300+ pages of Mueller report

The still-secret report on Russian interference in the 2016 election submitted last week by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was more than 300 pages long, the Justice Department acknowledged on Thursday.

  NYT

For some reason, that was a secret until now. Of course, 600 is also more than 300, so we still don't know, but 300 is a very long report. This gives us some idea of how much Mueller had to say, making Barr's couple of lines of summary seem ludicrous, which may be the reason they wanted to keep it a secret.

Mr. Barr wrote to Congress on Sunday offering what he called the “principal conclusions” of the report — including that Mr. Mueller had not found that the Trump campaign had taken part in a conspiracy to undermine the election.

Jesus, they keep saying that. And that's what Barr intended to happen. He intended to make a pronouncement seem like an exoneration so that the issue would be framed for the public and by the time we actually see what Mueller wrote, we'll have been predisposed to believe it's an exoneration on both counts of conspiracy and obstruction. I don't believe that's at all what Mr. Mueller said, or Barr would have trotted out that exact quote. The quote he did trot out indicated that Mueller did not find sufficient evidence that would hold up in court beyond a reasonable doubt to ask for a charge of conspiracy.

Mueller did no one any favors by shunning his duty to make a finding and recommend a course of action on the question of obstruction. That specifically was his job - to investigate and make a recommendation. Barr could follow the recommendation or not, but it was Mueller's job to make one. And it was certainly not Barr's job to declare the Trump cabal innocent. He was permitted to say he didn't believe there was enough evidence to file charges, but he's not the damned judge and jury. He doesn't get to say guilty or not. Well, he DID, but that's NOT HIS job.

The total of 300-plus pages suggests that Mr. Mueller went well beyond the kind of bare-bones summary required by the Justice Department regulation governing his appointment and detailed his conclusions at length. And it raises questions about what Mr. Barr might have left out of the four dense pages he sent to Congress.

[...]

Mr. Barr has indicated to two congressional chairmen that it will most likely take weeks to redact the report for classified and grand jury information the department deems unfit for public consumption.

But Justice Department officials, including some from the attorney general’s office, also plan to examine the report before sending any documents to Congress for possible material the president could claim as privileged, according to a department official.

[...]

It was not clear whether Mr. Barr would personally be involved in an executive privilege review.

What's your best guess?

[Democrats] have specifically focused on an apparent difference between the views of Mr. Barr and Mr. Mueller on whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. Democrats have demanded that the attorney general make the full report and evidence public.

Republicans should want that, too. Except they can't win if they don't cheat, so they're more likely to want things to stay just as they are.

Andrew Napolitano, a legal analyst for Fox News and a favorite of Mr. Trump, caused a stir on Wednesday when he said multiple times on the air that the report was 700 pages.

Well, maybe it is.

Other blockbuster government reports in recent decades have been lengthy. At 445 pages, the independent counsel Ken Starr’s report on President Bill Clinton had to be trucked to Capitol Hill in September 1998.

The 9/11 commission report ran 567 pages with notes on the circumstances and fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks.

[...]

By contrast, the Watergate “road map” sent to Congress by the grand jury investigating President Richard M. Nixon and his associates was only 62 pages. Sent to lawmakers in 1974, the court report was not unsealed by a federal judge and made public until last year.

[...]

Members of Mr. Barr’s and Mr. Mueller’s teams are currently reviewing the full report to redact information that they do not believe should be made public for intelligence or other reasons.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

UPDATE 3/29:

Okay, "nearly 400" is indeed more than 300.