But people who do know what’s in the report — some of Mueller’s investigators — aren’t thrilled with what Barr has done, especially since it downplayed how damaging the report is to Trump.

Barr’s four-page “summary” of Mueller’s findings was laughably light on any details from the report itself. However, it didn’t need to be. The investigators on Mueller’s team wrote several summaries, and some of them think Barr should have incorporated that material into his letter.

The summaries covered different sections of the report and were designed to be public. An unnamed official said that the entire report itself was prepared in such a way that the beginning material from each section could have been released immediately and with few to no redactions. But instead of fairly presenting the report’s conclusions, Barr substituted his own.

It should surprise no one that Barr’s summary likely didn’t truly reflect the conclusions in the Mueller report. Barr auditioned for the attorney general job by endorsing Trump’s firing of James Comey and saying that Hillary Clinton should be investigated.

There was also the unsolicited 19-page memo Barr sent to the Department of Justice last year before he was nominated, in which he explained his belief that Trump couldn’t be investigated for obstruction of justice. Of course, Barr’s summary of the Mueller report ended up absolving Trump of that very crime.

It’s highly likely the actual report isn’t nearly so favorable to Trump. In fact, it looks a lot like Trump now knows that, because he is markedly less enthusiastic about the full report being released than he used to be.

Bill Barr was brought aboard by Trump precisely because he would work to protect Trump from the consequences of Mueller’s investigation. He’s succeeded thus far, dragging his feet on redacting the report and refusing to give the report to Congress.

But he can’t defy Congress forever. The House Judiciary Committee just voted to authorize a subpoena for the entire and unredacted report and some Democrats have also said they want Mueller to testify.

Eventually, the truth will come out. And Trump isn’t going to like it a bit.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.