Attorney General Bill Barr is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election — a day after it was revealed that Mueller sent him a letter objecting to his March 24 characterization of the report’s findings.
Catch up quick: Barr told Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that if Mueller felt as if he could not make a prosecutorial decision on the question of obstruction of justice, then he “shouldn’t have investigated it. That was the time to pull up.” When pressed on his March 24 letter clearing Trump of obstruction, Barr said: “I didn’t exonerate. I said that we did not believe there was sufficient evidence to establish an obstruction offense, which is the job of the Justice Department.”
On the process of releasing the report:
Barr said that he told Mueller in a phone call that he “wasn’t interested” in putting out the special counsel’s prepared summaries in a “piecemeal” fashion, despite Mueller’s requests.
View the complete May 1 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.