Thread by @ZoeTillman

Now: DOJ notifies the court that it will appeal a judge's order to release a March 2019 memo re: not prosecuting Trump for obstruction in the Russia probe. More to come shortly.

UPDATE: In an accompanying motion asking for a stay, DOJ explains that they're actually partially appealing — they're okay with releasing part of the OLC memo, but not all of it assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2078…

Here's the latest version of the OLC memo that DOJ has made public, now with the first page and a half unredacted — the rest is still blacked out and DOJ intends to appeal and argue to keep it sealed: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2078…

Story: The Biden admin will continue to (partially) defend the Trump admin's decision to keep secret a March 2019 memo that then-AG Bill Barr cited in concluding the evidence didn't support finding that Trump obstructed the Russia probe buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

A judge had called DOJ's handling of this memo "disingenuous," and DOJ now says that when this was briefed last fall, the lawyers were "imprecise" in how they described the memo and its purpose. The word "regret" appears five times buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Gist is: The judge slammed DOJ for saying the memo was predecisional when it indicates prosecuting Trump was not on the table. DOJ now says the decision wasn't whether or not to prosecute, but whether Barr should still find Trump committed obstruction buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

So, DOJ decided that it was okay releasing the first section of the memo at this point, which the judge characterized as "strategic," but is arguing the bulk of it was actually legal advice and should remain sealed buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Historically, DOJ defends the prerogatives and power of the executive branch across presidents. So the department is arguing to keep this memo sealed with an eye to some future DOJ memo that Biden or some future admin will believe should be sealed buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…