After Judge’s Blistering Ruling, DOJ Defends Barr’s Handling Of Mueller Report

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 13: U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks arrives for a press conference on the shooting at the Pensacola naval base January 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. Barr said the Justice Department... WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 13: U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks arrives for a press conference on the shooting at the Pensacola naval base January 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. Barr said the Justice Department’s investigation determined the shooting "was an act of terrorism" that was "motivated by jihadist ideology". (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The Justice Department, in a statement issued late Friday afternoon, pushed back on a judge’s Thursday assertions that Attorney General Bill Barr made “misleading” public statements about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report in the lead up to its release.

Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton’s assertions were “contrary to the facts,” but did not elaborate on what Walton actually got wrong in his accounting of the “inconsistencies” between what Mueller’s report said and how Barr described it before its release.

Instead, the bulk of the statement focused on the Walton’s determination that he needed to privately review the report’s redacted material, given how Barr handled the rollout. Walton issued the ruling in a Freedom of Information Act case, where a journalist and non-profit organization are seeking unredacted version of the report.

Kupec said the redaction decisions in the original publicly released report were made in consultation with Department attorneys, Mueller’s team, prosecutors from U.S. attorneys office and members of the Intelligence Community.

“In response to FOIA requests, the entire report was then reviewed by career attorneys, including different career attorneys with expertise in FOIA cases — a process in which the Attorney General played no role,” Kupec said. “There is no basis to question the work or good faith of any of these career Department lawyers. The Department stands by their work, as well as the Attorney General’s statements and efforts to provide as much transparency as possible in connection with the Special Counsel’s confidential report.”

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  1. Whoa.

    Chief Justice Roberts is really gonna slam this.

  2. Shameful attempt to twist the judge’s words here…the judge was pointing out how Barr shaded his report summary to portray it as a vindication for Trump instead of the damning report it was. She is trying to spin it as an attack on the DoJ lawyers who decided what to redact. It’s proof that the rot at DoJ doesn’t stop at Barr…the place is going to need to be sanitized after the Democrats win the presidency, there are a lot of people at DoJ who are apparently just fine with a march towards dictatorship and injustice, and all of them need to be removed.

  3. Anyone surprised by this development really hasn’t been paying attention. There is no chance the DOJ would not spring to the defense of its ‘leader.’ Barr has used his position to broadcast all sorts of views about the woes caused by our secular society and its lack of moral compass. He’s presenting himself as greatly affronted. His inability to see the hypocrisy of his own acts to twist the truth and turn the DOJ into Trump’s personal captive law firm is classic Trump-think.
    There will be more high dudgeon flowing from the administration about this traitorous act by yet another obviously corrupt judge. Hah!

  4. Trump Department of Justice now TDOJ
    They work for Trump , not For you
    You need to get over it
    So sayeth Barr

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