No, it's not enough for Attorney General William Barr to summarize or to give Congress a heavily redacted version of the Mueller report. At least it's committee leaders, who have security clearance, need to see the full report.
Why? Because, among other more crucial reasons, even a careful, liberal columnist like the Chicago Tribute's Clarence Page gets it wrong in quoting Attorney General William Barr's summary. In his recent column, reprinted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Page says this, [mis]quoting from Barr's summary:
According to Page, ". . . .Barr's summary quotes Mueller as saying no evidence of conspiracy or coordination with Russians by the Trump campaign was found . . ."
Actually, Barr's summary of the report says this:
"The special counsel did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts despite multiple offers from Russian affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign" [emphasis added].
Now, if you read closely, there is a difference between conspiring with "the Russians" and with "the Russian government." The latter leaves plenty of room for an elaborate conspiracy that uses several degrees of intermediaries to distance itself from the government itself.
If, as Barr's summary actually states, Mueller's statement said "Russian government," then I question whether we can conclude that there was no conspiracy.
The full report would provide complete sentences, in context, and would make clear whether this is important, or just an inadvertent slip, as is likely here by Page.
That, among many other crucial reasons, is why someone not in Trump's orbit needs to go over Mueller's report with careful scrutiny.
Ralph
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BREAKING NEWS
Just last evening, the New York Times broke the story that some of Mueller's investigators have talked with their associates, who apparently are the sources for the Times story. What they say is that AG Barr's summary released to the public does not accurately reflect the degree of damaging information about President Trump that is contained in the Mueller report. There are as yet no further details made public about what they are referring to, although it seems to be about obstruction of justice rather than about conspiracy with Russia.
They also suggest that Mueller meant for Congress, not AG Barr, to make the decision about the question of obstruction.
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