Hello everyone, welcome to Mueller Thursday! I don’t know why I’m using exclamation points, I’m sure that the Department of Justice, AG Bill Barr and the Trump White House will all find ways to make this day a living hell. But today is the day a redacted version of the Mueller Report will come out. Apparently, it’s scheduled to be released between 11 to noon, which means I’m probably not going to do breaking-news coverage on it when it happens. I’ll want to get a Frappe from McDonalds and spend some time reading it and watching Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow explain it to me. Interestingly enough, the Washington Post says that the redactions will likely be pretty light?

The Justice Department plans to release a lightly redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s 400-page report Thursday, offering a granular look at the ways in which President Trump was suspected of having obstructed justice, people familiar with the matter said.

The report — the general outlines of which the Justice Department has briefed the White House on — will reveal that Mueller decided he could not come to a conclusion on the question of obstruction because it was difficult to determine Trump’s intent and because some of his actions could be interpreted innocently, these people said. But it will offer a detailed blow-by-blow of the president’s alleged conduct — analyzing tweets, private threats and other episodes at the center of Mueller’s inquiry, they added.

Attorney General William P. Barr plans to hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference to address “process questions” and provide an “overview of the report,” a senior Justice Department official said. The report will be delivered on discs to Capitol Hill between 11 a.m. and noon and posted on the special counsel’s website thereafter, the official said.

Thursday’s rollout plan — and news of the White House’s advance briefing, which was first reported by ABC News and the New York Times — sparked a political firestorm Wednesday, with Democrats suggesting the attorney general was trying to improperly color Mueller’s findings before the public could read them.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said at a news conference that Barr “appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump” and had “taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation.” He said after his committee had time to review the redacted report, he would ask Mueller and other members of his team to testify before Congress.

[From The Washington Post]

Think about this: the idea of a “lightly redacted” report is coming from the people who redacted it, meaning Bill Barr and his political allies. What I’m saying is that we should still know in our hearts that the redacted report is bullsh-t. We should also know, without any doubt, that Barr is a political animal who is there to protect Trump’s lardass. Carry that knowledge with you as we sort through 400 pages of blacked-out material.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.