April 9 (UPI) — Attorney General William Barr promised lawmakers Tuesday he will release the full report by special counsel Robert Mueller by next week, with color-coded redactions that describe why some passages are kept confidential.
Appearing before a House appropriations subcommittee, he said information will be redacted if it contains grand jury information, would reveal intelligence sources and methods, interfere with ongoing court cases and the names people who aren’t criminally charged. Barr said each redaction will have “explanatory notes to describe the basis for each redaction.”
“This process is going along well,” Barr said at the hearing Tuesday. “My original time table, releasing this by mid-April, stands from my standpoint. I will be in a position within a week to release the report.”
Appeals for the entire report, which is nearly 400 pages long, came almost immediately after Barr issued a four-page summary of the investigation late last month. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said the summary “understates the level of malfeasance by the president,” and said he was pleased a full report is coming.
“We want to help you do your job, you need to help us do ours,” Serrano said.
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., pressed Barr about how he summarized several hundred pages so quickly and succinctly.
“We have no idea how long it actually is,” Lowey said. “All we have is your four-page summary, which seems to cherry pick from the report to draw the most favorable conclusion possible for the president.”
Barr said he would not discuss the report further, until it’s released.
Barr appeared at the hearing Tuesday to submit the department’s budget requests for fiscal 2020. One issue he stressed was a need for immigration judges. The attorney general said the Trump administration has hired more of the judges in the last two years than the previous seven years combined. The Justice Department will request another $71 million to hire 100 more judges, he said, to bring the total to 634.
Democrats were concerned the department’s budget would cut valuable programs that impact at the community level — including expedited DNA rape kits, community policing and juvenile justice programs.
