A.G. Barr to Release Redacted Copy of Mueller Report in Mid-April

Courtesy: MGN
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The Justice Department says Attorney General William Barr will hold a news conference Thursday morning on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

The news conference will be held at 6:30 a.m. PT at the Justice Department in Washington. Barr will be joined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The Justice Department has said a redacted version of Mueller's report will be released Thursday.

Mueller officially concluded his investigation late last month and submitted a nearly 400-page report to Barr.

The findings from the nearly two-year probe are expected to be sent to Congress and made available to the public. The redactions are expected to cover grand jury testimony, material related to ongoing investigations and other sensitive information.

The investigation officially ended late last month. A confidential report sent to Barr was followed by a four-page letter to Congress that said the special counsel didn't find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates.

But Mueller did not reach a definitive conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Instead, Barr said he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to prove that Trump had obstructed justice.

Last week Attorney General William Barr said a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report would be coming "hopefully next week."

The timeline mentioned by Barr at a Senate hearing on his department's budget is a tweak from comments he made a day earlier. Barr said at a House hearing Tuesday that the report was coming "within a week."

Barr made the comments as senators questioned him on the specifics of the report and what he would be redacting. Democrats have said they won't accept redactions and will fight to get the full report.

Mueller concluded his nearly two-year Russia investigation in late March. The special counsel submitted a nearly 400-page confidential report to Barr. The attorney general sent his four-page letter to Congress two days later.

Democrats have raised questions about how Barr was so quickly able to boil down Mueller's report into four pages.

He says Mueller wasn't involved in preparing the letter to Congress because it was "my letter."

He says Mueller's report will have portions redacted but they would be color-coded to indicate why the information could not be made public.

Barr says grand jury information, details that could reveal confidential intelligence sources and information that would interfere with ongoing cases will be redacted.

Barr said in a four-page summary of Mueller's main conclusions that Mueller didn't find a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Kremlin.

The attorney general has also said that Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice. Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided the evidence was insufficient to establish obstruction.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin says special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation report validated Moscow's repeated denials of collusion with U.S. between President Donald Trump's campaign.

Speaking at an Arctic forum in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Putin said claims of collusion by Democrats reflect their failure to accept the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Putin says he thinks their attacks on Trump are a disrespect to voters and reflect a crisis of the U.S. political system.

The Russian leader said he hopes partisan fighting in Washington eases so the U.S. and Russia can focus on issues of mutual interest, such as nuclear arms control, fighting terrorism and climate change. Asked if Russia would support Trump's re-election in 2020, Putin said only that Moscow would "respect the choice of the American people."

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