Attorney General Bill Barr is doing the job that President Donald Trump appointed him to do, even if it’s not the job that’s in the public’s best interest. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 488-page report filled in many of the blanks surrounding Moscow’s interference in the 2016 campaign, the Trump campaign’s role in it, and how the president tried to obstruct inquiries and investigations to uncover the truth. But rather than let those findings speak for themselves, Barr decided to speak over them.

Time and again, the attorney general portrayed Mueller’s findings in the best possible light for Trump. He gave a whitewashed summary of the report to Congress in March, which framed public opinion on its conclusions for a month before its release. The morning of the report’s release in April, Barr gave an obsequious press conference where he once against cast it as vindication for the president. Along the way, he misled Congress about the extent of Mueller’s private dissent from his approach.

Barr spent most of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday defending his actions to livid Democratic lawmakers. He even took a glancing jab at Mueller for a letter he wrote to the attorney general raising concerns about his approach to the report. “The letter’s a bit snitty and I think it was probably written by one of his staff people,” he told one senator. When Connecticut Senator Dick Blumenthal asked whether senators could see his notes from a phone conversation with Mueller, Barr refused without hesitation. “Why should you have them?” he replied dismissively.

Getting Mueller’s testimony was already important, but now it’s imperative. The whole point of his investigation was to determine what happened during the 2016 election and whether any crimes were committed. The special counsel’s report left open some gray areas, especially on the extent of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation and whether he broke the law. Mueller’s letter makes clear that he intended for the public to understand what he found differently that Barr did. Until the special counsel gives Congress his side of the story, the Russia investigation can’t be put to rest.



The attorney general’s version of events alone simply can’t be trusted. When he appeared before Congress last month, Barr gave misleading answers to questions about Mueller’s thoughts on how the investigation wrapped up. “Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?” Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen asked him at one point. “I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion,” Barr replied. He gave a similarly evasive answer when Florida Representative Charlie Crist asked if he knew what members of Mueller’s team reportedly meant when they complained about his summary letter. “No, I don’t,” Barr replied. “I suspect that they probably wanted more put out.”