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.