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Even-handed treatment of Mueller and Barr. A good read.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/thoughts...mueller-report
https://www.lawfareblog.com/thoughts...mueller-report
Barr was under enormous pressure from all sides to say something about Mueller’s report as soon as he received it. He claims he asked Mueller if he wanted to review the March 24 letter, and says that Mueller declined. Barr surely could have worded the March 24 letter more carefully with more time. But I expect that anything he said short of exactly what Mueller wanted him to say would have attracted furious criticism. The decision was clearly Barr’s to make and he had good reasons for what should be disclosed and when, and he explained them publicly.
In this light, and especially in light of subsequent events, I fail to see how Barr warrants the super-harsh personal criticism he has received over the letter. Those subsequent events include (i) publicly clarifying that he, Barr, did not purport to capture or summarize everything in Mueller’s report; (ii) working around the clock to get the relatively lightly redacted report made public—something Barr had no legal duty to do; (iii) testifying twice before Congress to explain his reasoning; and (iv) allowing Mueller to testify before Congress if he wants. These are not the actions of a man trying to mischaracterize the report or hide the ball.
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While I think the criticisms of Barr in connection with the Mueller report have been overheated, I also think Barr made two mistakes. First, he went too far in his May 1 testimony in saying that Trump “fully cooperated” with the special counsel’s investigation. It would have been more accurate to say, as he said in the April 18 press conference, that the White House (meaning the institution independent of the president) “fully cooperated,” and that “the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation.” The truth is that the president himself—in his refusal to give a personal interview, and especially in his tweets and actions to harass and threaten and try to impact the Justice Department and special counsel—did not cooperate, much less “fully cooperate.”
Second, I think Barr made a bigger mistake when he self-consciously said—in his April 18 press conference, and his May 1 testimony—that Mueller cleared the president of “collusion” with the Russians. The technical legal term, as Mueller explained, is “conspiracy,” not “collusion.” Yes, as Mueller noted, the term “collusion” was used by the acting attorney general in confirming the investigation’s scope, and also by the press. And yes, the president has been accused by critics of “collusion” for years now. But consistent with his insistence that the Justice Department makes legal and not political or moral conclusions, it would have been much better for Barr to avoid the term “collusion.” If there was a rebuttal to be made to the “collusion” charge, someone other than the attorney general should have made it. Perhaps Barr thought, as he suggested a few times, that the President was so unjustifiably wronged by the entire process that his full-throated “no collusion” statement was warranted. But Barr opened himself up to legitimate criticism when he assiduously avoided commenting on the merits of extra-criminal conduct that would be harmful to the president, but appeared to comment on such conduct when it was helpful to the president. “We are not in the business of exoneration,” Barr testified. But in some places, especially with respect to the Trump campaign and Russia, he seemed to try to do just that.
In this light, and especially in light of subsequent events, I fail to see how Barr warrants the super-harsh personal criticism he has received over the letter. Those subsequent events include (i) publicly clarifying that he, Barr, did not purport to capture or summarize everything in Mueller’s report; (ii) working around the clock to get the relatively lightly redacted report made public—something Barr had no legal duty to do; (iii) testifying twice before Congress to explain his reasoning; and (iv) allowing Mueller to testify before Congress if he wants. These are not the actions of a man trying to mischaracterize the report or hide the ball.
[...]
While I think the criticisms of Barr in connection with the Mueller report have been overheated, I also think Barr made two mistakes. First, he went too far in his May 1 testimony in saying that Trump “fully cooperated” with the special counsel’s investigation. It would have been more accurate to say, as he said in the April 18 press conference, that the White House (meaning the institution independent of the president) “fully cooperated,” and that “the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation.” The truth is that the president himself—in his refusal to give a personal interview, and especially in his tweets and actions to harass and threaten and try to impact the Justice Department and special counsel—did not cooperate, much less “fully cooperate.”
Second, I think Barr made a bigger mistake when he self-consciously said—in his April 18 press conference, and his May 1 testimony—that Mueller cleared the president of “collusion” with the Russians. The technical legal term, as Mueller explained, is “conspiracy,” not “collusion.” Yes, as Mueller noted, the term “collusion” was used by the acting attorney general in confirming the investigation’s scope, and also by the press. And yes, the president has been accused by critics of “collusion” for years now. But consistent with his insistence that the Justice Department makes legal and not political or moral conclusions, it would have been much better for Barr to avoid the term “collusion.” If there was a rebuttal to be made to the “collusion” charge, someone other than the attorney general should have made it. Perhaps Barr thought, as he suggested a few times, that the President was so unjustifiably wronged by the entire process that his full-throated “no collusion” statement was warranted. But Barr opened himself up to legitimate criticism when he assiduously avoided commenting on the merits of extra-criminal conduct that would be harmful to the president, but appeared to comment on such conduct when it was helpful to the president. “We are not in the business of exoneration,” Barr testified. But in some places, especially with respect to the Trump campaign and Russia, he seemed to try to do just that.
"I don't see any reason why he would be involved..."
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