Why we will probably never see a "Mueller report" like the Ken Starr report to Congress.
The Special Counsel law that Mueller is working under is not the same law Starr worked under. And because of Grand Jury secrecy and the use of classified intelligence, there is much we are unlikely to ever know.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-mueller-report-may-never-see-the-light-of-day/2018/03/14/54e88cba-2639-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html?utm_term=.5d8c644c3b05
Mueller is forbidden to speak publicly and may only forward a “confidential report” to the attorney general (or, in this case, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein). While Rosenstein may feel obliged to make a limited disclosure to Congress of any disagreement with Mueller, there is no formal mechanism to transmit Mueller’s conclusions regarding impeachable offenses, much less the underlying evidence, to the Congress.
Moreover, even if Rosenstein wanted to pass Mueller’s report to Congress or to the public, it is not clear that he could. Much of Mueller’s evidence would have been gathered via the grand jury — and Rule 6(e) of the Rules of Criminal Procedure forbids the public release of grand-jury material, with no applicable exceptions. A report that excluded the underlying grand-jury material would include only a sliver of allegations.
There is court precedent to suggest that grand-jury materials may properly be released to a congressional committee in support of impeachment proceedings. Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal, was able to forward his grand jury’s report and evidence to the House Judiciary Committee. But in that case, the committee majority wanted the evidence, had subpoenaed it, and President Richard Nixon expressed no objection. There is little to suggest that the current committee majorities would diligently and swiftly pursue the release of information harmful to the sitting president, who could hardly be expected to express no objection.
Finally, as if the procedural and political barriers to release of a Mueller report were not enough, don’t forget that much of what Mueller has gathered is highly classified — FISA warrants, NSA intercepts, evidence obtained from intelligence agencies. While Rosenstein might make disclosures to cleared members of Congress and their staffs, any public release would be surely be so heavily redacted as to be [redacted].
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