{"slug":"trump-barr-mueller-report-misrepresentation","title":"Barr's Mueller Report Summary: Misrepresented Findings, Withheld Report for Weeks","date":"2019-03-22","lastUpdated":"2019-05-29","description":"Attorney General William Barr received the Mueller Report on March 22, 2019. Rather than releasing it immediately, he sent Congress and the public a 4-page summary letter on March 24 that Mueller and his team concluded 'did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance' of their work. Barr withheld the report for 27 days. When the report was released with redactions on April 18, it revealed that Mueller had not exonerated Trump on obstruction of justice — the opposite of what Barr's letter had implied. Mueller himself wrote Barr a letter expressing concern that the summary had mischaracterized his conclusions.","summary":"Mueller's investigation documented ten episodes of potential obstruction of justice and concluded that while it could not exonerate Trump, it also could not reach a traditional prosecutorial judgment because of the OLC opinion barring indictment of a sitting president. Barr's summary letter stated 'the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia' and that Mueller had 'not established that members of the Trump campaign conspired.' On obstruction, Barr stated on his own authority that the evidence was 'not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense' — an independent judgment Mueller had explicitly declined to make.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/politics/mueller-barr-letter.html","title":"Mueller Letter Warned Barr That Summary Did Not Capture 'Context, Nature, and Substance'","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-complained-that-barrs-four-page-summary-did-not-capture-context-nature-of-findings/2019/04/30/d7c4c7f4-6b59-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html","title":"Mueller complained that Barr's summary did not capture context, nature of findings","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf","title":"Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election","publisher":"U.S. Department of Justice"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/barr-mueller-letter-report-misrepresentation","title":"Mueller letter contradicts Barr's account of obstruction findings","publisher":"The Associated Press"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Barr","Mueller","obstruction","rule-of-law","first-term","Russia","report"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2019-03-22","title":"Mueller Report submitted to Barr","summary":"Mueller submits his 448-page report to Attorney General Barr. The report documents ten episodes of potential obstruction of justice and declines to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment on obstruction, citing the OLC opinion."},{"date":"2019-03-24","title":"Barr sends 4-page summary letter to Congress","summary":"Barr sends a four-page summary letter stating that Mueller found insufficient evidence of conspiracy and that Barr himself concluded the evidence was insufficient to establish obstruction. The letter implies Mueller's investigation resulted in no adverse findings against Trump."},{"date":"2019-03-27","title":"Mueller writes to Barr — summary misrepresented report","summary":"Mueller sends Barr a letter stating the summary letter 'did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance' of the investigation and that the resulting confusion threatened public confidence in the investigation's integrity. This letter is not disclosed to Congress or the public for weeks."},{"date":"2019-04-18","title":"Redacted Mueller Report released","summary":"Barr releases the redacted Mueller Report, 27 days after receiving it. The report reveals the ten obstruction episodes and Mueller's explicit statement that he could not exonerate Trump. The gap between the summary letter's implications and the actual report becomes apparent."},{"date":"2019-04-30","title":"Mueller's letter revealed publicly","summary":"The Washington Post reports on Mueller's March 27 letter to Barr. Mueller testifies in writing to Congress that his letter was accurate. Barr's congressional testimony — in which he said he wasn't sure Mueller disagreed with him — is exposed as misleading."},{"date":"2019-05-29","title":"Mueller makes public statement","summary":"Mueller delivers a public statement at the Justice Department, stating that charging Trump was 'not an option we could consider' under DOJ policy and that the report speaks for itself. He declines to say Trump committed obstruction but explicitly declines to say he didn't."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Public right to accurate information; congressional oversight function; obstruction victims including witnesses who were pressured","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"William Barr","role":"Attorney General; received Mueller Report; characterized it in a 4-page letter that Mueller said misrepresented it","institution":"Department of Justice"},{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Subject of the report; beneficiary of Barr's characterization","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2019-05-29","summary":"Updated with Mueller's public statement."}]}}