Mueller report heads to Congress ‘within a week’: Everything on the Trump-Russia case

The nearly two-year investigation into foreign interference in the 2016 US presidential election, including whether anyone tied to President Donald Trump's campaign cooperated with Russia to get him elected, came to an end on March 22 when former FBI director Robert Mueller delivered his report to US Attorney General William Barr.

But that's hardly the end of the story. As of April 9, Barr had said he planned to submit the Mueller report to Congress and the public "within a week," The New York Times reported. That fits with the expectations he set earlier.

On Monday, the Justice Department said it would release a redacted version of the report to Congress and the public on Thursday, April 18.

In late March, two days after receiving the 400-page report, Barr sent a four-page summary to Congress, concluding that Mueller's findings didn't show the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. 

Mueller's investigation, though, has led to indictments of six of Trump's advisers, along with 26 Russian nationals, including some on charges of hacking. Indictments against 12 of the Russians were tied to malware that infected the servers of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election campaign and that stole thousands of emails, which then were posted on WikiLeaks.

But no new indictments are expected, according to CBS News (both CBS News and CNET are owned by CBS). US law makes it unlikely that a sitting president can be indicted, which is why Mueller pursued Trump's top collaborators from the 2016 campaign.

The president wasted no time responding to Barr's initial summary. He tweeted: "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION."

Still, even though Mueller's investigation didn't establish any conspiracy on the part of the president, it also made no definitive determination on obstruction of justice, CBS News reported. Barr's letter quotes Mueller as saying that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him" on the matter of obstruction.

The law doesn't require the Department of Justice to release a report on a special counsel investigation. But the president indicated March 20 that he wants the report released, saying "Let people see it." And politicians from both major parties have said they want the full report released.

Top Democrats in Congress have called for the release of the Mueller report in its entirety. In a joint statement on March 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer said that Barr isn't a neutral observer and that his letter "raises as many questions as it answers."

In the meantime, what Mueller found during his 675-day investigation could lead to a widening of the partisan divide in the US, with Trump supporters likely to view the final results of the Mueller probe as exonerating the president, while his detractors see the report's contents and existing indictments as ample proof of wrongdoing.

As soon as it's available, we'll share instructions on how to download and/or access the Mueller report online. But between now and then, here are six things you should know:

When we expect the Mueller report to be released to the public

Barr said April 9 that the report would be released to Congress "within a week," although the Justice Department was working with Mueller to redact any information related to ongoing litigation or that might threaten national security. During his Senate confirmation hearings in January, Barr told senators he wanted to release as much of the report as possible, "consistent with the law," as reported by CBS News.

Barr said he would be clear about the redactions, according to the New York Times.

In addition to the president, other top Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said they want the full report released. That includes Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, and Texas Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican.

Once it's released to Congress, the public could see it next -- although there are no plans for a wider release yet. 

There are already two listings that have appeared on Amazon purporting to offer the reports. They both have a placeholder release date of April 30. One will be published by Skyhorse Publishing and the other by The Washington Post.

What the public won't get to see

Because the report involves foreign relations and intelligence gathering, it's likely to contain classified and sensitive information that may compromise sources and have implications for national security. It's also likely to contain information on why Mueller didn't prosecute certain individuals -- information the Justice Department doesn't usually disclose, according to CBS News.  As a result, some parts of the report may be withheld altogether and other parts could be heavily redacted.

Who's been indicted so far

As detailed by The New York Times, 32 people have been charged with crimes by Mueller -- including 26 Russian nationals who are unlikely to stand trial. Those indictments include charges against 12 Russian hackers alleged to have been behind cyberattacks in 2016 against the Democratic National Committee and against 13 Russians for spreading disinformation on social media, as well as the propaganda efforts' chief accountant.

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Meanwhile, six Trump associates have been accused of a set of crimes that include financial malfeasance and lying to investigators, and five of them have already been convicted or pleaded guilty. The most prominent are Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump 2016 campaign; Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer; and Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser.

Mueller also has indicted longtime Trump political adviser Roger Stone over his alleged ties to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.

Why Trump is unlikely to be impeached

With Trump himself unlikely to be indicted or subpoenaed, it would have taken a major bombshell in the Mueller report to trigger impeachment proceedings in Congress. Even before Barr's summary to Congress, that option became even more unlikely when Pelosi stated in early March that she doesn't support impeachment, saying that unless there's overwhelming evidence, impeachment would become too partisan and divisive to make it worth dominating the agenda of Congress.

Congressional investigations will continue

Even without an impeachment effort, we will see more investigations. The House Intelligence Committee announced in February that it was widening its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. As CBS News reported, the committee's chairman, Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, pointed out that a new addition to the five lines of inquiry would be "[w]hether any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates." Separately, the House Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.

What comes next

Since receiving Mueller's findings on March 22, Barr and his Justice Department lawyers have been dissecting the document and have delivered a summary of its conclusions to Congress. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel in 2016, will confer to decide if and how much of the report should be released to the public.

Originally published March 24.
Update March 27: Added Amazon listings. March 29: Added information on when the report will go to Congress. April 9: Added Barr's statement on when he'll send the report to Congress. April 15: Added that DOJ will release the report on April 18. 

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