Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP via NBC. |
Looks like Mueller read Barr's four-pager the same way I read it:
After Barr's four-page summary-not-a-summary. Don't think Mueller response to the spin conference is going to be available this soon. https://t.co/kHxlnSrNxO— The Young and the Vibrant (@Yastreblyansky) April 30, 2019
It's the way Barr report was written ("did not find") specifically in order to be misread by the press ("there was no evidence") and to ratify Barr's own (wrong) conclusion that there should be no obstruction charges— The Young and the Vibrant (@Yastreblyansky) April 30, 2019
Barr didn't tell any lies in the letter, but he wrote it to be misunderstood. And it looks as if he held back the summary reports after Mueller asked him to release them—
The letter made a key request: that Barr release the 448-page report’s introductions and executive summaries, and made some initial suggested redactions for doing so, according to Justice Department officials....
Barr said he did not want to put out pieces of the report, but rather issue it all at once with redactions, and didn’t want to change course now, according to officials.—in order to make more time for the false impression to settle into popular belief. As I said when Mueller investigators first began airing their discontent, in the Times story of 4 April. Now I'm watching Chris Hayes reconstruct what I told you all a month ago.