Attorney General William Barr defended testimony he gave to a congressional panel last month when he said he wasn’t aware Robert Mueller was frustrated with the four-page summary he released of the special counsel’s report.
Rep. Charlie Crist, citing reports in the media, asked Barr during a hearing on April 9 whether members of the special counsel’s team criticized the conclusions he made in the statement.
“No, I don’t,” Barr replied. “I suspect that they wanted more put out.”
Asked during his appearance at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday why he did not admit he had talked to Mueller, Barr split hairs.
“The question was related to unidentified members expressing frustration with the findings in the summary,” Barr replied. “I talked to Bob Mueller and not members of his team.”
Mueller talked to Barr about his report on March 5, weeks before he sent his report to the Justice Department.
He also sent a letter to the Justice Department on March 27, three days after Barr released a redacted version of the report to Congress, complaining that the attorney general’s summary “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions.”