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[Page S2535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Attorney General William Barr
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as we speak, Attorney General William
Barr is testifying before a hearing in front of the Judiciary
Committee.
There may not be a member of this administration with more to answer
for than the current Attorney General, and that is a pretty high bar.
His confirmation occurred only a few months ago. Yet, in a short time,
Mr. Barr's conduct has raised damning questions about his impartiality
and about his fitness.
Just last night we learned that Special Counsel Mueller sent a
private letter more than a month ago to the Attorney General that took
issue with Mr. Barr's early description of the Russia investigation's
conclusions.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter dated
March 27, 2019, to Mr. Barr.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
U.S. Department of Justice,
The Special Counsel's Office,
Washington, DC, March 27, 2019.
Re Report of the Special Counsel on the Investigation Into
Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election
and Obstruction of Justice (March 2019).
Hon. William P. Barr,
Attorney General of the United States, Department of Justice,
Washington, DC.
Dear Attorney General Barr: I previously sent you a letter
dated March 25, 2019, that enclosed the introduction and
executive summary for each volume of the Special Counsel's
report marked with redactions to remove any information that
potentially could be protected by Federal Rule of Criminal
Procedure 6(e); that concerned declination decisions; or that
related to a charged case. We also had marked an additional
two sentences for review and have now confirmed that these
sentences can be released publicly.
Accordingly, the enclosed documents are in a form that can
be released to the public consistent with legal requirements
and Department policies. I am requesting that you provide
these materials to Congress and authorize their public
release at this time.
As we stated in our meeting of March 5 and reiterated to
the Department early in the afternoon of March 24, the
introductions and executive summaries of our two-volume
report accurately summarize this Office's work and
conclusions. The summary letter the Department sent to
Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of
March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and
substance of this Office's work and conclusions. We
communicated that concern to the Department on the morning of
March 25. There is now public confusion about critical
aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens
to undermine a central purpose for which the Department
appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public
confidence in the outcome of the investigations. See
Department of Justice, Press Release (May 17, 2017).
While we understand that the Department is reviewing the
full report to determine what is appropriate for public
release--a process that our Office is working with you to
complete--that process need not delay release of the enclosed
materials. Release at this time would alleviate the
misunderstandings that have arisen and would answer
congressional and public questions about the nature and
outcome of our investigation. It would also accord with the
standard for public release of notifications to Congress
cited in your letter. See 28 C.F.R. 609(c) (``the Attorney
General may determine that public release'' of congressional
notifications ``would be in the public interest'').
Sincerely yours,
Robert S. Mueller, III,
Special Counsel.
Mr. SCHUMER. What a stunning indictment of the Attorney General,
whose principal job in all of this was to make sure--to make sure--that
he wasn't mischaracterizing or spinning results. This letter shows what
an awful, awful Attorney General Mr. Barr has been so far. I will have
more to say on this later.