In a letter to Congress on Friday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 400-page page report will be released by mid-April and insisted his earlier letter on Mueller's findings was not intended to be a "summary."

"There is ample precedent for the Department of Justice sharing all of the information that the Attorney General proposes to redact to the appropriate congressional committees. Again, Congress must see the full report."
—Rep. Jerrold Nadler

"I share your desire to ensure that Congress and the public have the opportunity to read the Special Counsel's report," Barr wrote. "We are preparing the report for release, making the redactions that are required. The Special Counsel is assisting us in this process."

In a statement responding to Barr's letter, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) repeated his demand for "the full and complete Mueller report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence."

"There is ample precedent for the Department of Justice sharing all of the information that the Attorney General proposes to redact to the appropriate congressional committees," Nadler said. "Again, Congress must see the full report."

Barr said his four-page letter to Congress Sunday was not a summary of Mueller's findings.

"As my letter made clear, my notification to Congress and the public provided, pending release of the report, a summary of its 'principal conclusions'—that is, its bottom line," Barr wrote. "I do not believe it would be in the public's interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or to release it in serial or piecemeal fashion."

Observers took interest in Barr's insistence that his previous letter was not a summary of Mueller's full report.

"Remarkably, Barr could have issued this exact letter along with his initial memo: noting the process by which he was working through matters, the length of Mueller’s report, and clarification that his memo was not a summary," tweeted The Daily Beast's Sam Stein. "Instead, he waited days to send this. Curious."

Read Barr's full letter: