President Trump’s former defense attorney says it was a “unprofessional” for Robert Mueller to send a protest letter to Attorney General William Barr that later leaked to the press.
John Dowd, whose unofficial role today is to continue to publicly defend the president, said Mr. Barr offered to let Mr. Mueller read his summation of the special counsel’s report before its release. Mr. Mueller declined.
Mr. Mueller then reacted to the memo by sending “a bit snitty” (Mr. Barr’s words) letter of complaint.
“That’s absolutely unprofessional,” Mr. Dowd told The Washington Times. “I go back to the 400 pager. Why are you jamming the attorney general with a 400-page report that you are declining charges. It was only to force him to dump it into the public trough. It is such a farce and for Mueller to be part of it is ridiculous. It is shameful.”
Peter Carr, Mr. Mueller’s spokesman, declined to comment.
The Mueller complaint letter got leaked to the press on the eve of the attorney general’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on Wednesday. Democrats cited the letter to bombard Mr. Barr with accusatory questions.
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The chronology: Mr. Mueller submitted his report to Mr. Barr, his long time friend, on March 22. The report needed to be cleansed of classified and grand jury information.
While waiting for that weeks-long process, Mr. Barr issued a March 24 memo on Mr. Mueller’s two key findings: no Russia-Trump conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election; evidence of Trump obstruction but no recommendation. Mr. Barr said he, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, concluded there was insufficient evidence of obstruction.
Two days later, Mr. Mueller sent his letter to Mr. Barr.
“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mr. Mueller said.
On April 17, Mr. Barr released the Mueller report with relatively light redactions.
Mr. Dowd said the Mueller attack and the leak are part of a pattern of the special counsel’s staff.
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“I suspected they were up to no good just like the president predicted,” Mr. Dowd said. “His instinct were right from the beginning. These guys are up to no good. These guys are trying to get me.”
He added, “I think it was designed just like his report was designed to keep the narrative going.”
• Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com.
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