John,

Early last week, we learned that the Department of Justice would be appealing Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order to release the full secret memo that Attorney General Bill Barr used to justify saying that the Mueller Report didn’t support obstruction of justice charges against Donald Trump.

On Friday, we filed our opposition to the government’s attempt to block the full memo from being made public immediately. Americans have waited far too long for answers, and they shouldn’t have to wait any longer. For more, read our statement.

The DOJ has only released a few paragraphs of the nine page memo, but what they’ve already released is significant: the documents make it clear that the DOJ wasn’t actually deciding whether Trump had obstructed justice—they were deciding on a PR strategy.

From both the OLC memo and Judge Jackson’s summary of it in her opinion, in which she criticized the DOJ for “deliberately obscuring” the memo by claiming that it was legal analysis when it was really PR spin, we know that Barr used the DOJ to protect Trump and then tried to cover it up.

But we don’t have the full story, and that’s why we’re continuing to fight in court. Barr’s DOJ took unprecedented steps to protect Trump, and unfortunately, now President Biden’s DOJ has failed to restore public trust and turn the page on Trump-era corruption.

We shouldn’t have to spend years in court for the public to get these answers, but if it’s the only way to get transparency, we’ll keep fighting for as long as it takes.

Thank you,


Noah Bookbinder
President, CREW

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