Barr will hold Mueller report summary until at least Sunday

The Justice Department has told lawmakers not to expect a briefing on Saturday about details from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

A source familiar with the matter told The Hill that the Justice Department informed one of the congressional committees that a briefing would not come on Saturday. A senior Justice Department official also told The Associated Press that details would not be provided on Saturday.{mosads}

Attorney General William Barr had told lawmakers on the Judiciary panels in the House and Senate on Friday evening that he might be able to brief lawmakers as soon as this weekend on the “principal conclusions” reached by Mueller in his sprawling 22-month probe.

Democrats and the administration are poised for a potential showdown over the contents of Mueller’s report on his probe into Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, which ended without any new indictments announced by the Justice Department on Friday.

Lawmakers have urged the Justice Department to quickly release to Congress and the public as much information as possible from the report, including underlying evidence supporting Mueller’s investigative findings. Mueller on Friday released a confidential copy of his report to Barr, which was being reviewed at the Justice Department on Saturday.

The White House had said Friday that Trump, who was already in Palm Beach, Fla., traveling for the weekend when the report was released, had not been briefed on its findings. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “The next steps are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other House Democratic leaders were slated to hold a call on Saturday afternoon to discuss Mueller’s probe and their early strategy after the special counsel submitted his report. Still, lawmakers have not yet seen the report and have resisted signaling many of their next steps until its contents are shared.