Democrats are leading an effort to discredit the report findings from Special Counsel Robert Mueller concerning Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election, but it seems their excuses don’t hold up to scrutiny.
Painting Attorney General William Barr as a partisan covering for President Donald Trump has been a familiar attack. On Wednesday night, for example, Democrat Rep. David Cicilline (RI) tweeted: “Reminder that what we see tomorrow is only ‘William Barr’s Redacted Version of the Mueller Report.’ He should release the entire report to Congress sooner rather than later.”
As noted by Fox News host Bret Baier, such a line of attack is silly, since Mueller — who has been praised by Democrats as someone who lives up to the highest degree of professionalism — has been working alongside Mr. Barr to redact the report.
“You and others have made that case, Congressman — but, it’s also worth noting –as the AG said in his sworn testimony & wrote in his letter to the Judiciary Committees… that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has also been working on redacting his team’s report alongside AG Barr,” responded Baier.
As noted by Mr. Baier, a letter from Barr to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees dated March 29 said that Mueller was indeed helping with the process to redact the report.
“We are preparing the report for release, making the redactions that are required. The Special Counsel is assisting us in this process,” the letter says, before stating four specific areas the team was “well along in the process of identifying and redacting.”
Moreover, as Barr explained during a presser concerting the release of the report on Thursday morning, not a single redaction was made based on President Trump asserting executive privilege. “White House counsel reviewed a redacted version of the report before Trump decided not to invoke executive privilege,” reported PBS.
“No material has been redacted based on executive privilege,” Barr explicitly told the media.
The attorney general also reconfirmed at the press briefing that “the special counsel found no evidence that any American, including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”
Barr said there was not sufficient evidence concerning obstruction of justice:
“Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General and I concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,” he said at the briefing, as reported by The Daily Wire on Thursday.
“The White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel’s investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims,” Barr continued. “And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation.”
Related: WATCH: AG Barr Embarrasses Reporter Who Asks If He’s Trying To ‘Protect’ Trump