WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, said on Sunday his panel would call Attorney General William Barr to testify shortly, citing concerns over Barr’s conclusions from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe report.

“In light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department following the Special Counsel report, where Mueller did not exonerate the President, we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future,” Nadler said on Twitter.</s>The following is Attorney General Bill Barr’s letter to key congressional leaders summarizing the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report:</s>After nearly two years of waiting, special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential election is finally done. And there's growing bipartisan pressure on Attorney General William Barr to make it public.

Barr, who received Mueller's findings on Friday evening, told congressional leaders in a letter that he was "reviewing the report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend."

But to Democrats, that step isn't enough. They have long been pushing Barr, who was confirmed to lead the Justice Department last month, to make Mueller's report public as a further glimpse into what the Trump 2016 campaign's Russian ties and contacts were. Last week in a sweeping bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives also said the report should be released; however, that vote is not legally binding.

The Democratic chairmen of six major House committees issued a statement Friday demanding that Barr release the report to the public "without delay given the profound public interest in the full disclosure of information learned by the Special Counsel."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said Congress should get full access to the report. He also wants all documents related to Mueller's investigation to be preserved and made available to the appropriate committees on Capitol Hill. Finally, Warren said, the public should also have some access to Mueller's final work product after nearly two years of investigating.

"Congress and the American people deserve to judge the facts for themselves," Warner said. "The special counsel's report must be provided to Congress immediately, and the attorney general should swiftly prepare a declassified version of the report for the public. Nothing short of that will suffice."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told NPR's All Things Considered that the full report, not simply Mueller's conclusions, should be made public.

"No one should be satisfied with what we see unless it is full disclosure of the facts and evidence, not just the conclusions but all of the findings that went into those conclusions," Blumenthal said. "No scrubbing for executive privilege, no involvement by the White House in censoring or reviewing and no claims of executive privilege."

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also told All Things Considered that he "will subpoena people as necessary" based on information in the report. "We are determined that we protect the public and that we make this as transparent as possible."

But on Friday, as the long-anticipated investigation was finally done, some top Republicans echoed their Democratic colleagues.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who is up for re-election in 2020, tweeted that "Barr should release the report to the public as soon as possible, while accommodating national security considerations."

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, who is the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, also said that Mueller's report should be given to the public to the "maximum extent permitted by law."

A Justice Department official said that Mueller's report does not recommend any future indictments, although criminal charges against more than 30 individuals and entities, including onetime top aides and associates to President Trump, have already been filed. But some Republicans were quick to seize on the news no further charges were apparently forthcoming as full vindication of the president, who has long called the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt."

"We've seen no additional evidence whatsoever that the investigation is going to move forward. In fact the opposite is 100 percent true," former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told All Things Considered. "And this marks the final conclusion of the special counsel's investigation into the Russia investigation — uh, potential collusion narrative between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This is the end of it after 675 days."

Even some top Republicans, though, backed making the report public to finally and fully squash any doubts about Trump and his 2016 campaign.

"Now that he's wrapped up his investigation, Attorney General Barr must provide Congress and the American people with the findings to finally put an end to the speculation and innuendo that has loomed over this administration since its earliest days," said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a past Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. "Attempts to keep the collusion narrative alive, especially for political reasons, will only serve to further harm our political discourse and play into the hands of our foreign adversaries."

Earlier this week, Trump himself seemed to be amenable to that as well.

"Let it come out. Let people see it — that's up to the attorney general," the president told reporters as he was departing for a trip to Ohio.</s>Sen. Mazie K. Hirono issued the following statement after the release of Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report.

“Robert Mueller did not exonerate Donald Trump on obstruction of justice. Instead, Attorney General Bill Barr made his own determination consistent with his unsolicited 19-page memo arguing that the President cannot be charged with obstruction of justice. Congress needs to see the full report to assess the underlying evidence. The Senate Judiciary Committee must hear directly from Attorney General Barr and Robert Mueller on this matter as soon as possible.

“I often say that Donald Trump cares about two things: protecting himself and money.

“The President has repeatedly demonstrated he will do or say anything to protect himself. He tried to get Michael Flynn off the hook; he fired James Comey; he tried to get the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan “unrecused;” he directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller; he dangled pardons; he repeatedly insulted and demonized the Special Counsel.

“Now we must ensure that investigations into his questionable financial activities by the Southern District of New York, the Attorney General of the State of New York, and the Manhattan District Attorney, proceed unimpeded.</s>WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller and members of his team informed Attorney General William Barr three weeks ago that they would not be reaching a conclusion on the question of whether the president had obstructed justice, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was also present, were surprised by this, the person said.

"It was unexpected," said the source.

The readout from the meeting partly helps to explain why Barr was able to make a decision on whether the president had obstructed justice just 48 hours after receiving Mueller's final report.

In a letter to Congress on Sunday, Barr said that Mueller "did not draw a conclusion one way or the other as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction."

Barr said the decision by Mueller "leaves it to the Attorney General to determine" whether the president obstructed justice.

And Barr concluded that Mueller's evidence of obstruction was "not sufficient to establish that the President had committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."

Critics had said Barr was too quick to react. However, the timing reveals that he had this information at least three weeks in advance of his decision.</s>(Bloomberg) -- The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he’ll summon Attorney General William Barr before the panel to explain “concerning discrepancies” in the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue obstruction charges against President Donald Trump.

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York said he wants to know why Barr concluded there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prosecute Trump while Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report said the investigation did “not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” according to Barr’s letter to Congress summarizing the findings.

“Given what Barr found on obstruction of justice, I think all of us should be very concerned about the even-handedness,” Nadler said on MSNBC. “The American public needs to know how exactly did he conclude there is no obstruction of justice.”

Nadler wrote earlier on Twitter that “we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future.”

Barr on Sunday delivered a four-page summary of Mueller’s report, which came after a 22-month investigation into whether Trump or any member of his campaign conspired with a Russian government effort to interfere with the 2016 election. Mueller also examined whether Trump took actions to obstruct Justice.

“The report found evidence on both sides of the question” on obstruction and “leaves unresolved what the special counsel views as difficult issues of law,” Barr wrote in a letter to Congress. Barr quoted Mueller’s report as saying, “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Barr wrote that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence developed by Mueller’s investigation “is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

Democrats are demanding release of the full Mueller report.

Nadler’s committee is one of several in the Democratic-controlled House that are undertaking investigations into the Trump administration from his 2016 campaign through his first two years in office. Nadler has asked for documents from 81 individuals, agencies and entities, including the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, and other associates of the president.

Trump and his allies said the Mueller report exonerates the president of all the allegations that have been swirling around presidency. The top Republican on the House Judiciary, Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, said Nadler needs “to rethink his sprawling investigation, which retreads ground already covered by the special counsel and is already a matter of public record.”

“I hope he recognizes that what may be political fodder for Democrats may not be good for the county,” Collins said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lee Spears in New York at lspears3@bloomberg.net;Miles Weiss in Washington at mweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John Harney</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday he wants Attorney General William Barr to appear before the panel to discuss the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“What’s next, I hope, will be that he will come to the committee (and) release as much as possible of the Mueller report,” Senator Lindsey Graham said, referring to the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.</s>Attorney General William Barr headed back into the office Sunday as the Justice Department works through the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling — and possible ties between President Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin.

Mueller delivered his long-awaited report to Barr late Friday and announced that his office will not seek additional indictments in the case, which has cast a cloud over the first two years of Trump’s administration.

Barr will decide how much of the report the public and Congress will see and could make his first findings available as soon as today.

He spent more than nine hours in the office on Saturday before returning there Sunday.

Top Democrats demanded this weekend that the entire report be released — save for redactions made to protect national security — and reiterated Sunday they are ready to subpoena the report, underlying information and administration officials to ascertain its contents if it is not.

“If that is the case, and they can’t hold him accountable, the only institution that can hold a president accountable is Congress, and Congress, therefore, needs the evidence and information,” New York City Rep. Jerry Nadler said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Nadler is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has the power to issue subpoenas.

“I suspect that we’ll find those words of transparency to prove hollow, that in fact they will fight to make sure that Congress doesn’t get this underlying evidence,” Rep. Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said on ABC’s “This Week.”</s>After nearly two years of waiting, special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential election is finally done. And there's growing bipartisan pressure on Attorney General William Barr to make it public.

Barr, who received Mueller's findings on Friday evening, told congressional leaders in a letter that he was "reviewing the report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend."

But to Democrats, that step isn't enough. They have long been pushing Barr, who was confirmed to lead the Justice Department last month, to make Mueller's report public as a further glimpse into what the Trump 2016 campaign's Russian ties and contacts were. Last week in a sweeping bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives also said the report should be released; however, that vote is not legally binding.

The Democratic chairmen of six major House committees issued a statement Friday demanding that Barr release the report to the public "without delay given the profound public interest in the full disclosure of information learned by the Special Counsel."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said Congress should get full access to the report. He also wants all documents related to Mueller's investigation to be preserved and made available to the appropriate committees on Capitol Hill. Finally, Warren said, the public should also have some access to Mueller's final work product after nearly two years of investigating.

"Congress and the American people deserve to judge the facts for themselves," Warner said. "The special counsel's report must be provided to Congress immediately, and the attorney general should swiftly prepare a declassified version of the report for the public. Nothing short of that will suffice."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told NPR's All Things Considered that the full report, not simply Mueller's conclusions, should be made public.

"No one should be satisfied with what we see unless it is full disclosure of the facts and evidence, not just the conclusions but all of the findings that went into those conclusions," Blumenthal said. "No scrubbing for executive privilege, no involvement by the White House in censoring or reviewing and no claims of executive privilege."

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also told All Things Considered that he "will subpoena people as necessary" based on information in the report. "We are determined that we protect the public and that we make this as transparent as possible."

But on Friday, as the long-anticipated investigation was finally done, some top Republicans echoed their Democratic colleagues.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who is up for re-election in 2020, tweeted that "Barr should release the report to the public as soon as possible, while accommodating national security considerations."

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, who is the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, also said that Mueller's report should be given to the public to the "maximum extent permitted by law."

A Justice Department official said that Mueller's report does not recommend any future indictments, although criminal charges against more than 30 individuals and entities, including onetime top aides and associates to President Trump, have already been filed. But some Republicans were quick to seize on the news no further charges were apparently forthcoming as full vindication of the president, who has long called the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt."

"We've seen no additional evidence whatsoever that the investigation is going to move forward. In fact the opposite is 100 percent true," former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told All Things Considered. "And this marks the final conclusion of the special counsel's investigation into the Russia investigation — uh, potential collusion narrative between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This is the end of it after 675 days."

Even some top Republicans, though, backed making the report public to finally and fully squash any doubts about Trump and his 2016 campaign.

"Now that he's wrapped up his investigation, Attorney General Barr must provide Congress and the American people with the findings to finally put an end to the speculation and innuendo that has loomed over this administration since its earliest days," said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a past Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. "Attempts to keep the collusion narrative alive, especially for political reasons, will only serve to further harm our political discourse and play into the hands of our foreign adversaries."

Earlier this week, Trump himself seemed to be amenable to that as well.

"Let it come out. Let people see it — that's up to the attorney general," the president told reporters as he was departing for a trip to Ohio.</s>After nearly two years of waiting, special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential election is finally done. And there's growing bipartisan pressure on Attorney General William Barr to make it public.

Barr, who received Mueller's findings on Friday evening, told congressional leaders in a letter that he was "reviewing the report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend."

But to Democrats, that step isn't enough. They have long been pushing Barr, who was confirmed to lead the Justice Department last month, to make Mueller's report public as a further glimpse into what the Trump 2016 campaign's Russian ties and contacts were. Last week in a sweeping bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives also said the report should be released; however, that vote is not legally binding.

The Democratic chairmen of six major House committees issued a statement Friday demanding that Barr release the report to the public "without delay given the profound public interest in the full disclosure of information learned by the Special Counsel."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said Congress should get full access to the report. He also wants all documents related to Mueller's investigation to be preserved and made available to the appropriate committees on Capitol Hill. Finally, Warren said, the public should also have some access to Mueller's final work product after nearly two years of investigating.

"Congress and the American people deserve to judge the facts for themselves," Warner said. "The special counsel's report must be provided to Congress immediately, and the attorney general should swiftly prepare a declassified version of the report for the public. Nothing short of that will suffice."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told NPR's All Things Considered that the full report, not simply Mueller's conclusions, should be made public.

"No one should be satisfied with what we see unless it is full disclosure of the facts and evidence, not just the conclusions but all of the findings that went into those conclusions," Blumenthal said. "No scrubbing for executive privilege, no involvement by the White House in censoring or reviewing and no claims of executive privilege."

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also told All Things Considered that he "will subpoena people as necessary" based on information in the report. "We are determined that we protect the public and that we make this as transparent as possible."

But on Friday, as the long-anticipated investigation was finally done, some top Republicans echoed their Democratic colleagues.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who is up for re-election in 2020, tweeted that "Barr should release the report to the public as soon as possible, while accommodating national security considerations."

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, who is the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, also said that Mueller's report should be given to the public to the "maximum extent permitted by law."

A Justice Department official said that Mueller's report does not recommend any future indictments, although criminal charges against more than 30 individuals and entities, including onetime top aides and associates to President Trump, have already been filed. But some Republicans were quick to seize on the news no further charges were apparently forthcoming as full vindication of the president, who has long called the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt."

"We've seen no additional evidence whatsoever that the investigation is going to move forward. In fact the opposite is 100 percent true," former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told All Things Considered. "And this marks the final conclusion of the special counsel's investigation into the Russia investigation — uh, potential collusion narrative between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This is the end of it after 675 days."

Even some top Republicans, though, backed making the report public to finally and fully squash any doubts about Trump and his 2016 campaign.

"Now that he's wrapped up his investigation, Attorney General Barr must provide Congress and the American people with the findings to finally put an end to the speculation and innuendo that has loomed over this administration since its earliest days," said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a past Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. "Attempts to keep the collusion narrative alive, especially for political reasons, will only serve to further harm our political discourse and play into the hands of our foreign adversaries."

Earlier this week, Trump himself seemed to be amenable to that as well.

"Let it come out. Let people see it — that's up to the attorney general," the president told reporters as he was departing for a trip to Ohio.
Attorney General William Barr releases the "principal conclusions" of Mueller's investigation in a four-page public letter to the Congress's Judiciary Committee leadership.