US Justice Department Preparing to Receive Mueller Report Next Week

By Staff, Agencies

Recently confirmed Attorney General William Barr could reportedly announce as soon as next week that special counsel Robert Mueller has finished his investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Barr is planning to submit a summary to Congress of Mueller’s final report shortly after he announces the conclusion of the probe, CNN reported Wednesday.

Although CNN and NBC reported that Barr could receive Mueller’s work as soon as next week, the exact timing could change as the Department of Justice does not wish to interfere with President Trump's upcoming summit with North Korea.

Indications that Mueller’s work was entering its final stages have been known since December when NBC News reported that Mueller was “nearing the end of his historic investigation” and even suggested that he could submit his report “as early as mid-February”.

New details of the report were also made public by CNN, including the fact that Mueller’s team has frequently met with prosecutors from other Justice Department offices and that Mueller’s employees were spotted carrying boxes and carting files out of their office — which was described as “an unusual move that could foreshadow a hand-off of legal work.”

It remains unclear how much of Mueller’s final report will be made public, as Barr told Congress during his nomination hearing last month that he would follow Justice Department guidelines and make as much of the report public as possible.

US President Donald Trump declined to comment on Wednesday as to whether he believes the Mueller report should be released, adding that the decision will “be totally up to the new attorney general.”

“He’s a tremendous man and a tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the Justice Department,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump earlier on Sunday slammed the probe on Twitter, calling the investigations of the allegations of possible collusion “totally conflicted, illegal and rigged” and claiming that it “should never have been allowed to begin,” while repeating his earlier comments which described the Mueller investigation as a political witch hunt that has not produced evidence in two years.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the US election, saying the allegations were made up to deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.