William Barr Hopes to Update Lawmakers on Mueller Report This Weekend
No new charges are recommended, a Justice Department official says.
Mr. Mueller did not suggest additional charges as part of his investigation, when he delivered his findings to Mr. Barr on Friday. This caps the special counsel’s charges at 199, filed against 34 people and three companies.
The “principal conclusions” of the special counsel investigation, which Mr. Barr said he might be able to share with lawmakers in the coming days, are not likely to include many details. In a letter to lawmakers, Mr. Barr said he would consult with Mr. Mueller and the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, about what other information from the report can be released.
The investigation is over. Now what?
Mr. Mueller’s report could be brief or several hundred pages. It is now up to Mr. Barr to decide how much of it to share with Congress, and when.
The late Friday afternoon news dump in Washington is typically reserved space by those wishing to bury bad news. In the case of Mr. Mueller’s report, bad news is most assuredly in the eye of the beholder.
Trump’s lawyers offer a brief statement.
Shortly after the report was delivered, Jay Sekulow and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, offered a brief statement:
“We’re pleased that the Office of Special Counsel has delivered its report to the Attorney General pursuant to the regulations,” they said. “Attorney General Barr will determine the appropriate next steps.”
The Mueller investigation was closed without Mr. Trump ever sitting for a formal interview. The president’s lawyers were fearful of what he might say under penalty of perjury, and did not want him to sit for one. They anticipated that Mr. Mueller would not engage in a protracted battle to try to subpoena the president, and Mr. Mueller never did. The investigators did receive written answers to questions.
Among those traveling with Mr. Trump to Florida aboard Air Force One on Friday was the new White House counsel, Pat Cipollone. The counsel’s office anticipates reviewing the report for possible issues related to executive privilege.
With the delivery of the report looming, in Florida, at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Mr. Trump and his top aides stuck to business as usual: meeting with five Caribbean leaders, placing a phone call to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and, of course, tweeting.
But a sense of anxiety loomed, and Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts added to the confusion on a day in which everyone around Mr. Trump was bracing for the end of the Russia investigation and what it might mean for his presidency. A confusing tweet by Mr. Trump at 1:22 p.m. seemed to roll back sanctions on North Korea, undermining his Treasury secretary, although later in the day, officials tried to clarify that Mr. Trump was talking about sanctions that were under consideration but not yet announced.
Aides were waiting to see what language Mr. Mueller’s team used in the report about the president’s actions before pushing ahead with a more vocal response.
Bipartisan demands pour in to release the full report.
Mr. Trump has said that the report should be made public. But lawmakers are not relying on him.
In a joint statement, the two top Democrats in Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer said that “it is imperative for Mr. Barr to make the full report public and provide its underlying documentation and findings to Congress. Attorney General Barr must not give President Trump, his lawyers or his staff any ‘sneak preview’ of Special Counsel Mueller’s findings or evidence, and the White House must not be allowed to interfere in decisions about what parts of those findings or evidence are made public.”
Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, echoed that sentiment.
“Congress and the American people deserve to judge the facts for themselves,” Mr. Warner said. “The special counsel’s report must be provided to Congress immediately, and the attorney general should swiftly prepare a declassified version of the report for the public. Nothing short of that will suffice.”
He pointedly added, “Any attempt by the Trump administration to cover up the results of this investigation into Russia’s attack on our democracy would be unacceptable.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stopped short of calling for full disclosure.
“I will work with Ranking Member Feinstein and our House Judiciary Committee colleagues to ensure as much transparency as possible, consistent with the law,” he said.
Only a few Justice Department officials have seen the report.
Only a handful of law enforcement officials have seen the report, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec.
Justice Department officials notified the White House about 20 minutes before telling lawmakers, Ms. Kupec said.
A security officer from the special counsel’s office delivered the report to the deputy attorney general, Mr. Rosenstein, on Friday afternoon, and it was handed off to Mr. Barr within minutes.
After top officials looked through the report, Mr. Barr’s chief of staff, Brian Rabbitt, called Emmet T. Flood, a lawyer representing the president in the Russia investigation, just after 4:30 p.m. to let him know that the department had the report.
While the White House was not given the report, Mr. Rabbitt gave Mr. Flood a readout of the letter that would be delivered to Congress. The letter included important details, including the fact that Mr. Barr’s summary of Mr. Mueller’s key findings be sent to legislators as early as Sunday evening. It also said that there were no instances when Mr. Rosenstein, the former acting attorney general, Matthew P. Whitaker, or Mr. Barr told Mr. Mueller that he could not pursue an investigative action.
The Justice Department said that the investigation was complete and that any department lawyers who were working on Mr. Mueller’s team would return to their positions. A small number of special counsel staff will remain on, to assist in closing the operations of the special counsel’s office. And Mr. Mueller himself will remain the special counsel as loose ends are tied up.
Democratic 2020 candidates focus on transparency.
Democratic presidential candidates wasted no time Friday evening demanding that the special counsel’s finding be made public immediately — and trying to build up their electronic lists of supporters by blasting out email about the report.
With no detailed information available about the report, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris sought to focus attention and pressure on how quickly Mr. Barr would release it.
“Attorney General Barr — release the Mueller report to the American public. Now,” Senator Warren wrote on Twitter.
“I am demanding the Mueller report be made immediately available for members of Congress and for the public. Anything short of full transparency will be detrimental to our country moving forward,” Senator Booker tweeted.
“Special counsel Mueller’s report should be made public without any delay,” Senator Gillibrand said. She also retweeted the news of the report along with three words: “See you Sunday.” That’s when Ms. Gillibrand is planning to formally kick off her campaign in front of Trump International Tower in New York.
Senator Harris, in addition to calling for the report to be released “immediately,” called on Attorney General Barr to “publicly testify under oath about the investigation and its findings.” And Senators Harris and Warren emailed supporters to sign their petitions calling for the report’s immediate release.
Five additional candidates — Senators Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders; former Representatives Beto O’Rourke and John Delaney; and Julián Castro — also called for the release of the full report.
“As Donald Trump said, ‘Let it come out,’” Senator Sanders wrote on Twitter. “I call on the Trump administration to make Special Counsel Mueller’s full report public as soon as possible. No one, including the president, is above the law.”
Fired F.B.I. director urges public to look beyond politics
Since the investigation began, Americans have been guessing about what, if anything, Mr. Mueller would uncover. Mr. Trump has used an all-purpose shorthand to describe his view of the inquiry: “witch hunt.”
James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director who was fired by Mr. Trump for his role in the investigation, in Op-Ed published Thursday in The New York Times, urged the country to look at the inquiry in a different way, beyond partisan politics.
“I am rooting for a demonstration to the world — and maybe most of all to our president and his enablers — that the United States has a justice system that works because there are people who believe in it and rise above personal interest and tribalism,” he wrote.
On television, cue the speculation
Throughout Friday, journalists waited anxiously for word of the delivery of the special counsel report to Mr. Barr. Cable news pundits and anchors filled airtime with speculations about whether the report would land on Friday and what it might say.
Then, just after 5 p.m., news came that the report had been delivered — without any hint about what it actually said. A CBS anchor broke into postgame coverage of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament to inform viewers about the report’s arrival. On CNN, Wolf Blitzer read aloud from a printout of the letter that Mr. Barr had sent to members of Congress.
Democrats have already started investigating the president.
Many Democrats, notably Ms. Pelosi, have played down the prospect of bringing impeachment proceedings against the president.
But several House committees have started investigations into the president’s possible connection to Russia, the role of several members of his family may have played, and a broad menu of other matters, including his personal finances.
How we got here.
The Mueller investigation has had many plotlines, crossing oceans and delivering indictments. It can be confusing to keep track of it all. Take a look at this story to help sort it out.
Here is what we know so far.
Trump undermined the report before it arrived.
Mr. Trump has been trying to lay the predicate for undermining the report. On Wednesday he said of Mr. Mueller, “But it’s sort of interesting that a man, out of the blue, just writes a report.”
Mr. Mueller did not randomly or arbitrarily decide to write a report. It is mandated by regulations on the appointment of a special counsel.
“At the conclusion of the special counsel’s work, he or she shall provide the attorney general with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the special counsel,” the regulations say.
Then, in an interview aired on Fox on Friday, he went on to question the authority of the Justice Department to render a judgment on an elected official. “Well, it’s always interesting to me because a deputy that didn’t get any votes appoints a man that didn’t get any votes — he’s going to write a report on me,” Mr. Trump said. “Comey’s his best friend.”
The special counsel role is not an elected office, but the same can be said of the attorney general, deputy attorney general, or hundreds of other top officials serving in the government. Special counsels appointments occur when a potential conflict of interest arises from the executive branch of government investigating itself. Mr. Mueller was appointed by Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who was in turn nominated by Mr. Trump.
James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, has denied that he is “best friends” with Mr. Mueller, and Mr. Comey’s lawyer has said the two men are friendly colleagues, but “don’t really have a personal relationship.” (Mr. Barr, however, has said that he and Mr. Mueller are personal friends.)
The beat goes on in the Southern District of New York.
The senior prosecutor who led the case against Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, announced Friday that he would leave his job as deputy United States attorney in Manhattan. Mr. Cohen has pleaded guilty to making hush payments to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. The case, which has the potential to threaten Mr. Trump’s presidency, is separate from the special counsel investigation and will continue.