Justice Department releases unredacted Barr memo detailing decision not to charge Trump with obstructing Russia probe
CNN
Former Attorney General Bill Barr concluded that then-President Donald Trump couldn't be charged with obstructing the Russia probe because there wasn't an underlying conspiracy between his campaign and Russia, breaking with special counsel Robert Mueller's view on the matter, according to a newly unredacted memo released by the Justice Department.
The nine-page memo was released Wednesday as part of a lawsuit over public records tied to the Mueller investigation. A highly redacted version of the memo was previously released in 2021, but a federal court ordered the Justice Department to make the full document public.
"It would be rare for federal prosecutors to bring an obstruction prosecution that did not itself arise out of a proceeding related to a separate crime," then-top Justice Department officials Steven Engel and Ed O'Callaghan wrote in the document, which concludes with a formal recommendation against charging Trump, which Barr signed and approved on March 24, 2019.
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