Mueller report to Congress, public by April

The US Justice Department will release Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation to Congress and the public by "mid-April, if not sooner", Attorney General Bill Barr has said.

In a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Friday, Barr said his department is "well along" making redactions, with Mueller's assistance and "there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review", CNN reported.

The exact length of the report has been shrouded in secrecy, but Barr said on Friday that it was "nearly 400 pages long", not including appendices and tables, and "sets forth the Special Counsel's findings, his analysis, and the reasons for his conclusions".

Barr also offered to testify shortly after the report is released, suggesting May 1 for the Senate committee and May 2 for the House committee.

On March 24, Barr released a four-page summary of Mueller's principal conclusions, which he made clear that it was not meant to be an "exhaustive recounting of the Special Counsel's investigation or report".

In that summary, Barr said that the Russia investigation "did not establish" that President Donald Trump's campaign conspired with the Russian government before the 2016 election, but Mueller did not draw a conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice.

Barr further confirmed that the Justice Department and Muller's team were working to redact four types of information from the report: grand jury material, sensitive intelligence material, information that involves ongoing investigations, and "information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties".

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York issued a statement on Friday responding to Barr's letter by insisting that Democrats want the full Mueller report without redactions, CNN reported.

"As I informed the Attorney General earlier this week, Congress requires the full and complete Mueller report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence, by April 2. That deadline still stands," Nadler said.

But Georgia Representative Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, accused Nadler of setting arbitrary deadlines for Barr to release the report, and said Nadler's demand for Barr not to redact grand jury and other information amounted to calling for "the attorney general to break the law by releasing the report without redactions".

The Justice Department is likely to miss the Democrats' April 2 deadline, though House Democrats have not yet said what they will do afterward.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, meanwhile, said of Barr's letter: "I look forward to hearing from Attorney General Barr on May 1."

--IANS

ksk