William Barr: Trump’s Lawyers Got The Redacted Mueller Report ‘Earlier This Week’

President Donald Trump’s lawyers received a copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report earlier this walking, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday morning. Barr confirmed that he had sent a redacted version of the report to the President’s lawyers.

“The President’s personal counsel requested and was given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released,” Barr said during his press conference. Some media commentators had speculated that this would happen.

“That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government act which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an independent counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The President’s personal lawyers were not permitted to make and did not request any redactions.”

However, when Independent Counsel Ken Starr finished his report on President Bill Clinton, the Clinton administration requested a copy of the report and Republicans denied the request. The Clinton White House wanted the report an hour before its’ release.

“In addition to making the redacted report public, we are also working with Congress to accommodate their legitimate oversight interest with respect to the special counsel’s investigation,” Barr went on. “We have been consulting with Chairman [Lindsey] Graham and Chairman [Jerry] Nadler through the process and we will continue to do to do so. Given the limited nature of the redactions, I believe the publicly released report will allow every American to understand the results of the special counsel’s investigation.”

Barr’s press conference contained little that was new and seemed to be a public re-iteration of his four-page memo on Mueller’s final report. That memo cleared the President and his campaign of collusion with Russia but said that the Special Counsel had not reached a conclusion on obstruction of justice.

UPDATE:

Axios’ Jonathan Swan has tweeted about Trump’s lawyers receiving the report. “Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow just told me he first saw the Mueller report on Tuesday afternoon,” Swan tweeted. “Trump’s legal team, including the Raskins, made two visits to the Justice Department to view the report securely — late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Sekulow said.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.