A 4.30 N.Y. Times report states that a month ago special prosecutor Robert Mueller expressed disagreement with Attorney General William P. Barr‘s pro-Trump whitewash summary of the Russian investigation’s conclusions.

If this in fact happened, why the hell is Mueller being quiet about it? Is he a stand-up patriot and a believer in the rule of law or not? And why have “senior Democratic lawmakers been unable to secure a date” for Mueller’s testimony about this and related matters before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the Times story reports? Mueller has been frequently described as a straight-arrow traditionalist, but who the hell hides in his study or allows himself to be restrained from testifying when a Democracy is being dismantled by a lying, authoritarian brute?

From the story by Mark Mazzetti and Michael S. Schmidt: “Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, wrote a letter in late March to Attorney General William P. Barr objecting to his early description of the Russia investigation’s conclusions that appeared to clear President Trump on possible obstruction of justice, according to the Justice Department and three people with direct knowledge of the communication between the two men.

“The letter adds to the growing evidence of a rift between them and is another sign of the anger among the special counsel’s investigators about Mr. Barr’s characterization of their findings, which allowed Mr. Trump to wrongly claim he had been vindicated.

“It was unclear what specific objections Mr. Mueller raised in his letter, though a Justice Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday evening that he ‘expressed a frustration over the lack of context’ in Mr. Barr’s presentation of his findings on obstruction of justice. Mr. Barr defended his descriptions of the investigation’s conclusions in conversations with Mr. Mueller over the days after he sent the letter, according to two people with knowledge of their discussions.”