Panel Rules Justice Dept. Wrongly Withheld Russia Probe Memo – By Meg Kinnard (Huffpost) / Aug 19, 2022
The memo was prepared for Barr to evaluate whether evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could support prosecution of Trump for obstruction of justice.
The Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr improperly withheld portions of an internal memorandum Barr cited in publicly announcing that then-President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice in the Russia investigation, a federal appeals panel said Friday.
The department had argued that the 2019 memo represented the private deliberations of its own lawyers before any decision had been formalized, and was therefore exempt from disclosure. A federal judge previously disagreed, ordering the Justice Department to provide it to a government transparency group that had sued for it, prompting an appeal last year by the Biden administration to a higher court.
Attorneys for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to an email message seeking comment. The department can appeal the ruling — by a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — to the full appeals court.
At issue in the case is a March 24, 2019, memorandum from the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC, and another senior department official that was prepared for Barr to evaluate whether evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could support prosecution of the president for obstruction of justice.
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