White House lawyers were allowed to see Special Counsel Robert Mueller's private report days before a redacted version of it was to be released to Congress and the public, The New York Times reports. Department of Justice officials apparently had "numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller," with Axios' Jonathan Swan confirming that Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, "just told me he first saw the Mueller report on Tuesday afternoon."
Some critics have cried foul over Trump's team getting to see the report ahead of the public. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin called it a "cherry picking" of legal strategy that Barr would let the White House team review the report before letting it go to Congress.
While Barr emphasized in his press conference that Trump's team did not exercise any power over what portions of the report were redacted, the decision to let the White House get a sneak peek could still be consequential, the Times reports, writing "the information that Justice Department officials have provided to the White House could potentially be valuable for Mr. Trump's legal team as it finalizes a rebuttal to the Mueller report" and that "the president's aides have devised a strategy for numerous lawyers and political aides to quickly read different parts of the document to develop a rebuttal strategy." Read more about the White House legal team's early access to the report at The New York Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
