Mueller team investigators express frustration over Barr's letter

In particular, some investigators felt the letter did not adequately describe how the case for obstruction included derogatory information about President Donald Trump's actions, according to one of the sources. Barr's letter obliquely referenced evidence on both sides of the issue, but did not explain it further.

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In addition, there has been frustration on the team that the Justice Department has helped shape the public perception of the report but the special counsel cannot address discrepancies between the summary and the actual findings, according to another source familiar with the matter.

Concerns were first reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post this week.

Mueller's team wrote summaries of the findings and expected more of that to be used, one of the sources said.

Another source with knowledge of the summaries described them as part of the confidential report that is being reviewed for release to Congress and the public. But the source strongly disputed that they were written in a way that allowed for immediate release, because of sensitive information that needed to be considered for redactions.

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Another source familiar with discussions at the Justice Department ahead of the conclusion of the report suggested that what could be at issue is the description of the evidence for obstruction that Mueller considered but was only referenced briefly in Barr's letter, rather than there being any single alarming incident about obstruction that has not been disclosed. Barr, in his letter, included that Mueller had found evidence on both sides in the consideration of obstruction, but opted in the end to not make a conclusion. Barr also included that much of the evidence on obstruction is publicly known.

While the investigation was extensive with some 500 interviews, Mueller's investigators did not get to talk to some key figures, including the President and his son, Donald Trump Jr., who would have had insights into both the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and also how the misleading statement to the press about the meeting was crafted. Trump Jr. did testify to multiple congressional committees. His attorney has declined to comment.

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The Department of Justice said Thursday in a statement every page of the report was marked as possibly containing information that should not be publicly released and that Barr released his letter about Mueller's main findings because of the "extraordinary public interest in the matter." The statement said the understanding was the report itself would be released after needed redactions and that Barr wrote the letter "without attempting to summarize the report."

CNN's Pamela Brown contributed to this report.

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