Attorney General Bob Barr says he will be in a position to release a redacted version of the Mueller report "within a week."
Barr was testifying on the Justice Department budget to a House Appropriations Subcommittee equally interested in the status of the report. He said he was working diligently to make as much information from special counsel Robert Mueller's report on election meddling available as soon as possible to the public and Congress, operating under restrictions placed on that publication by the Clinton Administration.
He had signaled at his confirmation hearing that he thought the contents of the report should be made public as much as possible within the rules of the special counsel and the four categories of redactions he is required to make. Those are 1) grand jury information, 2) information that the intelligence community thinks could reveal sources and methods, 3) information that could interfere with ongoing prosecutions, and 4) information that implicates the privacy or reputation of peripheral players (people not charged).
Barr said Mueller was working with the Justice Department on excisions that fall under those categories, redactions Barr said would be color coded and explained how it fits in each category, a process now under way and which House Democratic leadership had requested.
Although pressed by members of the subcommittee, Barr said he would not say any more about the report until it is out and "everyone has a chance to read it." He has promised to testify before the Judiciary committees about the report and said he would also talk about it after it was made public next week.
He said he may be able to give members of Congress a less redacted version.
On the issue of budget, Barr pointed out that the President had requested $70.5 million to "enhance the FBI’s cyber information-sharing abilities and cyber tools and capabilities."
That is in addition to $18.3 million for the FBI to "address counterintelligence threats, particularly cyberattacks and threats from hostile foreign intelligence services," and $5 million "to prevent foreign intelligence services from accessing sensitive information and technology..."
