White House Insiders Fear Being Outed by Mueller Report

Snakes prefer high grass for the same reason informants covet anonymity, and the Mueller report’s inevitable release could be the fire that burns this cover to the ground.

Attorney General Bill Barr will release his redacted version of the Mueller report to the public on Thursday, with several rounds of color-coded redactions having been made.  The color coding of these deletions will be to explain exactly why the American people should not have access to the information…a bone of contention among many democrats.

But there is another group in Washington with some trepidation about the report:  White House insiders who have spoken to Mueller and his team, and now may be outed by the report’s public release.

Some of the more than one dozen current and former White House officials who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller are worried that the version of his report expected to be made public on Thursday will expose them as the source of damaging information about President Donald Trump, according to multiple witnesses in the investigation.

Some of the officials and their lawyers have sought clarity from the Justice Department on whether the names of those who cooperated with Mueller’s team will be redacted or if the public report will be written in a way that makes it obvious who shared certain details of Trump’s actions that were part of the obstruction of justice probe, people familiar with the discussions said. But, they said, the Justice Department has refused to elaborate.

Of particular concern is how Trump — and his allies — will react if it appears to be clear precisely what specific officials shared with Mueller, these people said.

President Trump’s White House has been a volatile one, historically speaking, with a great many advisers and officials being ousted in just the first two years of his first term.

If Barr’s version of the report does clear cut the proverbial grass, there it little doubt that the President will be looking to skewer anything that slithers forth.