A redacted version of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller is expected to be released to Congress and to the public by the Justice Department on Thursday morning, a department official said Monday.
The report, totaling more than 300 pages, details Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the question of whether President Donald Trump‘s campaign colluded with Russian agents in that meddling.
The Justice Department has had Mueller’s full report since the special counsel submitted it on March 22.
Attorney General William Barr, in a four-page summary of the report’s main conclusions, has said that the special counsel found no evidence that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians.
Barr also has said that based on the report, both he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found no reason to believe that Trump obstructed justice in the case.
Barr last Wednesday told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the report would be released this week.
But he spelled out four categories of redactions he plansned to make before releasing the report to Congress and the public.
Those areas include including information related to the grand jury used by the special counsel during his probe, and information related to ongoing investigations.
Congressional Democrats, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., have argued that they are entitled to view the entire report without redactions, and have demanded that Barr provide it to them. The Judiciary Committee two weeks voted to authorize a subpoena for the unredacted report. That subpoena has not been issued, as yet.
Trump has repeatedly railed against Mueller’s investigation, calling it a “witch hunt,” even after claiming that the report totally exonerated him.
But the special counsel specifically said in the report, according to Barr’s summary, that “while the report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Trump vented about Mueller’s probe on Monday, about a half-hour after the Justice Department announced the report would be released.
