Mueller’s report kept secret one more day

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr and his team on Saturday pored over the highly anticipated report by special counsel Robert Mueller, a senior Justice Department official said, preparing to deliver the investigation’s "principal conclusions" to jittery lawmakers and President Donald Trump as soon as Sunday.

Barr and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller and oversaw much of his work, were cloistered inside the Justice Department debating how to present the findings. Mueller was not participating in the process, the official said.

With little concrete information about the investigation circulating outside that tight circle, Washington was rife with speculation bouncing among reporters, lawmakers scattered across the country for their spring recess and lawyers for people involved in the case.

Trump himself remained uncharacteristically silent. After months attacking Mueller’s inquiry as a partisan "witch hunt," he had yet to comment on its conclusion by Saturday afternoon. Spending the weekend at his Mar-a-lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump was surrounded by members of his family and a larger coterie of aides than usual. He spent much of Saturday on the golf course and had lunch with Kid Rock, according to people familiar with his plans.

Mueller delivered his report to Barr on Friday, signaling the end to a 22-month investigation into Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and any attempts by Trump’s associates to aid them. Mueller also examined whether Trump obstructed justice to try to protect himself or his allies from investigators.

As part of the winding down of his investigation, Mueller’s office was handing off one of its remaining cases, a spokesman said Saturday. Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia will handle the sentencing of Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign deputy who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators and agreed to cooperate with the inquiry.

Regulations governing the special counsel give Barr

latitude to decide what, if anything, to share publicly. In a letter to Congress notifying lawmakers that he had the report, Barr said he planned to hand over to them, and by extension the public, a summary of Mueller’s "principal conclusions" as soon as this weekend. He wrote that he "remained committed to as much transparency as possible."

Only a few people in the Justice Department had seen the report and a copy had not been given to the White House, said the senior law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

The Justice Department appears to be moving quickly, at least in part because it has known for some time that Mueller was in the home stretch.

When Barr was briefed on the investigation this month, he was told that there would be no more subpoenas or indictments and that Mueller’s team was ready

to wrap up in mid-march, according to people familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to discuss it. The special counsel’s office later notified Barr that it needed a few additional days to take care of administrative issues, which pushed the delivery to Friday.

Without certainty about what Barr would disclose or when, House Democrats convened a 30-minute conference call Saturday afternoon to line up talking points. Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California have begun insisting that only the release of Mueller’s full report and underlying findings will be sufficient so that Democratled House committees can conduct their own scrutiny of Trump.

The top Democrats on nearly a dozen House and Senate committees sent letters Friday to the FBI, the Justice Department, the White House and other federal agencies demanding that all documents, communication and evidence amassed

by Mueller and his team be preserved because Congress might request access to it.

During the call, Pelosi said she would reject any offer from the Justice Department to brief the bipartisan Gang of Eight House and Senate leaders or some other configuration of lawmakers in a classified setting on findings that are not made public, according to a person present. Pelosi said she would insist that any briefing be unclassified to allow lawmakers to discuss the full investigative findings publicly.

Republican leaders convened their own brief call Friday night, after the Justice Department notified Congress that it had received the report from Mueller’s office, but it was primarily limited to logistics, according to one person with knowledge of the call. Welcoming the news that the special counsel would seek no further indictments, members of the president’s party were cautiously optimistic.