Report: Some Mueller investigators say Barr did not accurately portray inquiry findings
Some investigators who worked with Special Counsel Robert Mueller have said Attorney General William Barr did not accurately summarize the findings of their probe, as what they reported was more damaging to President Trump than Barr indicated, people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
Two days after Mueller submitted his nearly 400-page report to Barr last month, the attorney general sent Congress a four-page memo summarizing his takeaways, barely quoting the special counsel's office. Multiple summaries of the report had already been written, the Times reports, and some of the investigators believe Barr should have put more of their conclusions in the memo. Investigators did not ask Barr to release his memo so quickly, and some have expressed concerns that he did so in order to set a positive narrative, before the full report could be released.
Barr wrote in his summary that Mueller did not determine there was any criminal collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but was unable to exonerate Trump of obstruction. The government officials and others who spoke with the Times would not reveal why the investigators thought their findings are "more troubling" than Barr's letter indicates, but it is believed the report looks closely at Trump's attempts to derail the investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 election, the Times reports. Read more about the investigators and friction between their team and the Justice Department at The New York Times.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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