Trump Moves to New Phase with Public Release of Mueller’s Report, Obstruction Charges Set for Release

Barr will be joined at his news conference by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who for much of the Mueller investigation was the one overseeing the probe at the Department of Justice. No one from Mueller's team will take part in the briefing.

Trump said Wednesday he was considering holding his own news conference Thursday. Speaking on The Larry O'Connor Show on the local radio station WMAL, Trump said, "You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a news conference. Maybe I'll do one after that; we'll see."

'Spinning the report'​

Nadler and the heads of key House committees strongly objected to the way the report's release is being handled, saying Barr's media appearance is "unnecessary and inappropriate, and appears designed to shape public perceptions of the report before anyone can read it."

They called for Barr to cancel his news conference. But Georgia Congressman Doug Collins, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, defended Barr, accusing Democrats of "trying to spin the report."

In addition, The New York Times reported Barr consulted with White House lawyers in recent days about the report, which helped Trump's legal team in its preparations to respond to the release.

Nadler, along with the heads of the House intelligence, oversight, financial services and foreign affairs committees, said in a letter, "There is no legitimate reason for the department to brief the White House prior to providing Congress a copy of the report."

"These new actions by the attorney general reinforce our concern that he is acting to protect President Trump," they wrote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the attorney general had "thrown out his credibility" with a "single-minded effort to protect" Trump.

"The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin," she said on Twitter.

This is not the end

Whatever Congress and the public learn Thursday, the issues covered in the report are certain to endure in U.S. political discourse in the short term, with Barr scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1, followed by an appearance at the House Judiciary Committee the next day.

Nadler has also said he will "probably find it useful" to call Mueller and his team to testify before his committee.

Looking to the longer term, it is highly unlikely the investigation will fade to irrelevance before the next presidential election in November 2020.

In one measure of public demand for the information, several publishers are offering people the ability to purchase printed copies of the report, and pre-orders alone on Amazon's website ranked among the site's top 100 in book sales before the report was even released.

What have long been public are the legal ramifications of Mueller's probe.

​Trump associates in jail

Some of the closest figures in Trump's orbit pleaded guilty or were convicted of a range of offenses, often for lying about their contacts with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign or just before he took office in January 2017.

Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with Russia's then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, just before Trump assumed power, and is awaiting sentencing. A low-level foreign affairs adviser, George Papadopoulos, was jailed for 12 days after he pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his Russia contacts.

Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort is in the early stages of a 7½-year prison term after being convicted and pleading guilty in two cases linked to financial corruption from his years of lobbying for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine.

Rick Gates, a business associate of Manafort's and his deputy on the Trump campaign, was a key witness against Manafort at his trial, after pleading guilty to conspiring with him in financial wrongdoing from their years as lobbyists for Ukraine. He is awaiting sentencing.