'Why are they working so hard to craft this narrative before we even see the thing?' one House Judiciary aide told INSIDER.
A pair of bombshell revelations about the upcoming release of the special counsel Robert Mueller's report in the Russia investigation sent Capitol Hill into a frenzy on Wednesday.
"The president and his lawyers have been beating the drum and saying, you know, there was no collusion, no obstruction, that this report represents a complete and total exoneration," one House Judiciary aide told INSIDER."So why are they so concerned about what's in the report? Why are they working so hard to craft this narrative before we even see the thing?"
First, the Justice Department announced that Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference around 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday to brief the public on an"overview" of the special counsel Robert Mueller's findings. The pair of revelations sparked an immediate and sustained backlash from Democratic lawmakers and congressional aides on the Hill.
Barr's decision to summarize the report and release"cherry picked findings" in a March 24 letter to Congress. Barr added that Mueller declined to make a"traditional prosecutorial judgment" in the obstruction case and instead laid out all the evidence prosecutors had collected on both sides of the issue.
Another committee aide said Democratic lawmakers were furious that Barr had decided to hold a press conference before releasing the report to Congress. Trump's team has long been more concerned about Mueller's findings in his obstruction-of-justice inquiry than his findings in the collusion thread of the Russia probe.
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