Barr to Release Redacted Muller Report Today

Late yesterday, the Justice Department announced that it would release a redacted version of Special Counsel Bob Mueller's report today, with the following stipulations:

Once the redacted version of the report has been released to the public, the Justice Department plans to make available for review by a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff a copy of the Special Counsel's report without certain redactions, including removing the redaction of information related to the charges set forth in the indictment in this case. This version of the report will not be made available "to the media" or "in public settings," consistent with the Court's February 15 order.

In addition, this version of the report will not be "disseminated by means of public communication" pursuant to Local Criminal Rule 57.7(b)(1). Nor will copies of the less redacted report be disseminated to Members of Congress or their staff in the first instance. Rather, the Justice Department intends to secure this version of the report in an appropriate setting that will be accessible to a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff.

So, a heavily redacted version will be made public, then an unredacted version will be made available to a select group of congress members (and their staffs), and it will be sent to them on CDs.

The weirdness does not end there, naturally. Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have scheduled a press conference for this morning, which will happen before the release of the report, so Barr continues to try to control the narrative around its findings, before the public and Congress even have a chance to scrutinize it.

Naturally, Democrats are not happy about that. Nor should they be. It's entirely inappropriate.

Also inappropriate is the fact that, as reported in the New York Times last night, the Justice Department has been communicating with the White House ahead of the report's release. That is not a surprise, of course, given the profound corruption of this administration, but it is alarming nonetheless.

Not all of Robert S. Mueller III's findings will be news to [Donald] Trump when they are released Thursday.

Justice Department officials have had numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in recent days, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have aided the president's legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the report and strategizes for the coming public war over its findings.

...The discussions between Justice Department officials and White House lawyers have also added to questions about the propriety of the decisions by Attorney General William P. Barr since he received Mr. Mueller's findings late last month.

No shit. As Judd Legum noted on Twitter, not only is this confirmation of coordination, but it also indicates that the delay in releasing the report "was necessary so Trump's lawyers could strategize and prepare the rebuttal."

Thus has the Attorney General of the United States prioritized shielding the president from consequences of his lawless behavior rather than protecting We the People from the consequences of having a lawless president.

So, here is where we are at this point: The press conference with the Justice Department's spin begins at 9:30 ET. The public will get the redacted report. Then select members of Congress (and their staffs) will get the unredacted report.

It's going to take awhile for anyone to get through the report, so I will strongly urge caution in giving a heap of credence to early takes on what it contains. I will also urge caution in taking as truth whatever media reports say about what's in the report based on what Barr and Rosenstein say at their press conference. Have patience. Read the report yourself if you can.

Please feel welcome to use this thread for discussion of the presser as well as for the report, once we have it and can start analyzing it. And, as always, for expressing anxiety about what all of this means about the state of the U.S. government.