WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr vowed on Tuesday to release a redacted version of the Mueller report “within a week,” defending his handling of the special counsel investigation’s findings as a bid for transparency as Democrats accused him of politically motivated behavior.

Mr. Barr said he would explain his redactions and was open to negotiating with lawmakers about revealing some of the delicate information that he and law enforcement officials are blacking out from the highly anticipated report before he sends it to Congress and the public.

“This process is going along very well, and my original timetable of being able to release this by mid-April stands,” Mr. Barr said at a House budget hearing. “And so I think that from my standpoint, within a week I will be in a position to release the report to the public.”

[Read Mr. Barr’s top takeaways from the Mueller report.]

But he was less forthcoming about aspects of his review, declining to say whether President Trump had been briefed on the report after Justice Department and White House officials had said for weeks that the president has not been updated on its contents. And he did not explain why he cleared Mr. Trump of committing an obstruction-of-justice offense when Mr. Mueller’s team declined to make a decision.