DOJ releases unredacted memo to Barr on Trump, obstruction in Mueller probe
The Justice Department on Wednesday released the unredacted version of a 2019 memo that made the case to then-Attorney General William Barr that President Donal
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday released the unredacted version of a 2019 memo that made the case to then-Attorney General William Barr that President Donald Trump should not be charged with obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation.
The nine-page memo, from March 24, 2019, was written by Steven Engel, then the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, and Ed O’Callaghan, who was the Justice Department's principal associate deputy attorney general. Barr, a critic of then-special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, announced that the Justice Department would not prosecute the case the same day the memo was sent to him.
The memo, which was released in response to a lawsuit by a government watchdog group, says Volume II of Mueller's report "is not, in our judgment, sufficient to support a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the President violated the obstruction-of-justice statutes." It was made public following a ruling from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C.
Even if there were no constitutional barriers to charging a president, the memo argued, the Justice Department should decline to charge Trump.
The Mueller probe did not establish any "underlying crime related to Russian interference," and it was not clear that Trump was trying to cover up any wrongdoing, the memo's authors wrote in their rationale against bringing charges.
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