Judge Blasts Attorney General Bill Barr, Orders DOJ to Turn Over Unredacted Mueller Report

US Attorney General Bill Barr

Federal Judge Reggie B. Walton, a George W. Bush appointee on Thursday ordered the DOJ to turn over an unredacted copy of the Mueller report.

Thursday’s order was in response to a FOIA lawsuit brought by Buzzfeed’s Jason Leopold.

The Judge said US Attorney General Bill Barr ‘lacked candor’ and accused him of intentionally creating a misleading summary of ‘principal conclusions’ to create a “one-sided narrative” about the Mueller report.

In early 2019, AG Barr took over the Mueller investigation and put an end to the abusive Russia witch hunt.

In March of last year Barr was given the gargantuan
Weissmann Mueller report and quickly released a letter summarizing the “principal conclusions” from the investigation.

A few weeks later the entire Mueller report was released, save for the grand jury material redactions, but the judge is accusing Barr of intentionally spinning the Mueller report in Trump’s favor.

“The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr’s statements, made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements, and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary,” Walton said.

The Judge said he wants to review an unredacted copy of Mueller’s report before making a decision on whether to make the redactions subject to FOIA.

“Accordingly, the Court concludes that it must conduct an in camera review of the unredacted version of the Mueller Report to assess de novo the applicability of the particular exemptions claimed by the Department for withholding information in the Mueller Report pursuant to the FOIA,” Walton said.

WOW: Federal Judge Reggie Walton says he doesn’t trust DOJ to represent the need for redactions in the Mueller report and suggests Barr intentionally created a misleading summary to perpetuate a “one-sided” narrative. https://t.co/yIJnUsvYCB pic.twitter.com/jH3o0UtE4N

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 5, 2020