DOJ could release an 'alternative Mueller report' prepared by legal team investigating Trump: report
07 December 2021
The U.S. Department of Justice may soon release a summary of its internal report "memorializing" former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into President Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia. The unredacted report is said to include parts of the initial report that were excluded from the one sent to Congress.
In a letter submitted on Thursday of last week, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office informed Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the progress regarding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documentation request submitted by The New York Times. According to the attorney's office, it had made "progress" in determining the documentation referred to by Andrew Weissmann, the top deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
"Since Plaintiff filed its complaint, Defendant has located and begun processing this record and intends to release all non-exempt portions to Plaintiff once processing is complete," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Jude wrote. "Defendant estimates that primary processing of the record will be complete by the end of January 2022 at which time Defendant expects to send the record to several other DOJ components for consultation."
In his book titled, "Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation," Weissmann reportedly described the summary as "an internal report memorializing everything we found, our conclusions, and the limitations on the investigation.”
"At least for posterity, I had all the [team] members ... write up an internal report memorializing everything we found, our conclusions, and the limitations on the investigation, and provided it to the other team leaders as well as had it maintained in our files," wrote Weissmann.
The attorney's office has also confirmed that the document has been located and "if the agency determines that portions or all of the summary fall under FOIA disclosure guidelines, it will be released in full or part to the newspaper."