Justice Dept. appeals judge's order on Russia probe memo

The Biden administration said Monday that it would appeal a judge's order directing it to release in its entirety a legal memo on whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice during the Russia investigation.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson earlier this month ordered the Justice Department to release the entire March 2019 memo as part of a public records lawsuit from a Washington-based advocacy organization.

Though the department agreed to release one section of the document, the lawyers asked Jackson to put her order on hold to give a federal appeals court a chance to review the ruling.

At issue is a March 24, 2019 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that was prepared for Barr to evaluate whether evidence collected in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation could support an obstruction of justice prosecution of the president.

The Justice Department turned over other documents to CREW as part of the group's lawsuit, but declined to give it the OLC memo.

Jackson said those arguments were disingenuous because the memo was prepared for Barr at the same time as a separate Justice Department letter informing Congress and the public that Barr and senior department leaders had concluded that Trump had not obstructed justice.

The brief portion of the memo that the department agreed to disclose shows that two senior Justice Department leaders advised Barr that, in their view, Mueller's evidence could not support an obstruction conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt.
 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9615339/Justice-Dept-appeals-judges-order-Russia-probe-memo.html