Battle over what won’t be seen in the Mueller report
The US special counsel’s TrumpRussia report will be out tomorrow for all to see. But not all of it.
The Democrats’ demands for a full, unredacted version of Robert Mueller’s report are likely to prompt a political and legal battle that could last for months, if not much longer.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, New York Representative Jerrold Nadler, has said he is prepared to issue subpoenas “very quickly” for the full report on Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign if it is released with blacked-out sections. And that would set the legal fight in motion.
Attorney General William Barr has said he is redacting four types of information from the report. A look at what types of material Barr is redacting, and why Democrats say it should be released:
Grand jury information
Barr has staked out his position on releasing secret grand jury information, saying last week that he would not go to court to request its release. He said Democrats are “free to go to court” themselves, and Nadler has said he is ready to do so.
Grand jury information, including witness interviews, is normally off limits but can be obtained in court. Some records were eventually released in the Whitewater investigation into former President Bill Clinton and an investigation into President Richard Nixon before he resigned. Both of those cases were under somewhat different circumstances, including that the House Judiciary Committee had initiated impeachment proceedings.
Democrats are likely to argue in court that they don’t need to be in an official impeachment proceeding to receive the materials.
Classified information
Congress frequently receives classified documents and briefings, and Democrats say there is no reason the Mueller report should be any different. Many Republicans agree.
House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, has argued that some of that information should be released to the public, citing Mueller indictments that have already revealed granular detail about the Russian effort to influence the 2016 election.
Ongoing investigations
Barr said he will redact information related to investigations connected to the Mueller probe that are still under way. Those include cases handed off or referred to federal prosecutors in Washington, New York and Virginia.
Democrats have noted that the Justice Department has released such information before.
Derogatory information
The Justice Department regularly redacts information about people who were interviewed or scrutinised in investigations but not charged. Barr has said he will black out information from the report “that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties”. Asked by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen at a hearing last week if that meant he would redact information to protect the interests of Trump, Barr said: “No, I’m talking about people in private life, not public officeholders.”
That means that in addition to Trump, members of his family who work at the White House, such as his daughter Ivanka, could be named if they were somehow entangled in Mueller’s investigation. But information regarding his sons, Eric and Donald jnr, who run his businesses, could be redacted.