March 25, 2019

Wyden Statement on Attorney General Barr’s Letter to Congress

Washington, D.C. – Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued the following statement in response to the letter that Attorney General William Barr released Sunday afternoon:

“Attorney General Barr’s letter appears to be little more than a public relations strategy to get positive headlines for the president, while concealing from the American people Robert Mueller’s actual report. No one should be surprised. Barr told Trump he didn’t have to worry about obstruction of justice. That’s why Trump nominated him. Barr just did what he was hired to do.

“The Barr letter doesn’t square with what is publicly known about Mueller’s investigation. The indictments and other documents Mueller released revealed all kinds of links between the Trump campaign and family and the Russians. You would think from the Barr summary that they had nothing to do with each other. 

“I have said from the beginning that my biggest concern was following the money. Barr’s letter doesn’t answer any of the core questions about how Trump has been compromised by the Russians. The American public still has no answers about Trump’s financial deals with the Russians, promises of sanctions relief and their connection to his bizarre fawning relationship with President Putin. They don’t know how far Mueller looked into this question beyond establishing that Michael Cohen lied about the Moscow deal. The public doesn’t know everything that Mueller found about Trump’s campaign manager passing polling data to a Russian agent. They don’t know what Mueller found out about the campaign’s knowledge of Roger Stone’s ties to WikiLeaks. And they don’t know what Mueller uncovered about the Trump Tower meeting. The list goes on and on.”

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