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A federal judge ordered the DOJ to turn over an internal memo related to the Mueller investigation.
Bill Barr cited the memo as the basis for his decision to clear Trump of obstruction of justice. It is time for the public to see that, too, the judge said in the ruling.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Justice Department to turn over an internal memo that Attorney General Bill Barr cited in 2019 as justification for clearing President Donald Trump of obstructing justice.
Barr said at the time that he d come to his decision in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers, but he did not publicize the OLC s memo. In response, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain the memo.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered release of the legal memo
It came before AG Bill Barr announced Trump did not obstruct justice
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller listed 10 instances of potential obstruction
But his team of prosecutors did not issue a formal recommendation
DOJ fought FOIA request to hand over the document
Mueller wrote: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed records request for the document
Judge Jackson concluded those claims were unfounded and inconsistent with her review of the unredacted memo.
“The agency’s redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the attorney general to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at the time,” she wrote in a 41-page opinion.
The Justice Department can appeal the ruling. A department spokesperson declined to comment.
Mr. Barr said in 2019 that his decision to clear Mr. Trump of obstruction came in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and other department lawyers. As part of that process, the OLC prepared the memo at issue in Judge Jackson’s decision.
May 4, 2021 5:05 p.m.
The Justice Department under President Trump made misrepresentations about an internal memo related to the Mueller report that it has sought to withhold from public view, a judge said Monday.
The blistering opinion by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson concerned an Office of Legal Counsel memo that was drafted in the key weekend between when special counsel Robert Mueller issued his report to Attorney General Bill Barr and when Barr released a public letter to Congress ostensibly “summarizing” the report.
The Justice Department in the case has argued it was allowed to withhold parts of the memo that it said amounted to legal advice to Barr on whether to prosecute Trump based on Mueller’s investigation. But the judge said Tuesday that, having viewed the full memo herself, the Department’s “incomplete explanations” of the memo “obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum.”