Leaving it in hands of Justice

Prez: It’s AG’s call on Mueller report’s release

President Trump said Wednesday new Attorney General William Barr will decide if and when special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s election meddling would be released.

“That’s up to the new attorney general. He’s a tremendous man, a tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the Justice Department, so that will be totally up to him,” Trump said at the White House when asked if he thought the report would be released next week while he is in Vietnam for his second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

During his confirmation hearing, Barr (inset top) would not say whether Mueller’s (bottom) report — which CNN said could be wrapped up next week — would be made public.

Trump, who welcomed to the White House Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Europe’s youngest head of state at age 32, also ramped up his attacks on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whose new book details what he calls the commander in chief ’s effort to control the Russia probe.

“Andrew McCabe has made a fool out of himself over the last couple of days and he looks like a poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover. He is a disgraced man. This man is a complete disaster,” Trump said.

Hoover wielded immense power for nearly 50 years as the nation’s top G-man, but after his death, it was revealed that he improperly used the FBI to target activists and compile secret files on political leaders, and used illegal methods to gather evidence.

McCabe was fired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after a Justice Department inspector general’s report said he made misleading statements when questioned about leaks and other bureau affairs.

Meanwhile, a new report said that the FBI developed a backup plan to protect evidence in its Russia investigation soon after Trump fired thenFBI Director James Comey in the event that other senior officials were dismissed as well. The plan was crafted in the chaotic days after Comey was fired, when the FBI began investigating whether Trump might be in cahoots with the Russians.

The goal was to ensure that the information collected would survive the firings or reassignments of top law-enforcement officials.

Those officials included Mueller, who was appointed eight days after Trump fired Comey in May 2017.