Federal judge slams Bill Barr for 'getting a jump on public relations' with statements about the Mueller report that were favorable for Trump

 Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson accused the Justice Department of trying to jump on 'public relations' to spin the Mueller report – as she accused the government of ignoring key information as it fights to keep documents sealed.

Jackson made the withering statements earlier this month, as parties litigate whether the government is entitled to keep internal documents about the Mueller report under wraps. 

She pointed to an internal DOJ memo where DOJ officials advising former Attorney General Bill Barr made the case that it might 'imply' an accusation against former President Donald Trump if the Department did not make a determination on whether or not he engaged in obstruction of justice. 

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accused the Justice Department of trying to jump on 'public relations' to spin the Mueller report in 2019

She said the administration as trying to '"getting a jump on public relations" by trying to game out how the public might receive the Mueller report. 

Mueller and his investigators outlined 10 potential areas of obstruction in their report. 

Jackson considered the memo 'strategy' that would not ordinarily be entitled to special protections, and ripped the agency for its characterization of the material. 

'DOJ made a strategic decision to pretend as if the first portion of the memorandum was not there and to avoid acknowledging that what the writers were actually discussing was how to neutralize the impact of the Report in the court of public opinion,' she said, in comments flagged by CNN.

Barr put out a summary document before release of the Mueller report that Democrats blasted as mischaracterizing its conclusions

Barr put out a summary document before release of the Mueller report that Democrats blasted as mischaracterizing its conclusions

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller outlined 10 potential areas of obstruction of justice, while noting DOJ guidelines that bar charging a sitting president

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller outlined 10 potential areas of obstruction of justice, while noting DOJ guidelines that bar charging a sitting president

2019: Trump 'proud' of Barr for looking into Mueller investigation
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Jackson made the point that DOJ had stated based on its own guidelines that it couldn't charge Trump as a sitting president – the same reason Mueller referenced for not making a determination on obstruction. He did not want an accusation to linger. 

'The analysis set forth in the memo was expressly understood to be entirely hypothetical,' wrote Jackson. 'One of the apparent purposes of the memorandum was to justify the Attorney General's plan to opine about the strength of the evidence, even though he and his team were well aware that under DOJ policy, there was no prosecution decision to be made.'

Her comments were unsealed this week.  Although the internal positioning took place during the Trump administration, current administration lawyers are now weighing in on how much they want to disclose, while seeking to preserve administration prerogatives.


The Biden administration said Monday that it would appeal Judge Jackson's order directing it to release a memo explaining why Barr didn't choose to prosecute Trump for obstruction.

But it also agreed to make a brief portion of the document public, which shows that two senior Justice Department leaders advised Barr that, in their view, Mueller's evidence could not support an obstruction conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt.

The 2019 memo is by Steven Engel and Ed O'Callaghan and written to Barr. The back-and-forth comes days before former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who featured in the Mueller report in a section on potential obstruction, prepares to finally testify to the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors. 

Jackson earlier this month ordered Biden's DOJ to release the entire March 2019 memo as part of a public records lawsuit from a Washington-based advocacy organization. 

She said the department, under Attorney General William Barr, had misstated the purpose of the document in arguing that it was legally entitled to withhold it from the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

In a motion filed late Monday, the deadline for deciding whether it would comply with the judge's decision or appeal it, the Justice Department said that it continued to believe even that the full document should be exempt from disclosure.

It appears Biden's DOJ took the decision to avoid setting a new precedent where more sensitive internal documents would have to be released, Politico reported. 

Presidents and administrations of both parties have constantly fought to keep these documents secret. 

The Biden administration said Monday that it would appeal a judge's order directing it to release in its entirety a legal memo on whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice during the Russia investigation. But it also agreed to make a brief portion of the document public. trump is pictured in NYC Monday

The Biden administration said Monday that it would appeal a judge's order directing it to release in its entirety a legal memo on whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice during the Russia investigation. But it also agreed to make a brief portion of the document public. trump is pictured in NYC Monday

Though the department agreed to release one section of the document, the lawyers asked Jackson to put her order on hold to give a federal appeals court a chance to review the ruling.

At issue is a March 24, 2019 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that was prepared for Barr to evaluate whether evidence collected in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation could support an obstruction of justice prosecution of the president. Barr has said he looked to that opinion in determining that Trump did not illegally obstruct the Russia probe.

The Justice Department turned over other documents to CREW as part of the group's lawsuit, but declined to give it the OLC memo. 

Government lawyers said they were entitled under public records law to withhold the memo because it reflected internal deliberations among lawyers before any formal decision had been reached.


U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson earlier this month ordered the Justice Department to release the entire March 2019 memo as part of a public records lawsuit from a Washington-based advocacy organization. She said the department, under Attorney General William Barr, had misstated the purpose of the document in arguing that it was legally entitled to withhold it from the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Barr is pictured above in July last year

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson earlier this month ordered the Justice Department to release the entire March 2019 memo as part of a public records lawsuit from a Washington-based advocacy organization. She said the department, under Attorney General William Barr, had misstated the purpose of the document in arguing that it was legally entitled to withhold it from the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Barr is pictured above in July last year

But Jackson said those arguments were disingenuous because the memo was prepared for Barr at the same time as a separate Justice Department letter informing Congress and the public that Barr and senior department leaders had concluded that Trump had not obstructed justice.

She said the OLC memo could therefore not have been 'predecisional' in nature if the Justice Department had already decided that there would be no obstruction case.

In its motion Monday, Justice Department lawyers said the government never meant to mislead the court but acknowledged that some of its language could have been clearer.

President Joe Biden talks to employees at FEMA headquarters on Monday in Washington

President Joe Biden talks to employees at FEMA headquarters on Monday in Washington

Judiciary Committee holds AG William Barr in contempt in 2019
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The department said the decision before the attorney general was not whether to prosecute Trump since the indictment of a sitting president is precluded by longstanding Justice Department policy. Rather, the question that the memo set out to address was whether the facts gathered by Mueller could warrant a criminal case. That question, the government says, was a genuine decision that had to be made.

'The Attorney General´s determination on that point - and on what, if anything, to say to the public about that question - undoubtedly qualifies as a decision, even if it could not have resulted in an actual prosecution of the sitting President,' Justice Department lawyers wrote.

'There was no legal bar to determining that the evidence did or did not establish commission of a crime, a determination the Attorney General made and announced,' they added.

In a letter to AG Merrick Garland on May 14, Senate Democrats urged him not to appeal the court's order to 'help rebuild the nation's trust in independence after four years of turmoil'.

The group of Senators lead by Majority Whip Dick Durbin wrote: 'DOJ's actions in this case, and in another recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case seeking information about President Trump's activities, have raised doubts about DOJ's candor when characterizing potential evidence of President Trump's misconduct to courts. 

'To be clear, these misrepresentations preceded your confirmation as Attorney General, but the Department you now lead bears responsibility for redressing them.

'In that light, and in order to help rebuild the nation's trust in DOJ's independence after four years of turmoil, we urge DOJ not to appeal D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson's May 3 decision to order the release of this OLC memo.'

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