WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the release of a legal memorandum the Trump-era Justice Department prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr before he announced his conclusion that President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice during the Russia investigation. But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the Justice Department had obscured “the true purpose of the memorandum” when it withheld the document. The decision by Barr and senior Justice Department leaders to clear Trump of obstruction, even though special counsel Robert Mueller and his team pointedly did not reach that conclusion, was a significant moment for the president. Jackson ruled that one of the documents, described by a Justice Department official as an “untitled, undated draft legal analysis,” was properly withheld from the group. But she ordered the release of the other memo, which was prepared for Barr by the then-head of the Office of Legal Counsel and another senior Justice Department official and which concludes that the evidence assembled by Mueller’s team would not support an obstruction prosecution of Trump.

Source: Huffington Post May 04, 2021 21:00 UTC