A redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report will be released “within a week,” Attorney General Bill Barr promised Tuesday at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.
“Within a week, I will be in position to release the report to the public,” Barr testified.
“This process is going along very well,” Barr said, adding that the “original timetable of being able to release this by mid-April stands.”
The Attorney General said his office was working with Mueller’s team to identify information that falls under four categories Barr previously said would need to be redacted. Those include matters related to ongoing investigations, information that would damage innocent third-party individuals, secret grand jury materials, and classified intelligence.
Barr said that that information would be color-coded and that his office would provide “explanatory notes for each redaction” in the report that goes to Congress.
Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) asked if the report would include the potential instances of obstruction of justice that Mueller investigated but had not yet been publicly reported.
“As things stand now, I don’t think that they will be redacted so they will be identifiable,” Barr replied.
It is this color-coded version that will be handed over to Congress, and, Barr said, hopefully made “available to the public.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is among the Democratic leaders saying nothing less than the full, unredacted report is acceptable.
Barr said the redacted version was a “first pass.”
“I’m glad to talk to Chairman Nadler and Chairman Graham as to whether they feel they need more information and see if there’s a way we could accommodate that,” he said.
