Attorney General William P. Barr will discuss special counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited final report at a press conference at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Mr. Barr, who will be joined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, will field questions on the nearly 400-page report on whether President Trump or members of his campaign conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election and later tried to obstruct the probe.
Congress and the public won’t be able to view it until after Mr. Barr’s press conference, however. The report will be delivered to Capitol Hill sometime between 11 a.m. and noon, a senior Justice Department official said.
The official added the report will be posted on the special counsel website after it is delivered to Congress.
Democrats were incensed that they won’t know the report’s contents until after Mr. Barr’s conference.
“I’m deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release. Now DOJ is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon — AFTER Barr’s press conference. This is wrong,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said in a tweet.
He later told reporters his committee would likely call on Mr. Mueller and members of his team to testify.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat and House Intelligence Committee chairman, accused Mr. Barr of trying to spin the report on behalf of the president.
“This is not justice. Just PR,” he tweeted.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Wednesday that Mr. Trump did not ask Mr. Barr to hold a press conference.
“It was the Department of Justice’s decision to do the press conference tomorrow,” she said.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday he may hold his own press conference after Mr. Barr meets with the media.
“You’ll see a lot of strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a press conference, maybe I’ll do one after that, we’ll see,” the president said in an interview with WMAL Radio’s Larry O’Connor in Washington.
President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign also sent out a fundraising email late Wednesday asking supporters to stand with him ahead of the report’s release.
Even with the report’s redactions, Thursday’s release will shed more light on what Mr. Mueller’s team uncovered during its sprawling, 22-month probe. The special counsel’s team issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for records and interviewed 500 witnesses.
But much is expected to be shielded from the public. Mr. Barr said this month that every page of the report contains confidential grand jury information. The Justice Department has identified four categories of protected information and each one has a different color code to explain the redaction.
Besides grand jury information, the other classified material includes U.S. intelligence information, details about ongoing investigations and any information that could infringe on the personal privacy of “peripheral third parties.”
The redactions will heat up an already white-hot feud between Mr. Barr and congressional Democrats, who say the attorney general reached a predetermined conclusion about Mr. Mueller’s conclusions.
Led by Mr. Nadler, they have argued Mr. Barr must provide the full report with the underlying evidence. The Judiciary Committee last month authorized a subpoena for the version without any redactions. That subpoena has not been issued but could be as early as Thursday.
The subpoena represents Democrats’ increasing frustration with Mr. Barr’s handling of the Mueller probe. They have blasted the attorney general for clearing Mr. Trump of conspiring with Russia after spending just two days reviewing the massive report.
Democrats also have said that Mr. Barr and Mr. Rosenstein took it upon themselves to absolve Mr. Trump of obstruction allegations when Mr. Mueller himself said he could not draw a conclusion.
Mr. Trump’s attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, is preparing a 50-page response to the Mueller probe. The president has repeatedly railed against Mr. Mueller’s investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” and “a hoax.”
But that changed last month after Mr. Barr wrote a four-page letter to Congress saying Mr. Mueller found no evidence the president or members of his campaign conspired with Russia.
Mr. Trump told reporters the report was a “complete and total exoneration,” even after Mr. Barr wrote that the special counsel’s report did not conclude the president committed a crime, but it also did not exonerate him.
After the Justice Department said the report will be released Thursday morning, Mr. Trump revived his complaints about the Mueller probe, including his frequent grievance that Mr. Mueller’s team is biased against him, referring to them as “Trump haters.”
“The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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