Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted a report of his investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to Attorney General William Barr, ending a nearly two-year saga in which Mueller's team has brought dozens of charges.
Barr did not release any details of the report March 22. In a letter to congressional leaders, Barr said he will discuss with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller what portions of the report can be released to Congress and the public.
Barr also noted that the Office of the Attorney General did not overrule any decisions by the special counsel.
"The next steps are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. "The White House has not received or been briefed on the Special Counsel's report."
Some of President Donald Trump's closest associates — including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and former personal attorney, Michael Cohen — pleaded guilty to charges stemming from investigations related to the special counsel probe.
Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller after pleading guilty to charges arising from his work in Ukraine.
Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and making an illegal campaign contribution during the 2016 election in the form of payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement relating to an alleged affair with Trump.
Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with the investigation in December 2017, after the special counsel charged that Flynn lied to the FBI about his contact with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement that Barr should make the entire report public while providing its underlying documentation and findings to Congress.
"Attorney General Barr must not give President Trump, his lawyers or his staff any 'sneak preview' of Special Counsel Mueller's findings or evidence, and the White House must not be allowed to interfere in decisions about what parts of those findings or evidence are made public," Pelosi and Schumer said in the statement.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel May 17, 2017, after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter.