William Barr and his allies were reportedly frustrated with Robert Mueller, too

On Tuesday night, we learned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was disconcerted enough about how Attorney General William Barr had characterized his office's report on Russian election interference and obstruction of justice that he put his concerns in writing, sending them to Barr in a letter. But the frustration was apparently mutual.

"Some senior Justice Department officials were frustrated by Mueller's complaints because they had expected that the report would reach them with proposed redactions, but it did not," The Washington Post reports. "Even when Mueller sent along his suggested redactions, those covered only a few areas of protected information, and the documents required further review." In a phone call after Barr received Mueller's letter, "Barr also took issue with Mueller calling his memo a 'summary,' saying he had never intended to summarize the voluminous report, but instead provide an account of its top conclusions," the Post says.

Three people with direct knowledge of the communication between the two men told The New York Times that "Barr and senior Justice Department officials were frustrated with how Mr. Mueller ended his investigation and drafted his report," expressing "irritation that Mr. Mueller fell short of his assignment by declining to make a decision about whether Mr. Trump broke the law. That left Mr. Barr to clear Mr. Trump without the special counsel's backing." Barr and other senior law enforcement officials also believed that Mueller's report "read like it had been written for consumption by Congress and the public, not like a confidential report to Mr. Barr, as required under the regulations governing the special counsel," the Times reports.

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