Tune in to watch the next phase on the Hill this morning.
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Bob Mueller doesn’t seem happy with Bill Barr. (Andrew Harnik, File/AP)
BOMBSHELL: “Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump ‘did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance’ of Mueller’s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by The Washington Post,” our colleagues Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky scooped last night.
‘SHOCKED’: Mueller’s letter, sent to Barr on March 27 — just days after Barr released his preliminary four-page summary of the Mueller report that led to President Trump claiming “complete and total exoneration” in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election — « shocked” senior officials at the Justice Department. In the letter, Mueller requested that Barr release his report’s introductions and executive summaries:
A DOJ spokespersondescribed the special counsel as having “expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the Special Counsel’s obstruction analysis,” but that Barr “ultimately determined that it would not be productive to release the report in piecemeal fashion.”
GAME CHANGER?: This all makes Barr’s testimony this morning at 10a.m. before the Senate Judiciary Commitee seriously must see TV.
FEAR FACTOR: Lawmakers may question Barr about a discrepancy between his answers to the Senate about communications with Mueller when he testified before them at the end of March.
On April 20th, I asked Barr, “Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?” His answer was, “I don’t know whether Mueller supported my conclusion.
