Congress Expects Barr Blacks to Unveil Parts of the Mueller Report

Information from the grand jury

The first category that Barr was planning to eliminate is the secret information of the Grand Jury. A federal criminal procedure rule generally prohibits the disclosure of such documents, for example by citing the testimony of a witness before the jury or a document obtained with a subpoena to appear before the grand jury.

However, in particular, as part of the investigation to determine whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice, the special advocate gathered information from witnesses, primarily through the intermediary of F.B.I. interviews, according to lawyers familiar with the investigation.

Mr. Barr could provide information about the grand jury in Congress if a judge makes an order authorizing it, as was the case in 1974 during the Watergate scandal. But it is unclear whether the Trump administration's justice department would accept or oppose any requests from legislators to consult the grand jury documents. Nor is it clear that such a decision would extend to the public.

It is also unclear whether an essential difference from 1974 – the Judiciary Committee of the House had already opened an indictment procedure against President Richard M. Nixon, but none is pending against Mr. Trump. – change the result. On Friday, the Columbia District Court of Appeal, in an unrelated case, narrowly defined when the courts could authorize disclosure of information about the grand jury and criticized the legal basis of the law. Previous Watergate, without however canceling it. .

"There is going to be a lot of writing, and the question becomes," What will Congress do about it? "It seems to me that they can and should go to court." It's not up to the Justice Department to make the final decision on what Congress sees. "

Confidential information

The second category that Mr. Barr identified for writing is "material identified by the intelligence community as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods."

Mueller has already revealed some elements of his findings in indictments against Russians for their clandestine manipulation of US social media and their hacking of Democratic e-mails. But it is virtually certain that Mr. Mueller has learned more than what was presented in these documents, including information the disclosure of which could reveal US secret intelligence sources about the internal functioning of the Russian government.

Although all members of Congress have the necessary security clearances to reduce the risk of leaks, Mr. Barr may decide that certain findings of Mr. Mueller's investigation may only be communicated to intelligence committees , or even to the Gang of Eight, to the chief leaders of the intelligence panels.

Investigations in progress

The third category, according to Mr. Barr, will be "material likely to affect other ongoing issues, including those that the Special Council has referred to other offices of the Department".

During his investigation, Mr. Mueller discovered information about potential crimes outside his mandate and passed this evidence on to other federal prosecutors. The Southern District of New York, for example, handled the prosecution of Michael D. Cohen, a former Trump lawyer, for campaign and other crimes. The district is also reviewing the finances of the Trump Inauguration Committee, which the Special Council Office had already discussed.

And there is a kind of joker: the F.B.I. opened a counterintelligence investigation open to Russia.

"Peripheral" people

The fourth category that Barr has announced is "information that would unduly infringe the privacy and reputation interests of third-party devices."

Traditionally, the Ministry of Justice does not publicize unflattering information about individuals prosecutors have reviewed but has decided not to charge a crime. Focusing on "peripheral" people, Barr said some people are playing such an important role in the investigation – including, presumably, Mr. Trump – that he can make an exception and allow for more material documents. 'go to Congress and become public. But much will depend on his decisions about who counts as a central player and who counts as a minor player.

Privileged information

Several types of privileges could come into play. One is the privilege of the executive, a power of presidents to keep secret certain information from the internal executive power, such as communications involving the president or his close advisers and sometimes the internal deliberations of agencies. Another example is the solicitor-client privilege, the power to keep the secret of a client's discussions with his lawyer.

Mr. Trump has allowed his associates and legal advisers who could benefit from one or the other of these privileges, such as former White House lawyer Donald F. McGahn II, to speak to Mr. Mueller's team. But it is unclear whether this waiver would extend to the sharing of information with Congress, and there are few judicial precedents to define the limits of this power of secrecy.

Mr. Barr told Congress: "Although the President has the right to assert the privilege of certain parts of the report, he has stated publicly that he intends to return it to me and, by way of therefore, it is not planned to submit the report to the Commission. White House for a privilege review. But what he meant was ambiguous and the Department of Justice refused to provide clarifications.