15 Facts About Barr letter

1.

The Barr letter was written over the course of two days in tandem with the legal memo on which the letter ostensibly relied.

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2.

Barr letter tasked the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice with authoring a memo that would justify the decision Barr letter had already made to clear Trump of obstruction.

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3.

On March 24, Barr sent a four-page letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees detailing what he said were the report's principal conclusions on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, allegations of coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice.

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4.

Barr's letter describes the conclusions investigated by the Special Counsel investigation.

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5.

Barr's letter mentioned two methods found by the special counsel that Russia tried to do to influence the 2016 presidential election.

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6.

Barr letter concluded on obstruction of justice by saying: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense".

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7.

Barr letter further wrote that it would be detrimental to the institution of the presidency if Trump were accused of a crime when he fired Comey, a subordinate.

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8.

Time magazine said "Barr letter has already realized some of Democrats' biggest fears", then went on to describe the memo.

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9.

The Los Angeles Times wrote that Barr used similar reasoning in both the 2018 memo and Barr letter, while NPR similarly wrote that the memo which "was a precursor to" the Barr letter.

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10.

The New York Times reported instances in which the Barr letter omitted information and quoted sentence fragments out of context in ways that significantly altered the findings in the report, including:.

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11.

Barr wrote that his letter provided "the principal conclusions" of the Mueller Report.

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12.

Ryan Goodman, a professor at the New York University School of Law and co-editor of Just Security, observed that in 1989, Barr wrote a letter which he stated contained "the principal conclusions" of a controversial legal opinion he worked on as head of the OLC.

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13.

Mueller thought that Barr's letter "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the findings.

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14.

Walton asked if Barr letter's characterizations were a "calculated attempt" to help the president.

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15.

Barr letter ordered the Justice Department to show him the redacted portions from the public version of the report so he could determine if they were justified.

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