U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that work continues inside the Justice Department on possible redactions to the Special Counsel's report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections, as Barr told Congress that the report should be out soon.
"From my standpoint, within a week, I will be in a position to release the report to the public," Barr told the House Appropriations Committee at a hearing on the Justice Department's budget.
Barr said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been working with Justice Department officials to identify material in four different categories, which would be redacted from any public report.
"We will color code the excisions from the report, and we will provide explanatory notes describing the basis for each redaction," the Attorney General added.
Asked if information from the Mueller report had been shared with the White House, Barr did not give a direct answer.
"I believe the American people deserve to see the full report," said Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), who began the hearing by noting the 'elephant in the room.'
Pressed for further information, the Attorney General resisted efforts by Democrats to squeeze more details out of him about what's in the Mueller findings.
“I've said what I'm going to say about the report today,” Barr told one Democratic lawmaker.
Barr said he did not plan to release the full, unredacted report to the Congress.
Asked by Republicans about investigating questions of misconduct surrounding the genesis of the Russia investigation, Barr said he was reviewing how the original counter intelligence probe started.
“I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation,” Barr told Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-GA), “ and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counter intelligence investigation that was conducted in the summer of 2016.”
Asked by Aderholt if he was probing leaks surrounding the surveillance of Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, Barr did not seem to be readily familiar with that matter.
“Who? What?” Barr responded, as he said he had not seen any request from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) to investigate a variety of questions related to the Russia probe.
The Attorney General noted that an Inspector General's report about some of those subjects was expected to be released in either May or June.
Some Republicans made clear they didn't think the details of the redacted Mueller report would change anything.
“No collusion, no obstruction. It's over. It's done,” said Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA).
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