The Department of Justice disagreed with special counsel Robert Mueller about "a lot" of the legal analysis in his report on whether President Donald Trump committed obstruction, and Mueller wasn't going to make a "determination one way or the other," Attorney General William Barr said in an interview airing Friday.
"We analyzed the law and the facts and a group of us spent a lot of time doing that and determined that both as a matter of law, many of the instances would not amount to obstruction," Barr told CBS News chief legal correspondent in an interview airing Friday on "CBS This Morning."
"In other words, we didn't agree with the legal analysis, a lot of the legal analysis in the report," the attorney general added. "It did not reflect the views of the department. It was the views of a particular lawyer or lawyers and so we applied what we thought was the right law."
Mueller didn't exonerate Trump in his report but also didn't determine if he's committed obstruction of justice, and Barr said he thinks the special counsel could have come to a conclusion.
Barr was widely criticized for his decision on Trump after presenting a four-page summary of Mueller's report, but he told Crawford he was "trying to state the bottom line" on Mueller's findings.
Mueller said earlier this week his report should stand for itself, and that he doesn't want to testify before Congress on anything not contained in it. Barr told Crawford that his decision is the "proper line."
Barr further commented that the DOJ is working to be sure Russia does not interfere in the 2020 election and said he's spoken with FBI Director Christopher Wray about creating a high-level group to be prepared.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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