As Congress continues to wait for the full Mueller report, more information is coming out about Attorney General William Barr, whose brief summary of the report drew condemnation for allowing the President to claim he was fully exonerated.
Just Security reports, Barr has a history of misleading Congress.
"On Friday the thirteenth October 1989, by happenstance the same day as the “Black Friday” market crash, news leaked of a legal memo authored by William Barr," writes Ryan Goodman.
"He was then serving as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). It is highly uncommon for any OLC memo to make headlines. This one did because it was issued in 'unusual secrecy' and concluded that the FBI could forcibly abduct people in other countries without the consent of the foreign state. The headline also noted the implication of the legal opinion at that moment in time. It appeared to pave the way for abducting Panama’s leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega," he writes.
When members of Congress asked to see the full legal document, Barr pledged to give an account that 'summarizes the principal conclusions.'
Goodman points out that the situation has parallels to today's news.
"Sound familiar? In March 2019, when Attorney General Barr was handed Robert Mueller’s final report, he wrote that he would “summarize the principal conclusions” of the special counsel’s report for the public," he writes.
