William Barr Explains Finding of No Obstruction on Mueller Probe

Attorney general appears before a Senate panel after letter indicates dispute over characterizing special counsel probe

The special counsel probe into President Trump and Russian 2016 election interference was meant to deliver a verdict on criminality, not to simply report facts to the public, Attorney General William Barr said in explaining why he determined the president’s actions didn’t amount to obstruction of justice.

In a high-profile hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Barr shed some light on his thinking surrounding the choice by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, not to decide whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice amid the wide-ranging probe into Russian interference. It came just after the release of a March letter from the special counsel to the attorney general urging him to release more of the investigation’s conclusions, indicating a dispute between the two about the characterization of the report’s findings.

Mr. Barr said at the Wednesday hearing he was surprised that Mr. Mueller wouldn’t reach a conclusion about obstruction, and he said he conveyed that message to the special counsel in a March 5 briefing. Among other reasons, Mr. Mueller cited a longstanding Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. Mr. Barr said he pressed Mr. Mueller for more about his reasoning.

“If he felt he shouldn’t go down a path of making a traditional prosecutive decision then he shouldn’t have investigated,” Mr. Barr said. “That was the time to pull up.”

Mr. Mueller in the report detailed 10 episodes of potential obstruction of justice. In explaining why he didn’t pursue a charge of obstruction, he made clear he wasn’t exonerating the president.