Washington (CNN) The Department of Justice on Thursday defended Attorney General William Barr's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's confidential report after two newspapers said Mueller's investigators felt Barr didn't properly convey how damaging their findings were for President Donald Trump.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said "every page" of Mueller's nearly 400-page report provided to Barr on March 22 was flagged as potentially containing material covered under a law that protects confidential grand jury information and "therefore could not be publicly released."

"Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report's bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately — without attempting to summarize the report — with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.

Kupec said the department is continuing to work with the special counsel on "appropriate redactions to the report so that it can be released to Congress and the public."

The New York Times and Washington Post reported that some of Mueller's investigators were frustrated about the limited information Barr included in his four-page summary submitted to Congress on March 24.

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