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  3. After reports Mueller's team was annoyed with the attorney general's summary of their work, the DOJ says the Mueller report can't be released yet because every page contains confidential information

After reports Mueller's team was annoyed with the attorney general's summary of their work, the DOJ says the Mueller report can't be released yet because every page contains confidential information

Grace Panetta   

After reports Mueller's team was annoyed with the attorney general's summary of their work, the DOJ says the Mueller report can't be released yet because every page contains confidential information

FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after briefing the U.S. House Intelligence Committee on his investigation of potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/File Photo

  • The Department of Justice publicly defended Attorney General William Barr's decision to release a four-page letter on the contents of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election on Thursday.
  • The DOJ released a statement explaining that every page of the report, which is more than 400 pages in length, has sensitive grand jury information that has to be redacted before the report can be released.
  • The DOJ's defense comes after The New York Times and the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Mueller's team of prosecutors was frustrated with Barr's characterization of the report.

The Department of Justice publicly defended Attorney General William Barr's decision to release a four-page letter on the contents of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election on Thursday.

The DOJ released a statement explaining that every page of the report, which Barr confirmed is more than 400 pages in length, has sensitive grand jury information that has to be redacted before the report can be released.

"Every page of the confidential report provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22, 2019 was marked 'may contain material protected under Fed. R. Crim P. 6(e)' - a law that protections confidential grand jury information - and therefore could not be released," the statement explained.

The DOJ's defense comes after The New York Times and the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Mueller's team of prosecutors was frustrated with Barr's characterization of the report, and confused as to why Barr didn't use one of the many summaries of the report that their team produced.

People familiar with the prosecutorial team told the Washington Post they believed Barr's letter on Mueller's report downplayed the fact that "the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant."

The letter said that Mueller's team did not come to a "traditional prosecutorial decision" on whether there was sufficient evidence to prove that Trump committed offenses related to obstruction of justice and "did not come to a conclusion either way."

Barr announced on Friday that he plans to make the special counsel Robert Mueller's final report in the Russia investigation available to Congress and the public by mid-April or sooner.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, Barr said he is working with Mueller to release as much of the report as possible to the public.

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