What We Know So Far From the Mueller Report – The New York Times

Mr. Pence also said the special counsel investigation had the “full cooperation” of the White House. But despite the special counsel’s requests, Mr. Trump’s lawyers would not let the president sit for an interview out of concern that the president would make a false statement and expose himself to criminal charges. Instead, Mr. Trump provided written answers to questions.

Color-coded redactions leave readers wondering what was left out.

While attention focused on what was in Mr. Mueller’s report, many in Washington were also looking at what was left out.

Mr. Barr made what he called “limited” redactions to the report, taking out information he deemed sensitive. More than a dozen pages were fully redacted, or nearly so. Other pages had sections of text blacked out, including full paragraphs.

Much of the undisclosed material was in the first section of the report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and its interactions with the Trump campaign. Far less was scrubbed from the second part of the report, on whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice.

Mr. Barr blacked out sentences or sections that fit into four categories: grand-jury testimony or evidence; classified intelligence; information that would compromise continuing investigations; and details that might harm the reputations or intrude on the privacy of “peripheral third parties.” The attorney general used different colors through the report to identify which sections were deleted for which reasons.

The phrase “harm to ongoing matter” came up alongside enough deleted material that it quickly become its own meme, inspiring the names of upcoming bar trivia teams and imaginary punk rock bands.

Katie Benner, Nicholas Fandos, Michael S. Schmidt, Eileen Sullivan, Michael Tackett and Noah Weiland contributed reporting.