JERHOLD NADLER, New York DOUG COLLINS. Georgia
CHAIRMAN RANKING MINORITY MEMBER

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April 4, 2019

The Honorable William P. Barr
Attorney General

US. Department of Justice

950 Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC. 20530

Dear Attorney General Barr:

1 write to you regarding troubling press reports relating to your handling of Special
Counsel Mueller?s report, and to urge that you immediately release to the public any
?summaries? contained in the report that may have been prepared by the Special Counsel.

The New York Times and the Washington Post both report that some in the Special
Counsel?s of?ce have raised concerns about your March 24 letter summarizing the results of the
Special Counsel?s investigation. The Post wrote that ?members of [Special Counsel] Mueller?s
team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was

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alarming and signi?cant.

These reports suggest that the Special Counsel prepared his own summaries, intended for
public consumption, which you chose to withhold in favor of your own: ?Some members of the
of?ce were particularly disappointed that Barr did not release summary information the special
counsel team had . . . prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could
[be] made public.? 2 In fact, one unnamed US. of?cial is quoted as saying that ?Mueller?s team
assumed the information was going to be made available to the public . . . ?and so they prepared
their summaries to be shared in their own words?and not in the attorney general?s summary of

their work, as turned out to be the case.? 3

 

Ellen Nakashima et al., Limited information Barr has shared about Russia investigation frustrated some on
Mueller ?s team, WASH. POST, Apr. 4, 2019. See also Nicholas Fandos, Some on Mueller ?s Team Say Report Was
More Damaging than Barr Revealed, NY. TIMES, Apr. 3, 2019.

2 Id.
3 Id,

In your March 29 letter to the Chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees,
you stated that the Special Counsel is ?assisting? you in the process of making appropriate
redactions before the report is released publicly. 4 If these recent reports are accurate and the
Special Counsel?s of?ce prepared summaries ??in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would
have been necessary,? 5 then those summaries should be publicly released as soon as possible.

This action is, of course, no substitute for providing to Congress the complete and
unredacted report and underlying evidence, for all of the reasons set forth in our April 1 letter.6
Congress is entitled to the entire record. But we have a common obligation to share as much of
that record with the public as we can. Additionally, if the Special Counsel?s summaries ?t the
summary you provided on March 24, that would alleviate substantial concerns that the House
Judiciary Committee may wish to discuss when you appear to testify. If there is signi?cant
daylight between his account and yours, the American people should know that too.

It is notable that the Department?s press statement this morning does not deny the
existence of these summaries. The Department merely indicated that ?[e]very page of the
?con?dential report? was marked ?May Contain Material Protected under Fed. R. Crim. P.
If these summaries were, in fact, produced for public consumption by experienced
prosecutors, then a precautionary marking should not be an impediment to public production in a
very short period of time.

In light of the reported disagreements between the Special Counsel?s of?ce and yours, we
also request that you produce to the Committee all communications between the Special
Counsel?s of?ce and the Department regarding the report, including those regarding the
disclosure of the report to Congress, the disclosure of the report to the public, and those
regarding your March 24 letter that purports to ?summarize the principal conclusions reached by
the Special Counsel and the results of his investigation??

Finally, in our phone conversation on March 27, you indicated that you would inform me
when the Special Counsel?s of?ce has completed its review of the report for materials covered
by Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. I ask that you inform the Committee
whether that has occurred and, if not, to report when that review is complete.

 

4 Letter from Attorney General William Barr, U.S. Dept. of Justice, to Chairman Jerrold Nadler, H. Comm. on the
Judiciary, and Chairman Lindsay Graham, S. Comm. on the Judiciary, Mar. 29, 2019.

5 Ellen Nakashima, et al., Limited information Barr has shared about Russia investigation ?ustrated some on
Mueller ?s team, Wash. Post, April 4, 2019.

6 Letter from Chairman Jerrold Nadler, H. Comm. on the Judiciary, et al., to Attorney General William Barr, U.S.
Dept. ofJustice, Apr. 1,2019.

7 Letter from Attorney General William Barr, U.S. Dept. ofJustice, to Chairman Jerrold Nadler, H. Comm. on the
Judiciary, et al., Mar. 24, 2019.

The Department?s press statement today noted that you not believe the report
should be released in ?serial or piecemeal fashion.? Unfortunately, that selective release has in
effect already occurred. You have already provided an interpretation of the Special Counsel?s
conclusions in a fashion that appears to minimize the implications of the report as to the
President. Releasing the summaries??without delay?would begin to allow the American people

to judge the facts for themselves.

Sincerely,

Jerrold Nadler

Chairman
House Committee on the Judiciary

cc: The Honorable Doug Collins
Ranking Member