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WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr will not receive the final report of special counsel Robert Mueller by the end of next week, says a senior Justice Department official.

Multiple news outlets, including NBC News, CNN and the Washington Post, reported this week that Mueller's report on his team's investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia could be sent to the attorney general as early as next week.

NBC News first reported in December that the Mueller report could be delivered as soon as mid-February.

Under the special counsel regulations, Mueller must send his findings on Russian meddling in the 2016 election to the attorney general. It will then be Barr’s responsibility to provide a brief report of the findings to Congress and his decision on whether or not to make any part of the report public.

Certain material, such as grand jury testimony, will remain sealed from the public. At the heart of Mueller’s inquiry is the central question: Did the president or anyone on his campaign knowingly collude with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election?

On Friday, the Democratic chairs of six House committees wrote to Barr to say they expected him to make the Mueller report public "without delay and to the maximum extent permitted by law."

The letter was signed by Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Oversight and Reform Committee chair Rep. Elijah Cummings, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Rep. Adam Schiff, Financial Services Committee chair Rep. Maxine Waters, Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Richard Neal and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Eliot Engel.