It's Mueller time (apparently). Here are four big questions.

The long-awaited conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation appears nigh, as The Washington Post’s Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey and Matt Zapotosky report:

Justice Department officials are preparing for the end of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s nearly two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and believe a confidential report could be issued in coming days, according to people familiar with the discussions. ...

Mueller could deliver his report to Attorney General William P. Barr next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

Here are a few big questions to which we could soon learn the answers:

1. Will we ever see the “report" — or anything close to it?

There has long been an assumption, that all this waiting will lead to a payoff: A full, public report, written by Mueller, that would detail everything that he found — a “Mueller report.” That assumption may have been wrong. While we got a full “Starr Report” in the 1990s, Mueller is working under a different statute.

And at his confirmation hearing, now-Attorney General William P. Barr made clear he views the Justice Department as being constrained when it comes to what it can release. “The rules, I think, say the special counsel will prepare a summary report on any prosecutive or declination decisions" — i.e. decisions on what can be charged and what won’t be charged — "and that shall be confidential and be treated as any other declination or prosecutive material within the department.”

Barr did assure the senators that he would try to release what he could. “The A.G. has some flexibility and discretion in terms of the A.G.'s report," he said. "What I am saying is my objective and goal is to get as much as I can of the information to Congress and the public.”


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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/analysis-its-mueller-time-apparently-here-are-four-big-questions/ar-BBTTJy6?li=BBnb7Kz