A redacted version of Robert Mueller's full report into Russian interference in the 2016 US election will be made public "by mid-April", US Attorney General William Barr says.
US Attorney General William Barr. (file photo) Photo: Nicholas Kamm / AFP
In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate judiciary committees, he said he was now redacting the 400-page document and expected to be able to publish by mid-April, "if not sooner".
After the report was handed over to him by Mr Mueller, Mr Barr published only a four-page note summarising its conclusions - sparking demands for the report to be released in its entirety.
Mr Barr's four-page conclusion said the long-awaited report found US President Donald Trump's campaign had not colluded with Russia in 2016 to win the US election but did not exonerate him of a charge of obstruction of justice.
However, Mr Barr's letter said the evidence presented in the report was also not enough to charge the president with obstruction.
Mr Mueller's team has charged 34 people - including six former Trump aides and a dozen Russians - as well as three companies since the former FBI director was appointed to head up the investigation.
Photo: AP
None of those charges are directly related to the allegations of collusion.
On Monday, six Democratic congressional committee chairs sent a letter to Mr Barr demanding the release of the full, "complete and unredacted" report by 2 April.
As well as promising to release a redacted version of the report, Mr Barr said he would not be giving a copy to MrTrump to review before publication, because "he has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me".
He said he would testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 1 May, and the House Judiciary Committee the following day, and denied that his letter released last week was a "summary" of Mr Mueller's report, instead referring to it as a "supplemental notification".
"My March 24 letter was not, and did not purport to be, an exhaustive recounting of the Special Counsel's investigation or report," he wrote.
"The Special Counsel's report is nearly 400 pages long (exclusive of tables and appendices) and sets forth the Special Counsel's findings, his analysis, and the reasons for his conclusions. Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Mr Barr's letter adds.
Mr Trump has described the accusations against him as "treasonous".
Photo: AFP / Saul Loeb
Asked about the report's conclusions a day after they were released, the president said there was "a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things, I would say treasonous things, against our country".
"It was a false narrative, it was a terrible thing, we can never let this happen to another president again, I can tell you that. I say it very strongly."
In a rally on Thursday - his first since the report was submitted - the president incorrectly claimed that the report was a "total exoneration".
"After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead, the collusion delusion is over," he told a cheering crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He called the investigation "a plan by those who lost the election to try and illegally regain power by framing innocent Americans - many of them, they suffered - with an elaborate hoax".
- BBC
