The Mueller Report Is Finally Here, According To Multiple Sources

It's happening. It's happening. According to multiple reports, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted his report in the ongoing investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to Attorney General William Barr on Friday, March 22. Elite Daily reached out to the special counsel's office and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for comment and/or further confirmation but did not immediately hear back.

All of America has been on tenterhooks for weeks over the rumors that the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election was coming to a close, and on March 22, the ball finally dropped. Reports emerged in the early evening East Coast time that Mueller had in fact submitted his report in the Russia investigation. However, most of us will have to stay on those tenterhooks for the time being, as there's no requirement that the Mueller report will be made public. That decision will ultimately be left up to Barr, who as attorney general has the power to decide what to make public (or not). The DOJ did not respond to Elite Daily's previous questions on whether Barr would release the report.

Congress, however, will get the lowdown, according to The New York Times. The publication reported that Barr had written in a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees that he “may be in a position to advise you of the special counsel’s principal conclusions as soon as this weekend.”

While Americans won't know what's in the report — if we get to at all — for awhile yet, the letter from Barr may provide some minor details. According to the letter, which was tweeted out by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia), the ranking member the House Judiciary Committee, Barr wrote to the congressional leaders that leaders in the Justice Department had not overruled any decisions by Mueller and his investigation.

"[T]he Special Counsel regulations require that I provide you with 'a description and explanation of instances (if any) in which the Attorney General' or Acting Attorney General 'concluded that a proposed action by a Special Counsel was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established Departmental practices that it should not be pursued,'" he wrote. "There were no such instances during the Special Counsel's investigation."

He also said that he, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller himself, would be consulting together to determine what information could be released to Congress and the public "consistent with the law." Elite Daily reached out to the DOJ for comment on whether and how Barr intends to release the report, but did not immediately hear back. Cross your fingers, everyone.

In a tweet, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the White House had not "received or been briefed" on the report. Earlier on Friday, the president had flown down to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the weekend. "The next steps are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course," she wrote.

The final report comes nearly two years after Mueller was first appointed by Rosenstein in May 2017, following President Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey (then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself in the investigation). Since then, Mueller has racked up 34 indictments, including guilty pleas from some major associates of the president — including Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

However, the president has repeatedly called the investigation a "witch hunt," a "hoax," and appeared to discredit the investigation. Most recently, the president said on March 22, prior to the report's release, that the American people "would not stand for" a report that tainted him. The White House did not immediately respond to Elite Daily's request for comment on the various remarks. However, he also said on March 20 that he "[didn't] mind" if the report was released publicly. "I want to see the report. You know who wants to see it? The tens of millions of people that love the fact that we have the greatest economy we've ever had," he said at the time. "I look forward to seeing the report."

Well, he may be about to have his chance. Here's hoping everyone else gets to see it, too.