Mueller report re-released with fewer redactions after legal battle

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday removed a number of redactions from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election amid a court battle over information withheld from the report.

The DOJ submitted the re-processed report in a court filing, saying that the redactions in question are no longer necessary following the conclusion of the criminal case against Roger Stone, the longtime GOP operative and former Trump campaign adviser.

The department said the redactions were originally made to protect the prosecution against Stone over charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering.

Stone was convicted of all seven charges against him and was sentenced earlier this year to more than three years in prison.

The new information from the report comes three months after a federal judge demanded that the DOJ hand over the unredacted report for his review and blasted Attorney General William Barr’s handling of its publication.

“The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr’s statements, made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements, and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary,” Judge Reggie B. Walton wrote in a decision from March.

Tal Axelrod contributed.

Updated: 7:41 p.m.