Mueller report to be made public by mid-April

US Attorney General William Barr plans to make public a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, "if not sooner," he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday.

"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees.

Barr also offered to testify shortly after the report is released, suggesting May 1 for the Senate committee and May 2 for the House committee.

On Sunday, Barr released a four-page summary of Mueller's principal conclusions, which Barr makes clear were not meant to be an "exhaustive recounting of the Special Counsel's investigation or report."

In that summary, Barr said that the Russia investigation "did not establish" that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government before the election, but Mueller did not draw a conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice.

Asked whether he agreed with Barr's decision to release the Mueller report to the public, Trump said, "If that's what he'd like to do I have nothing to hide. This was a hoax. This was a witch hunt."

Leading congressional Democrats are pressing for a quick release of the entire Mueller report.

"We need to see the Mueller report ASAP, with only those redactions that are absolutely necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods. Congress and the American people need the full story about what happened in 2016," said Senator Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York issued a statement Friday responding to Barr's letter by insisting that Democrats want the full Mueller report without redactions.

During his investigation, Mueller brought charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former Trump aides.

The US intelligence community has concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, harm Clinton and boost Trump's candidacy. Russia denied election interference.