Cartoon by Ed Wexler

The expected redactions in the Mueller report, explained

Vox: Sorry, but you probably won’t get to read the entire report by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Here’s why: The document, which will detail the findings of his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election — including the question of whether President Donald Trump tried to obstruct justice during the investigation — will be partially redacted.

That’s upsetting for both lawmakers and members of the public who desperately want to see the full report, which could come out as early as this week. But Attorney General William Barr says he plans to redact four types of information in the report: grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations, and infringements on the privacy rights of “peripheral third parties.”

It’s also possible that Trump will try to assert executive privilege to block the release of some information, while Democrats and others will likely push to minimize the number and nature of any redactions.

In other words, redactions will likely prove a major sticking point between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats after the long-awaited Mueller report comes out.

So ahead of the Mueller report’s release, it’s worth taking a moment to discuss what redactions are, how Barr plans to use them in the Mueller report, and the controversy they’re likely to spark.

There’s a natural tension between what the government wants to keep secret and what the public wants to see. But any administration has an obligation to make as much information available as it legally and safely can.

So what to do? Redact stuff.

“A redaction is sort of a compromise between withholding a document entirely versus releasing the full document,” former White House lawyer Andy Wright told me. “It’s a half measure.”

You may have seen redactions before. They’re the (frankly annoying) black or white bars covering sensitive information — such as someone’s email or name — in the middle of a sentence, or even an entire paragraph or page >>>