WASHINGTON _ Attorney General William Barr is scheduled to testify Tuesday to Congress as Democrats are aggressively pushing for full access to the final report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Barr's appearances before the House and Senate appropriations committees would typically be dry affairs focused on how the Justice Department intends to spend billions of dollars on matters such as prisons and national security.
But Barr, who took office in mid-February and is making his first appearance on Capitol Hill since then, is likely to face pointed questions about the 22-month Mueller probe and how much of the final report _ nearly 400 pages long _ he will make public.
Barr has said Justice Department officials are working to redact sensitive information and has pledged to make as much of it public as he can. Sensitive information could include evidence gathered by a grand jury, classified intelligence sources and methods, and ongoing criminal investigations.
Barr sent Congress a four-page letter on March 24 highlighting what he called Mueller's determination that the lengthy investigation did not establish a criminal conspiracy between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian government.
Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump had obstructed justice by trying to interfere with the probe, but Barr wrote in his letter that the president had not committed a crime. The House Judiciary Committee voted last week to authorize a subpoena to obtain the full report.
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the Democratic chairman of the House committee, tweeted Monday that he planned to eventually call Mueller to testify. But he said he wanted to read the report first and question Barr about Mueller's work at a hearing May 2.
"In order to ask Special Counsel Mueller the right questions, the Committee must receive the Special Counsel's full report and hear from Attorney General Barr about that report," Nadler tweeted. "We look forward to hearing from Mr. Mueller at the appropriate time."
Barr is likely to testify May 1 before the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.
Despite Barr's favorable conclusion for Trump, more damaging information could be revealed through release of the full report, and House Democrats are hunting for areas where Barr may have shaded the truth in the president's favor.
Trump seems to have belatedly recognized the political danger.
He has backed away from calls to release the full report and has resumed denouncing the investigation. On Monday morning he tweeted, "The Russian Hoax never happened, it was a fraud on the American people!"
Trump has also criticized Democrats' pursuit of the report, which includes approving a subpoena that could be used in a court battle to obtain it.
"The Democrats will never be satisfied, no matter what they get, how much they get, or how many pages they get. It will never end, but that's the way life goes!" he tweeted Monday.
The report, Barr wrote to the House and Senate judiciary committees on March 29, outlines Mueller's "findings, his analysis, and the reasons for his conclusions. Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own. I do not believe it would be in the public's interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or to release it in serial or piecemeal fashion."
At least in the prepared testimony released by the Justice Department on Monday, Barr does not reference the Mueller investigation or his report.
The testimony focuses on the Justice Department's proposed $29.2 billion budget and its efforts to combat violent crime, opioids and immigration violations.
Justice Department officials have said Barr intends to continue most of the policies advocated by his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, a former senator from Alabama and strong backer of Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Trump pushed Sessions to resign a day after the November midterm elections.
The president had long been irked by Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, which was overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein until Barr was sworn in.
Trump has nominated Jeffrey Rosen, the No. 2 official at the Department of Transportation, to replace Rosenstein, who has resigned. Rosen's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is slated for Wednesday.
