Andrew Harnik / AP Robert Mueller

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday defended his decision not to reveal until now a letter he'd received from special counsel Robert Mueller in late March expressing concern over how Barr was handling the end of the investigation. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr fielded questions from skeptical Democrats about testimony he gave last month to Congress that never mentioned a March 27 letter from Mueller saying that Barr's March 24 report summarizing the special counsel's conclusions "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office's work and conclusions."

Two weeks later, at an April 9 hearing, Barr was asked about reports that members of Mueller's team were frustrated with Barr's March 24 letter, and about whether he knew what those reports were referencing. Barr said he did not. Pressed on Wednesday about whether he gave truthful answers to Congress last month, Barr testified that he'd spoken with Mueller directly — not with unidentified members of Mueller's team cited in news reports — and that, regardless, he didn't believe Mueller objected to the accuracy of Barr's summary but, rather, that the special counsel was worried it lacked context and was being misinterpreted. "My view of events was that there was a lot of criticism of the special counsel for the ensuing few days, and on Thursday [March 28] I got this letter. And when I talked to the special counsel about the letter, my understanding was his concern was not the accuracy of the statement of the findings in my letter but that he wanted more out there to provide additional context to explain his reasoning on why he didn't reach a decision on obstruction," Barr said. (The Justice Department said it received Mueller's March 27 letter the next day.) Barr compared Mueller's concerns to a prosecutor asking a judge why his verdict didn't reference all of the work the prosecutor did. "I'm out there saying here is the verdict, and the prosecutor comes up and taps me on the shoulder and says, 'Well, the verdict doesn't really fully capture all my work. How about that great, you know, cross-examination I did, or how about that third day of trial where I did that?' ... I'm not trying to capture everything. I'm just trying to state the verdict," Barr said. Democrats on the committee repeatedly asked Barr to explain why he didn't bring up Mueller's letter earlier. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono had the strongest criticism, telling Barr point blank: "You lied to Congress." Hirono began her questions by telling Barr that he was no different from Rudy Giuliani — the president's personal attorney — White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, "or any of the other people who sacrifice their once decent reputation for the grifter and liar who sits in the oval office." At the end of her time, Committee Chair Lindsey Graham said she had "slandered this man from top to bottom." "You certainly have your opinion and I have mine," Hirono replied. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said he believed Barr's answer to Congress last month was "purposely misleading." Committee members expressed interest in hearing from Mueller directly, and Barr signaled on Wednesday that he wouldn't oppose that. No congressional committee has formally invited Mueller to testify since the release of his report. Mueller's letter, first reported Tuesday night by the Washington Post and released by House Judiciary Committee Democrats minutes before Barr's hearing began Wednesday, represented an extraordinary written expression of concern by Mueller over how Barr managed the release of information about Mueller's report before making the full version available to the public, albeit with redactions.

BREAKING: Letter from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Attorney General Barr. @HouseJudiciary via Twitter / Via Twitter: @HouseJudiciary

In the letter, Mueller told Barr that he could, and should, release key sections of his 400-plus-page report right away. Mueller wrote that while he understood that the department needed time to review the entire report before releasing it, "that process need not delay release" of the introductions and executive summaries of both volumes of Mueller's report — sections that lay out in detail the facts that Mueller's office gathered and the analysis of special counsel attorneys. The Justice Department released a redacted version of Mueller's report April 18, more than three weeks after Mueller told Barr he could release the introductions and executive summaries. The letter makes clear that this was not the first time Mueller expressed those concerns to the Justice Department; he wrote that his office "communicated that concern to the Department on the morning of March 25," the day after Barr's letter summarizing the special counsel's key findings. "There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations," Mueller wrote. Mueller wrote that releasing the introductions and executive summaries "would alleviate the misunderstandings that have arisen and would answer congressional and public questions about the nature and outcome of our investigation." In a statement Tuesday night, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said that Barr called Mueller after receiving his letter and that Mueller "emphasized that nothing in the Attorney General’s March 24 letter was inaccurate or misleading." "But, he expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the Special Counsel’s obstruction analysis. They then discussed whether additional context from the report would be helpful and could be quickly released. However, the Attorney General ultimately determined that it would not be productive to release the report in piecemeal fashion. The Attorney General and the Special Counsel agreed to get the full report out with necessary redactions as expeditiously as possible," Kupec said. Barr testified that there were written notes about his call with Mueller. Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked if senators could see them. Barr said no. When Blumenthal asked why, Barr replied, "Why should you have them?"

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