"Prior to making the redacted version of the Mueller report public, Barr released a four-page letter supposedly summarizing the report. In that letter, Barr told Congress that Mueller had not reached a decision about whether the president should be indicted for obstructing justice. Barr added that he had reviewed the evidence and found it to be "not sufficient" to conclude that the president had committed a crime.
Once the nearly full text of the Mueller report was released, however, it became obvious that Mueller's decision not to draw a conclusion about the obstruction question hinged on two factors: longstanding Justice Department precedent that forbids the indictment of a sitting president, and Mueller's belief that Congress was the constitutionally appropriate body to determine the question of obstruction (and the related question of impeachment).
Barr's March 24 letter to Congress, Amash wrote on Tuesday, "selectively quotes and summarizes points in Mueller's report in misleading ways." Amash zeroed-in on Barr's claim that the White House "fully cooperated" with the investigation. In fact, as the Mueller report makes clear, investigators sought to interview the president directly and instead had to settle for written answers, which Amash said were "incomplete or unresponsive."
Certainly, Trump was
well within his rights to refuse to comply with a voluntary request for an interview with Mueller. But Barr's description of the White House's full and complete cooperation with the investigation is an exaggeration at best.
Indeed, Mueller has
claimed the attorney general's summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the report—though it is admittedly difficult to distill a 400-plus page report into a
four-page letter. Barr did eventually release the full report, so Amash's (and others) complaints about Barr's misleading letter are effectively a complaint about the head of the Justice Department's role in doing public relations for the president."
Justin Amash Blasts Attorney General Barr: 'The Public and Congress Were Misled'
