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By Rebecca Shabad
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr will not submit a summary of his findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to Congress Saturday, according to a senior official at the Department of Justice.
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has overseen the Mueller investigation for the last two years, are working closely together. Rosenstein was the one who originally appointed Mueller to the position after the firing of FBI Director James Comey in May 2017.
In a letter to the leaders of the Judiciary Committees Friday evening, Barr said that Mueller had submitted his report to him. “I am reviewing the report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel’s principal conclusions as soon as this weekend,” he said.
President Donald Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he plans to remain for the rest of the weekend. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters Saturday that the president is described as being “in good spirits.”
There was no plan as of Saturday afternoon for the president to make public comments.
Members of Congress were scheduled to return to Washington Monday following a week-long recess. All eyes will be on Capitol Hill where key oversight committees plan to scrutinize Mueller’s findings.
House Democrats were scheduled to hold an emergency afternoon conference call Saturday with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Democratic caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and relevant committee chairmen to discuss the Mueller report.
In a letter to members of the Democratic caucus, Pelosi said Saturday that they would insist that any briefings provided to committees should be done in an unclassified manner so that lawmakers can speak freely “about every aspect of the report.” She added that the underlying findings from Mueller’s investigation “must be provided to Congress and the American people.”
“The Attorney General’s offer to provide the Committees with a summary of the report’s conclusions is insufficient,” wrote Pelosi. “Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents so that the Committees can proceed with their independent work, including oversight and legislating to address any issues the Mueller report may raise.”
The House recently voted unanimously that the full Mueller report be released to the public, with four GOP members voting “present.”
House Republicans held their own conference call Friday night to discuss the Mueller report being completed, NBC News learned from two sources who were on the call. All GOP leaders and ranking members from committees were among those on the call. Sources said that there was optimism from members about the news regarding no additional indictments, but they were also proceeding with caution and a “let’s wait and see” mentality.
During a conference call with reporters Saturday, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., referred to reports that said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., gave a defense of Trump Friday night at Mar-a-Lago and the crowd erupted into chants of “lock her up.”
“I think all of this points to ways in which President Trump has undermined some of our core values, and it would be disheartening if the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee were sort of piling on in that effort,” Coons said.