Mueller complains Barr’s summary did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probe

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has complained in a letter to Attorney General William Barr that the summary of Mueller’s report on the Russia probe “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation’s conclusions, US media report.

Mueller wrote to Barr after the summary of his report was released on March 24 to express frustration over “the lack of context and the resulting media coverage,” particularly about Mueller’s conclusions on President Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The Post said it reviewed a copy of Mueller’s letter. US Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec, in a statement, confirmed the report.

Barr’s four-page summary was released more than three weeks before a redacted version of Mueller’s 448-page report was released to the public on April 18.

“The summary letter the Justice Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote, according to the Post.

“There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations,” the Post quoted Mueller as writing.

Barr said in the summary that Mueller did not establish that members of Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 election. Barr also said in the summary that Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.

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Democratic Party members of Congress have accused Barr of trying to spin the report’s conclusions to protect the Republican president.

In a statement in response to the Post report, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the US House of Representatives, Jerry Nadler, said Barr “should not have taken it upon himself to describe the Special Counsel’s findings in a light more favorable to the President.”

The Democratic lawmaker demanded the Justice Department release a copy of Mueller’s letter to Barr by Wednesday morning.

Mueller, a former FBI director, had been examining since May 2017 whether Trump’s election campaign colluded with Moscow to try to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether he later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.

Both Trump and Russia have repeatedly denied the accusations. Trump has sought to discredit the investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” and accusing Mueller of conflicts of interest.

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