Deconstructing Trump Cover-Up Czar Bill Barr's congressional testimony in Mueller Report whitewash

The testimony this morning has confirmed what everyone suspected of newly appointed AG Bill Barr’s scheme to release as little of the Mueller Report as possible. He said he has no plans to seek public release of secret grand jury materials, despite ample precedent for doing so. Instead he invoked a DC Circuit Court ruling from last week which appeared to give him cover to refuse releasing any grand jury material.

What’s important here is that there are very narrow and expansive ways to interpret what counts as grand jury testimony that are entirely at Barr's discretion to make. He is making the decision his alone and won’t allow any members of Congress to see the material he redacted. He said clearly: “I don’t intend at this stage to send the full unredacted report to the committee.” In other words, while grand jury secrecy is a serious issue, Barr is using it to give himself carte blanche to hide almost any amount of the report he wants.

Another point he made suggests he will take an extremely expansive view of what constitutes grand jury testimony. His Justice Department has already argued that it couldn’t release the report summaries that were written by Mueller's own team and designed for a quick and easy release to the public because each page was stamped with language that said it “may” contain grand jury testimony.

This excuse might be the the biggest crock of shit ever peddled by DoJ.

Any document like this containing grand jury and classified information is going to have a pro-forma stamp like that on every page. No one thinks that means every page preemptively contains secret material or that a basic review can’t determine that. This bullshit excuse is meant to push back against Mueller team complaints about Barr trying to keep the report under wraps. But taken at face value, it does suggest Barr intends to take a very expansive view of what constitutes grand jury material.

Barr is making his decision crystal clear here. He will keep the Report as secret as possible. And which parts remain secret are entirely up to him.