Sally Yates: Barr should release Mueller report as soon as possible

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said Friday that she believes Attorney General William Barr should release special counsel Robert Mueller’s report as soon as possible.

Yates, whom Trump fired last year after she refused to defend his travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries, wrote in an op-ed published in The Washington Post Friday that it was “time for the American people to hear the whole truth.”

“A week after Mueller issued his report, we don’t know those facts and have only been provided with Attorney General William P. Barr’s four-page summary of Mueller’s estimated 400-page report,” she wrote. “It is time for the American people to hear the whole truth. We need to see the report itself.”{mosads}

Yates added that Congress has a “solemn responsibility” to protect the country’s democracy, contending that, without access to Mueller’s full report, it could not fulfill that directive.

“As you read this, the Russian government is undoubtedly hard at work to undermine our next election,” she wrote. “Each day that passes without Congress having access to the full Mueller report is a day that Congress is prevented from doing its job of keeping our elections free from Russian espionage efforts.”

Yates argued that any redactions to the report should be “narrow” and that each one should be explained. 

“Barr has correctly noted that this is a matter of significant public interest,” she wrote. “It was about a foreign adversary’s attempt to subvert our election; it cuts to the very core of our democracy. It is absolutely essential that our country move forward with a common set of facts.”

Yates’s op-ed came shortly after Barr told lawmakers Friday that he expects to have a public version of Mueller’s report ready for release by mid-April. Barr also said President Trump had told him to decide what goes into the redacted document.

Mueller last week submitted nearly 400-page report to Barr on his sweeping 22-month-long investigation into Russian election interference and alleged ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

On Sunday, Barr issued a brief summary of the report that said investigators did not find evidence of coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Barr also said that there was insufficient evidence to pursue an obstruction of justice charge against the president, but added that the report did not exonerate Trump.