U.S. attorney general grilled by Senate panel

Attorney General William Barr spent much of Wednesday answering questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the special counsel’s report on Russian election meddling and possible obstruction of justice.

Mr. Barr defended the four-page summary that he released of the report, which the special counsel, Robert Mueller, criticized in a letter that was released by the Justice Department as failing to capture the “context, nature and substance” of the 448-page document.

Partisan focus: Democrats pressed Mr. Barr on why he had not publicly acknowledged concerns about his original summary and why he asserted that Mr. Trump had cooperated fully with the investigation when he tried to thwart it.

Republicans focused not on Mr. Trump or Mr. Mueller’s report, but on Hillary Clinton’s emails and the former F.B.I. officials who opened the Russia investigation.