From left, President Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)


By Devlin Barrett and
Karoun Demirjian
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report detailing his investigation of President Trump and Russia’s election interference will be delivered to Congress “by mid-April, if not sooner,” Attorney General William P. Barr said Friday in a letter offering important new details about how the document will be edited before its public release.
[Attorney General William Barr’s letter to Congress detailing plans to deliver the Mueller report]
Barr’s letter aimed to reassure lawmakers and the public that the process for handling the report — which numbers nearly 400 pages, he said — would be aboveboard and fair. It also underscored just how much political distrust may fester as long as the report remains secret, and Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of misrepresenting the contents of a document they haven’t seen.
“Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,” Barr wrote, adding a key new detail — that he does not plan to submit the report to the White House beforehand.
“Although the president would have the right to assert privilege over certain parts of the report, he has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me and, accordingly, there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review,” Barr wrote.
Speaking from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, Trump told reporters Friday afternoon that he was comfortable with Barr’s handling of the high-stakes case.
What to watch for as Barr releases more on the Mueller report
Attorney General William P. Barr has submitted his summary of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report to Congress. Here's what to expect next. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
“I have great confidence in the attorney general, if that’s what he’d like to do,” Trump said. “I have nothing to hide. This was a hoax. This was a witch hunt. I have absolutely nothing to hide.”
Mueller delivered his conclusions to senior leaders at the Justice Department last week. After reviewing the report, the attorney general sent a four-page letter to Congress on Sunday, saying Mueller “did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
Barr’s Sunday letter also said the special counsel withheld judgment on whether Trump tried to obstruct justice during the investigation.
“The Special Counsel . . . did not draw a conclusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction,” Barr wrote in his letter last week describing Mueller’s report. “The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’ ”
Since that Sunday letter, Democrats have demanded to see Mueller’s full report immediately — and they have threatened to issue a subpoena for the document if they don’t get it by Tuesday.
[Democrats say they will accuse Barr of a ‘coverup’ if he delivers incomplete Mueller report]
Barr’s new letter seeks to assuage such concerns and obtain more time to finish his review of Mueller’s work. The attorney general has said he needs to redact any grand jury information from the document, as well as any information that could adversely impact ongoing investigations.
In the Friday letter, Barr said he will also redact any information that would “potentially compromise sources and methods” used for intelligence collection, and any information that would “unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”
That language suggests Barr wants to keep secret any derogatory information gathered by investigators about figures who ended up not being central to Mueller’s investigation.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Barr’s new letter did not satisfy his demands for the complete report. . . .