May 25, 2021- 10:15 p.m.
The Justice Department will appeal a judge’s order directing the agency to release a complete memo on whether Donald Trump as president tried to obstruct the Russian investigation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in court filings submitted Monday that he would fight against the full release of the document. However, he agreed to release one section of the memo. It’s unclear when it will be released, according to The Hill.
On May 3, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the document be released in full.
“The agency’s redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum,” Jackson said at the time. “The excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the attorney general to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time.”
The memo was prepared in March of 2019 for Trump administration Attorney General William Barr to evaluate whether evidence collected by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation could support an obstruction of justice prosecution against Trump.
