Mueller report outlines Trump's attempts to assert control over Russia probe

While his team did not find the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government, special counsel Robert Mueller detailed in his highly anticipated report a series of concerted efforts by President Trump to impede -- and even thwart -- an investigation he believed would doom his presidency.

"This is the end of my presidency," Mr. Trump said when Mueller was appointed in 2017. "I'm f**ked."

The redacted version of Mueller's report released by the Justice Department Thursday morning is more than 400 pages long and outlines 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice analyzed by the special counsel. According to Mueller, Mr. Trump tried to assert control over Mueller's investigation as it threatened to consume his presidency, only to be stymied by aides who ignored or refused to carry out his directives.

In perhaps the most revealing case described by the special counsel, Mr. Trump instructed former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, citing uncorroborated "conflicts of interests." Fearing a potential constitutional crisis, McGahn refused and threatened to step down in protest, according to Mueller.

"McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre," the report read.

Mueller said his investigation did not establish the president committed an obstruction of justice, but also did not "exonerate" him. The special counsel also suggested Congress could take up the obstruction of justice aspect of the case.

You can read the report in full here. Highlights from the two-volume, 448-page document appear below.

Trump's reaction to Mueller's appointment: "I'm f**ked"

The report documents Mr. Trump's reaction to Mueller's appointment in May 2017:

[W]hen [then-Attorney General Jeff] Sessions told the President that a special counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said "Oh my god. This is terrible. This is the end my Presidency. I'm f**ked. I'm f**ked." The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" The President said the position of Attorney General was his most important appointment and that Sessions had "let (him) down," contrasting him to Eric Holder and Robert Kennedy. Sessions recalled that the President said to him, "you were supposed to protect me," or words to that effect. The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels, it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me."

The President then told Sessions he should resign as Attorney General. Sessions agreed to submit his resignation and left the Oval Office.

The next day, May 18, 2017, FBI agents delivered to [White House counsel Don] McGahn a preservation notice that discussed an investigation related to Comey's termination and directed the White House to preserve all relevant documents.

-- Stefan Becket

Trump tried to get Sessions to reverse recusal and investigate Hillary Clinton

Mueller said Mr. Trump met with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions between 2017 and 2018 and tried to persuade him to reverse his decision to recuse himself from the special counsel probe and order an investigation of Hillary Clinton.

According to Mueller, Sessions recalled that in May 2017:

The President called him at home and asked if Sessions would "unrecuse" himself. According to Sessions, the President asked him to reverse his recusal so that Sessions could direct the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton, and the "gist" of the conversation was that the President wanted Sessions to unrecuse from "all of it," including the Special Counsel's Russia investigation. Sessions listened but did not respond, and he did not reverse his recusal or order an investigation of Clinton.

During a Dec. 6, 2017, meeting attended by staff secretary Rob Porter, Mr. Trump again suggested Sessions reverse his recusal:

The President again suggested that Sessions could "unrecuse," which Porter linked to taking back supervision of the Russia investigation and directing an investigation of Hillary Clinton. According to contemporaneous notes taken by Porter, the President said, '" don't know if you could un-recuse yourself. You'd be a hero. Not telling you to do anything. Dershowitz says POTUS can get involved. Can order AG to investigate. I don 't want to get involved. I'm not going to get involved. I'm not going to do anything or direct you to do anything . I just want to be treated fairly."

-- Brian Pascus

Sanders admitted comment on “countless” FBI agents opposing Comey was false

In the aftermath of Mr. Trump firing FBI Director James Comey, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders claimed that "countless members of the FBI" had contacted the White House to say they opposed Comey's leadership. She said this more than once, even though Comey was popular at the FBI.

Sanders told the special counsel's office that her reference to "countless" FBI officials was "a slip of the tongue" -- even though she said it multiple times.

"She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made 'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything," the report said.

-- Grace Segers

Trump ordered aides to pressure Sessions into resigning

Mueller said Mr. Trump ordered White House aides to pressure Sessions to limit the scope of the Russian investigation and to resign. Chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House counsel Don McGahn discussed resigning in tandem rather than follow through with the president's request.

According to Mueller, the president met with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in the Oval Office on June 19, 2017, and told him to deliver a message to Sessions ordering him to limit Mueller's investigation to election interference by the Russians. A month later, "the President told him that if Sessions did not meet with him, Lewandowski should tell Sessions he was fired."

Mr. Trump also told Priebus to get Sessions to resign:

The President told Priebus that he had to get Sessions to resign immediately. The President said that the country had lost confidence in Sessions and the negative publicity was not tolerable. According to contemporaneous notes taken by Priebus, the President told Priebus to say that he "need[ ed] a letter of resignation on [his] desk immediately " and that Sessions had "no choice" but "must immediately resign."

...

Priebus believed that the President's request was a problem, so he called McGahn and asked for advice, explaining that he did not want to pull the trigger on something that was "all wrong."

Although the President tied his desire for Sessions to resign to Sessions's negative press and poor performance in congressional testimony, Priebus believed that the President's desire to replace Sessions was driven by the President's hatred of Sessions's recusal from the Russia investigation. McGahn told Priebus not to follow the President 's order and said they should consult their personal counsel, with whom they had attorney-client privilege. McGahn and Priebus discussed the possibility that they would both have to resign rather than carry out the President's order to fire Sessions.

-- Brian Pascus

How Trump's decision to fire Comey played out

Mueller's report gives a play-by-play of the president's decision to fire Comey in May 2017.

Mr. Trump first told his top policy adviser Stephen Miller and Kushner he had ideas about a letter to fire Comey. Miller wrote a draft of the letter, and Mr. Trump was adamant he not tell anyone at the White House for fear of leaks. The president also insisted the letter open with a statement that he isn't under investigation.

Then the president told McGahn, Priebus and Miller he was firing Comey. McGahn then met with Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

"Sessions and Rosenstein criticized Comey and did not raise concerns about replacing him," the report reads.

Then a new letter was drafted, and Mr. Trump directed Miller to say Comey had informed the president three times he was not under investigation. McGahn and Priebus objected to including that language, but Mr. Trump was insistent.

On the evening Comey was fired, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe was summoned to meet with the president at the White House.

The president told his communications team he wasn't happy with press coverage of the firing, and directed them to go out and defend him. The White House press office called the Justice Department, saying the White House wanted to put out a statement that it was Rosenstein's idea to fire Comey, but Deputy At Rosenstein told other DOJ officials he would not take part in dispersing a "false story." Despite that, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer went to the podium in the White House briefing room and said the decision was "all" Rosenstein.

-- Kathryn Watson

Mueller considered charging Manafort and Kushner with campaign finance violations

The special counsel's office considered charging Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort with campaign finance violations related to the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting.

Investigators believed they could make "reasonable arguments" that the information about Kushner and Manafort "would constitute a 'thing of value,'" but ultimately decided not to charge Kushner or Manafort as there likely was not enough evidence to meet the burden of proof.

-- Kathryn Watson

Trump ordered McGahn to fire Mueller

Mueller said Mr. Trump ordered McGahn to terminate the special counsel investigation. He refused and prepared to resign before being talked out of doing so.

[On the weekend of June 14, 2017] the President called McGhan and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed because of asserted conflicts of interest. McGahn did not carry out the instruction for fear of being seen as triggering another Saturday Night Massacre and instead prepared to resign. McGahn ultimately did not quit and the President did not follow up with McGahn on his request to have the Special Counsel removed."

...

On Saturday, June 17, 2017, the President called McGahn and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed...On the first call, McGahn recalled that the President said something like, "You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod."

...

When the President called McGahn a second time to follow up on the order to call the Department of Justice, McGahn recalled that the President was more direct, saying something like, "Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts of interests and can't be the Special Counsel." McGahn recalled the President telling him "Mueller has to go" and "Call me back when you do it."

...

McGahn decided he had to resign...he then drove to the office to pack his belongings and submit his resignation letter.

The report said that McGahn was talked out of resigning by Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon.

Mueller also says the president knew what he was doing was improper.

There is also evidence that the President knew that he should not have made those calls to McGahn. The President made the calls to McGahn after McGahn had specifically told the President that the White House Counsel's office -- and McGahn himself -- could not be involved in pressing conflicts claims and that the President should consult with his personal counsel if he wished to raise conflicts.

Instead of relying on his personal counsel to submit the conflicts claims, the President sought to use his official powers to remove the Special Counsel. And after the media reported on the President's actions, he denied that he ever ordered McGahn to have the Special Counsel terminated and made repeated efforts to have McGahn deny the story ... Those denials are contrary to the evidence and suggest the President's awareness that the direction to McGahn could be seen as improper.

-- Brian Pascus

Did Trump know about the Trump Tower meeting?

Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign official, told special counsel investigators the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., disclosed he had a "lead" on negative information about the Clinton foundation during a meeting with senior campaign staff in the summer of 2016.

"Gates believed that Trump Jr. said the information was coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan and that he was introduced to the group by a friend," Mueller wrote in his report. Gates also told investigators that the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, with a Russian lawyer was attended by Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Kushner and Manafort, then Mr. Trump's campaign manager.

In his interviews with Mueller's investigators, Michael Cohen, then the president's attorney, said he recalled a conversation in Mr. Trump's office when Trump Jr. told his father about a meeting to acquire "adverse information" about Hillary Clinton. According to Mueller, Cohen did not remember whether Trump Jr. told his father the meeting had any connections to Russia. But Cohen said he felt Mr. Trump and his son had discussed the meeting on a previous occasion.

"From the tenor of the conversation, Cohen believed that Trump Jr. had previously discussed the meeting with his father, although Cohen was not involved in any such conversations," the report read.

The special counsel noted Trump Jr. denied informing his father about the meeting during an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In the section of the report detailing Mr. Trump's written answers to questions from the special counsel, the president said he had "no recollection" of knowing beforehand about the meeting, or later that it had taken place.

-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Some individuals deleted encrypted communications

The special counsel said some of those interviewed had deleted communications:

The office learned that some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated -- including some associated with the Trump Campaign -- deleted relevant communications or communicated during the relevant period using applications that feature encryption.

Mueller says it's impossible to know whether his conclusions would be different if he had access to the missing information:

Accordingly, while this report embodies factual and legal determinations that the Office believes to be accurate and complete to the greatest extent possible, given these identified gaps, the office cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report.

-- Stefan Becket

Mueller cites 3 factors for why obstruction question is unique

Mueller writes that the question of whether the president obstructed justice is unique for three reasons:

First, the investigation concerned the President, and some of his actions, such as firing the FBI Director, involved facially lawful acts within his Article II authority...(his position) as the head of the Executive Branch provided him with unique and powerful means of influencing official proceedings, subordinate officers, and potential witnesses.

Second, the evidence we obtained did not establish that the president was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. Although the obstruction statutes do not require proof of such a crime, the absence of that evidence affects the analysis of the President's intent and requires consideration of other possible motives for his conduct.

Third, many of the President's acts directed at witnesses, including discouragement of cooperation with the government and suggestions of possible future pardons, took place in public view.

-- Brian Pascus

Mueller found "numerous links" between Russia and the Trump campaign

While Mueller's investigation didn't conclude Trump campaign officials conspired with people connected to the Russian government, it did establish "multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government."

Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the campaign. In some instances, the campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the campaign officials shied away. Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the campaign co-ordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

-- Kathryn Watson

​Mueller didn't believe Trump fired Comey to cover up collusion

Mueller writes that he did not find evidence to conclude Mr. Trump fired Comey in May 2017 to cover up a conspiracy to collude with Russia:

Evidence ... indicates that president wanted to protect himself from an investigation into his campaign. In addition the president had a motive to put the FBI's investigation behind him. The evidence does not establish that the termination of Comey was designed to cover up a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Highlights from Barr's press conference

Top Republican on House Judiciary Committee reacts to Barr

11:01 a.m.: Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, reacted to Barr's press conference, tweeting that there was "no cover up when there's nothing to cover up."

Nadler issues formal request for Mueller to testify

10:22 a.m.: Nadler formally requested Mueller testify before the House Judiciary Committee no later than May 23. He sent a letter to Mueller requesting his testimony "as soon as possible."

-- Brian Pascus

Barr has no objection to Mueller testifying

10:10 a.m.: Barr said Mueller made no determination on obstruction independent of Justice Department guidelines saying a sitting president could not be indicted.

He said Mueller did not indicate he wanted to leave the determination of whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice to Congress. Barr said he has no objection to Mueller appearing before Congress to discuss the report.

He said the report was not Mueller's report: "It's the report he did for me."

He did not answer a question about why he held the conference before the public had a chance to read the report.

-- Grace Segers

​Barr confirms Trump's attorneys saw the redacted report ahead of time

10:05 a.m. Barr confirmed in his remarks to reporters that the president's personal attorneys have already seen the redacted report -- before Congress had a chance to see it "earlier this week."

"In addition, earlier this week, the president's personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released," Barr said. "That request was consistent with the practice followed under the Ethics in Government Act, which permitted individuals named in a report prepared by an Independent Counsel the opportunity to read the report before publication. The president's personal lawyers were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions."

-- Kathryn Watson

Barr explains redactions in Mueller report

9:58 a.m.: Barr said most of the redactions, which were determined by Justice Department officials in concert with special counsel investigators, were related to ongoing investigations. He also said no one outside the Justice Department has seen the unredacted report, referring to Democratic concerns that Mr. Trump had reviewed the report.

He said the redactions will fall into four specific categories:

• Grand jury material.
• Material that would reveal sources and methods
• Material related to ongoing investigations
• Material that concerns unindicted persons of interests

"There were no redactions done by anyone outside this group and no one outside this group proposed and no one outside this department has seen the non-redacted report," Barr said on Thursday.

Barr said the White House counsel had reviewed the redacted report to determine whether the president should assert executive privilege over some information in the report. In the interest of transparency, Barr said, the president did not assert executive privilege over any part of the report.

He said the Justice Department was working to "accommodate Congress" to address their "legitimate" concerns about the report and its process.

He also said the Justice Department would provide a bipartisan group of members of Congress "a version of the report with all redactions removed, except for grand jury material."

-- Grace Segers and Brian Pascus

​Mueller examined 10 instances of potential obstruction

9:51 a.m.: Barr addressed Mueller's decision not to make a determination as to whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. Barr said the report identifies 10 instances which could be considered obstruction of justice, and provided evidence as to whether these instances amounted to obstruction.

Barr said he and Rosenstein had some disagreements with Mueller's legal theories, and determined based on evidence provided that Mr. Trump did not obstruct justice. He also said Mr. Trump had faced an "unprecedented" situation when coming into office, and his frustration about the investigation was normal.

"The president was frustrated and angered by the sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency," Barr said.

-- Grace Segers

Barr: Mueller "found no collusion by any American"

9:45 a.m.: Barr said the first volume of Mueller's report pertained to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and reiterated Mueller concluded there was no collusion with the Trump administration.

"We now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes" did not cooperate with Trump campaign officials, Barr said.

"The special counsel found no evidence that any American including anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government or the IRA," Barr said, referring to the Internet Research Agency. "Put another way, the special counsel found no collusion by any American."

Barr also said Mueller found that no member of the Trump campaign assisted in disseminating information gained by Russian hacking through services such as WikiLeaks. However, he did say Mueller confirmed the Russian government attempted to interfere in the 2016 election.

-- Grace Segers

Barr sending report to Congress at 11 a.m.

9:37 a.m.: Barr started his press conference shortly after 9:30 a.m., saying the report will be made available at 11 a.m. to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Barr was joined at the conference by Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller.

-- Grace Segers

Trump tweets musical montage of him saying "no collusion"

9:19 a.m.: Shortly before Barr's press conference, the president tweeted out a musical montage of him declaring there was "no collusion" in recent months.

The 54-second video, tweeted with the words, "No Collusion - No Obstruction!" shows the president repeatedly insisting he is innocent of any such accusations. It's unclear who created the video or whether it was paid for with taxpayer dollars.

-- Grace Segers

How to download and read the Mueller report on the special counsel's website

9:00 a.m.: After Barr's press conference at 9:30 a.m., the report will be delivered to lawmakers on Capitol Hill on compact discs at some point between 11 a.m. and noon.

Shortly thereafter, the report will be posted on the special counsel's website at justice.gov/sco. The Justice Department has reportedly taken steps to shore up its website to avoid crashing.

-- Stefan Becket

Trump decries "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!"

8:30 a.m.: The president fired off his second tweet of the day, striking a familiar tone:

-- Stefan Becket

Barr to discuss executive privilege and interactions with White House

8:00 a.m.: At his press conference, Barr will address whether the White House invoked executive privilege over any aspects of the report, a Justice Department spokesperson said. He will also seek to clarify the interactions between the Justice Department and the White House about the report over the past few weeks and discuss the process for how redactions were made.

The press conference is expected to last 20 to 30 minutes. The spokesperson described Barr's demeanor as "calm" Thursday morning.

-- Paula Reid

Why Barr is holding a press conference before the report is released

7:30 a.m.: Jonathan Turley, a CBS News legal analyst, said on "CBS This Morning" he believes Barr hopes to use his press conference to explain how the report's redactions were made. However, he acknowledged Mr. Trump's opponents will read this move as an attempt to spin the report in favor of the administration.

"There's going to be so much spin in this city it's going to knock the Earth off its rotational axis," Turley said. Turley, who has known Barr for many years, said he did not believe the attorney general was holding the press conference to carry water for the president, but to provide more information about how the redactions were decided.

"He's going to lay out how these things are done so the American people understand what they're about to see and how it came about," Turley said.

Turley said the most consequential portion of the report may deal with whether the president committed obstruction of justice. Mueller did not make a determination on this issue, leaving Barr to determine Mr. Trump had not obstructed justice.

"The obstruction section of the report is likely to have the meat of what we're looking for, as opposed to collusion," Turley said.

-- Grace Segers

Democrats want Barr to cancel press conference

7:00 a.m.: House Democrats, furious that Barr will speak to the press an hour and a half before Congress and the public are set to see the redacted report, have called on Barr to cancel his press conference.

"The central concern here is that Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House," Nadler said Wednesday evening alongside Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Ted Deutch, Val Demings and Madeleine Dean. Nadler accused Barr of staging a "media campaign" on behalf of the president.

Nadler, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel also released a joint statement calling on Barr to cancel the conference.

"This press conference, which apparently will not include Special Counsel Mueller, is unnecessary and inappropriate, and appears designed to shape public perceptions of the report before anyone can read it," the committee chairs said in the statement released Wednesday evening.

-- Grace Segers

Pelosi and Schumer call on Mueller to testify publicly

6:30 a.m.: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released an early-morning statement calling on Mueller to testify in both the House and Senate:

"Attorney General Barr's regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report, including his slanted March 24th summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress last week, and his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference later this morning -- hours before he allows the public or Congress to see it -- have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality. We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsel's investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible. The American people deserve to hear the truth."

-- Stefan Becket

What you won't see in the report

Barr told members of Congress he would make as much of the report public as possible, but would redact sections based on four criteria:

• Information from the grand jury
• Classified information
• Material related to ongoing investigations
• Any information which would "unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties."

Grand jury information, which includes witness information, can be obtained in court. Some grand jury records in the Whitewater investigation into President Bill Clinton and an investigation into President Richard Nixon were released. However, those records were released after the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment proceedings.

Nadler has expressed wariness about impeaching Mr. Trump, and may argue in court that the materials can be obtained without formal impeachment proceedings.

Barr said during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the report will be color-coded with accompanying "explanatory notes" describing the basis for each redaction.

Barr made waves in a hearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee by suggesting that "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, saying he will investigate the origins of the Mueller report.

"I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred. I'm saying that I am concerned about it and looking into it, that's all," Barr said. His testimony left Democrats to assume Barr is carrying the president's water on this issue, as Mr. Trump seized upon the allegations his campaign had been surveilled.

-- Grace Segers

Who was charged in the Mueller probe

Mueller's probe yielded seven guilty pleas, and 34 individuals and three separate companies were charged.

Mr. Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was one of the first Trump associates to serve time in prison as part of Mueller's probe. Manafort was indicted on a total of 25 counts in two jurisdictions. The charges ranged from conspiracy to launder money to acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal.

Trump attorneys working on a counter-report

The president's personal attorneys have been working on a counter-report to rebut Mueller's findings. This counter-narrative has been in the works for months and they have continued to edit it this week. The length of the report has varied, although Mr. Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said "they are trying to make it concise."

Giuliani said Wednesday his team is confident the Mueller report "can be answered real simple." They will emphasize that Mueller found no chargeable wrongdoing and there were no charges of collusion or obstruction against president or anyone else.

There is no indication the president's legal team has seen the Mueller report, so this is based on publicly available information and what they know from working with their client in this investigation.

The White House is working separately from the president's personal attorneys and are taking a more low-key approach. They will read the redacted report and issue a statement as they did with the four-page letter from Barr.

-- Paula Reid

Democrats prepare for the release of the report

Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has said Congress is "entitled to see all" of Mueller's report, doubling down on his demand that the Justice Department provide his committee with the findings of the nearly two-year Russia investigation with no redactions.

"Congress has a right to the entire report with no redactions whatsoever so we can see what's there," Nadler said on "Face the Nation" earlier in April. "We're entitled to see it because Congress represents the nation. And Congress has to take action on any of it. So we're entitled to see all of it."

Nadler said he would go to court to obtain secret grand jury testimony that might be included in the unredacted report.

"We would have to go the court to get the release of the grand jury information but that has happened successfully in every previous situation," Nadler said. "And it's not up to the attorney general to decide with respect to that or with respect to other material that he decides Congress can't see."

Members of other congressional committees have also called for greater information on the report.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and GOP ranking member Devin Nunes came together in a rare bout of bipartisanship to demand "full visibility" into the findings, citing the probe's counterintelligence origins and the committee's own statutory oversight responsibilities.

In a letter dated March 27 and addressed to Barr, Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray, the committee leaders asked to be provided with "all materials, regardless of form and classification, obtained or produced by the Special Counsel's Office in the course of the investigation."

Schiff and Nunes said those materials should include records related to the investigation's scope and subjects as well as any "raw reporting" related to intelligence or counterintelligence matters. They also requested a briefing for the full committee from Mueller himself, alongside members of his senior team and relevant law enforcement and national security officials.

-- Olivia Gazis and Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Republicans plan to react to the report

The president's allies have also been preparing for the release of the report. One House GOP aide says their office is looking for details in the obstruction section of Mueller's report that Democrats may try to "harp on." GOP aides will play "devil's advocate" as they comb through the report to know how best to respond to Democratic attacks.

"We really expect Democrats to harp on the redactions" to imply there was something "nefarious" or "damning" redacted, and try to respond to that, the GOP aide said.

A second House GOP aide expressed concern about the unknowns of the "palace intrigue" that could be in the report, and said Thursday can only be perceived an upside for Democrats, since it doesn't take 400 pages to say "no collusion, no obstruction."

"The reality is that Barr's letter said essentially, as understood by I think certainly Republicans and probably the American people, basically you said you know there was no collusion and there was essentially no obstruction," the second GOP aide said. "So now we've got 400 pages to read on Thursday. And the reality is that it doesn't take 400 pages to say no collusion, no obstruction. So I think, I think Thursday's going to be a day where you'll see the Democrats making a lot of molehills into mountains. They're going to be looking for anything in there, and certainly I think Thursday's kind of all upside for them because in their estimation anything that doesn't say no collusion, no obstruction is probably good news."

-- Kathryn Watson