Special Counsel Robert Mueller
Today we all get to read the "lightly redacted" work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Alex Wong / Getty Images

Originally posted at 6:35 am.

The Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and more will finally be released today.

But first: a press conference from Attorney General William Barr, happening now.

7 am:

In the press conference, Barr said the report will be delivered to members of Congress at around 8 am Pacific today and will be posted on the Justice Department's web site afterward.

He also adopted the president's language, saying that while it's clear the Russians tried to interfere in the 2016 election there was "no collusion" with the Russians on the part of the Trump campaign or any other Americans.

"President Trump faced an unprecedented situation," Barr said, adding—in case you've missed it—that Trump's been rather upset about the whole Mueller thing. “Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion,” Barr declared.

Wait for it... Oh wait, it's already there:

But, as reporters at the press conference pointed out, the actual Mueller report is not yet available to the public. All we have is Barr's "generous"—in the words of one reporter— summary of what the report says. Does Barr think he's behaving inappropriately with all this pre-summarizing? "No," he said.

Barr also revealed that White House lawyers and Trump's personal lawyers were given the opportunity to read the redacted report in advance of today's announcement. The White House chose not to try to assert executive privilege over any aspect of the report and did not suggest any further redactions, according to Barr. In all, he said, the redactions in the report are "limited."

Now we wait to see the report itself.


7:20 am:

While we wait, some non-Trump tweets:





8:07 am

The redacted Mueller Report has been released:

The report's summary of its findings offers significantly more nuance than Barr's "no collusion" statement:

Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

And:

Also:

The investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied to the Office [of Special Counsel], and to Congress, about their interactions with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference.

The report establishes that Trump lied to the American people about a certain incident Trump described as "fake news."

It shows the breadth of the Russian influence operation:


Here's a quick summary of all the obstruction-y things the Special Counsel found Trump did, as compiled by The New York Times.

And here's a Washington Post take on how Mueller's team struggled with the obstruction issue.

Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy by his own staffers, who refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or legally dangerous.

Zooming out, what do Barr's "limited" redaction of the report actually look like?

Noon

According to Mueller's report, Julian Assange used someone's murder to help build a cover for his interactions with Russia. He also called Hillary Clinton "a bright, well connected, sadistic sociopath."