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In the latest demonstration of just how much the Trump administration doesn’t want Congress or the American people to see the Mueller report, a House Democrat believes William Barr might submit the 300-plus page document to Congress in the middle of a 19-day recess later this month.

In an interview with MSNBC‘s Chris Matthews, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen said it’s clear the administration is trying to “stall” the process of releasing the report.

“The Congress adjourns on April the 10th for 19 days. We don’t come back until April 29th,” Cohen said, suggesting that the attorney general will likely submit the report to Congress on April 15. “This whole thing has been played out like a stall.”

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Video:

Rep. Steve Cohen blasts William Barr for stalling the release of the Mueller report. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/7gFEOg7ppR — PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 2, 2019

Rep. Cohen said:

Something I think nobody’s thought about. The Congress adjourns on April the 10th for 19 days. We don’t come back until April 29th. I think Mr. Barr knows that and I think that’s why Mr. Barr says he’ll give us the report on April 15 so we won’t be here and it will be two weeks before we come back. This whole thing has been played out like a stall, like when they used to play basketball without a 35-second clock. And they’re just holding the ball. They’ve got the lead, a 3-0 lead, and they’re holding the ball.

Barr’s summary was never meant to give an accurate portrayal of Mueller’s report

The goal of the hastily-released Barr report was never to give the American people a clear and fair summary of Mueller’s findings. It was instead designed to give team Trump a head start in the post-Mueller public relations war.

By cherry picking a few half-sentences from the 300-plus page report, Barr gave Trump and right-wing media all the fuel they needed to declare to their red-hat wearing mobs that the president has been fully exonerated.

While this strategy did give Trump a couple of days of spin – largely because of the media’s flat-footed reporting on the Barr summary – it now appears to be backfiring on the president.

The American people do not believe Trump‘s repeated lie that he has been cleared by Mueller. Further, they want to see the complete report – not a four-page summary churned out 48 hours after the report was submitted to the attorney general.

The longer William Barr continues to act as a shield for Donald Trump by delaying the release of the Mueller report, the more it looks like a massive cover-up.

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