The Justice Department on Wednesday released under court order all of a 2019 memo in which two top officials advised then-Attorney General William Barr not to charge then-U.S. President Donald Trump with obstructing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
Barr's decision to clear Trump after receiving the memo drew criticism from many Democrats and some former Justice Department lawyers, who accused the top U.S. law enforcement official of protecting his boss. Mueller himself did not exonerate Trump of committing obstruction of justice in trying to impede the probe.
The department had previously released parts of the nine-page memo while keeping other portions secret. The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued to challenge those redactions, leading a federal appeals court in Washington last week to order its full release.