The US attorney general said Friday that he will release a redacted version by mid-April of the report on the two-year Russia election meddling probe, which had cast a cloud over Donald Trump's presidency.

Attorney General Bill Barr, in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, said he was currently redacting sensitive material from the eagerly awaited report, which Trump has hailed as completely clearing him of allegations of collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who headed the probe, was assisting with the task, he said.

"Our progress is such that I anticipate that we will be in a position to release the report by mid-April, if not sooner," Barr said.

The attorney general said the report was nearly 400 pages long excluding tables and appendices and "sets forth the Special Counsel's findings, his analysis and the reasons for his conclusions."

Barr, who released the "principal conclusions" of the report last week, has been under heavy pressure from Democrats to release the full report.

"I share your desire to ensure that Congress and the public have the opportunity to read the Special Counsel's report," the attorney general told the Senate and House judiciary committee, chairmen.

"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr said. "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 a serial or piecemeal fashion."

Representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, responded to Barr's letter by saying he wanted the "full and complete Mueller report, without redactions" by April 2.

Redactions

Barr said the redactions underway included material "the intelligence community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods."

Redactions also concern matters that the special counsel has referred to other Justice Department offices for investigation and information that would compromise the privacy of "peripheral third parties."

Barr said the report would not be submitted to the White House for review and Trump had deferred to him to deal with any parts over which he could invoke executive privilege.

Barr, citing the "principal conclusions" of the report last week, said the special counsel did not find that the Trump presidential campaign had conspired with the Russian government to win the 2016 election.

The "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," Barr quoted the report as saying.

Mueller also left the decision on whether Trump obstructed justice up to the attorney general, who determined that he had not "committed an obstruction-of-justice offence."

Regarding obstruction, Mueller stated that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

Trump has welcomed the Mueller report as a "total exoneration" and blamed the media for pushing what he called the "Russian Collusion Delusion."

In his letter, Barr said he would be prepared to testify before the Senate and House judiciary committees on May 1 and May 2 respectively.

The US attorney general said Friday that he will release a redacted version by mid-April of the report on the two-year Russia election meddling probe, which had cast a cloud over Donald Trump's presidency.

The US attorney general said Friday that he will release a redacted version by mid-April of the report on the two-year Russia election meddling probe, which had cast a cloud over Donald Trump's presidency. Attorney General Bill Barr, in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, said he was currently redacting sensitive material from the eagerly awaited report, which Trump has hailed as completely clearing him of allegations of collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who headed the probe, was assisting with the task, he said. "Our progress is such that I anticipate that we will be in a position to release the report by mid-April, if not sooner," Barr said. The attorney general said the report was nearly 400 pages long excluding tables and appendices and "sets forth the Special Counsel's findings, his analysis and the reasons for his conclusions." Barr, who released the "principal conclusions" of the report last week, has been under heavy pressure from Democrats to release the full report. "I share your desire to ensure that Congress and the public have the opportunity to read the Special Counsel's report," the attorney general told the Senate and House judiciary committee, chairmen. "Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr said. "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 a serial or piecemeal fashion." Representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, responded to Barr's letter by saying he wanted the "full and complete Mueller report, without redactions" by April 2. Redactions Barr said the redactions underway included material "the intelligence community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods." Redactions also concern matters that the special counsel has referred to other Justice Department offices for investigation and information that would compromise the privacy of "peripheral third parties." Barr said the report would not be submitted to the White House for review and Trump had deferred to him to deal with any parts over which he could invoke executive privilege. Barr, citing the "principal conclusions" of the report last week, said the special counsel did not find that the Trump presidential campaign had conspired with the Russian government to win the 2016 election. The "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," Barr quoted the report as saying. Mueller also left the decision on whether Trump obstructed justice up to the attorney general, who determined that he had not "committed an obstruction-of-justice offence." Regarding obstruction, Mueller stated that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Trump has welcomed the Mueller report as a "total exoneration" and blamed the media for pushing what he called the "Russian Collusion Delusion." In his letter, Barr said he would be prepared to testify before the Senate and House judiciary committees on May 1 and May 2 respectively.

Robert Mueller report to be released by mid-April: Attorney general

Facebook says it has suspended the account of Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm hired by Donald Trump&#39;s 2016 presidential campaign, amid reports it harvested the profile information of millions of US voters without their permission.

According to the New York Times and Britain&#39;s Observer, the company stole information from 50 million Facebook users&#39; profiles in the tech giant&#39;s biggest-ever data breach, to help them design software to predict and influence voters&#39; choices at the ballot box.

Also suspended were the accounts of its parent organization, Strategic Communication Laboratories, as well as those of University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan and Christopher Wylie, a Canadian data analytics expert who worked with Kogan.

Cambridge Analytica was bankrolled to the tune of $15 million by US hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, a major Republican donor. The Observer said it was headed at the time by Steve Bannon, a top Trump adviser until he was fired last summer.

&quot;In 2015, we learned that ... Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe,&quot; Facebook said in a posting late Friday by its vice president and deputy general counsel Paul Grewal.

Kogan also improperly shared the data with Wylie, it said.&nbsp;

Kogan&#39;s app, thisisyourdigitallife, offered a personality prediction test, describing itself on Facebook as &quot;a research app used by psychologists.&quot;

Some 270,000 people downloaded the app, allowing Kogan to access information such as the city listed on their profile, or content they had &quot;liked.&quot;

&quot;However, the app also collected the information of the test-takers&#39; Facebook friends, leading to the accumulation of a data pool tens of millions-strong,&quot; the Observer reported. 
Facebook later pushed back against the claim of a data breach, issuing a fresh statement on Saturday that suggested the misused data was limited to those who voluntarily took the test.&nbsp;

&quot;People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked,&quot; Grewal said.

Cambridge Analytica meanwhile said it was in touch with Facebook &quot;in order to resolve this matter as quickly as possible .&quot;

It blamed the misuse of data on Kogan and said it has since deleted all the data it received from a company he founded, Global Science Research (GSR).&nbsp;

&quot;No data from GSR was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign,&quot; it said.

&#39;Targeting their inner demons&#39; 
But Wylie, who later became a whistleblower, told the Observer: &quot;We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people&#39;s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis that the entire company was built on.&quot;

Kogan legitimately obtained the information but &quot;violated platform policies&quot; by passing information to SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Wylie, according to Facebook.

Facebook said it removed the app in 2015 when it learned of the violation, and was told by Kogan and everyone who received the data that it had since been destroyed.

&quot;Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted,&quot; Grewal wrote.

&quot;We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made.

&quot;We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information.&quot;

British investigation

Cambridge Analytica, the US unit of British behavioral marketing firm SCL, rose to prominence as the firm that the pro-Brexit group Leave.EU hired for data-gathering and audience-targeting.

The company is facing an investigation by Britain&#39;s parliament and regulators over its handling of information.&nbsp;

On Saturday, Britain&#39;s information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said: &quot;We are investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used.

&quot;It&#39;s part of our ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes which was launched to consider how political parties and campaigns, data analytics companies and social media platforms in the UK are using and analyzing people&#39;s personal information to micro-target voters.&quot;

The New York Times meanwhile reported that copies of the data harvested for Cambridge Analytica were still online and that its team had viewed some of the raw data.

The company reportedly stole information from 50 million Facebook users' profiles to help it design software to predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box

Facebook says it has suspended the account of Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm hired by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, amid reports it harvested the profile information of millions of US voters without their permission. According to the New York Times and Britain's Observer, the company stole information from 50 million Facebook users' profiles in the tech giant's biggest-ever data breach, to help them design software to predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box. Also suspended were the accounts of its parent organization, Strategic Communication Laboratories, as well as those of University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan and Christopher Wylie, a Canadian data analytics expert who worked with Kogan. Cambridge Analytica was bankrolled to the tune of $15 million by US hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, a major Republican donor. The Observer said it was headed at the time by Steve Bannon, a top Trump adviser until he was fired last summer. "In 2015, we learned that ... Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe," Facebook said in a posting late Friday by its vice president and deputy general counsel Paul Grewal. Kogan also improperly shared the data with Wylie, it said. Kogan's app, thisisyourdigitallife, offered a personality prediction test, describing itself on Facebook as "a research app used by psychologists." Some 270,000 people downloaded the app, allowing Kogan to access information such as the city listed on their profile, or content they had "liked." "However, the app also collected the information of the test-takers' Facebook friends, leading to the accumulation of a data pool tens of millions-strong," the Observer reported. Facebook later pushed back against the claim of a data breach, issuing a fresh statement on Saturday that suggested the misused data was limited to those who voluntarily took the test. "People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked," Grewal said. Cambridge Analytica meanwhile said it was in touch with Facebook "in order to resolve this matter as quickly as possible ." It blamed the misuse of data on Kogan and said it has since deleted all the data it received from a company he founded, Global Science Research (GSR). "No data from GSR was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign," it said. 'Targeting their inner demons' But Wylie, who later became a whistleblower, told the Observer: "We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people's profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis that the entire company was built on." Kogan legitimately obtained the information but "violated platform policies" by passing information to SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Wylie, according to Facebook. Facebook said it removed the app in 2015 when it learned of the violation, and was told by Kogan and everyone who received the data that it had since been destroyed. "Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted," Grewal wrote. "We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made. "We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information." British investigation Cambridge Analytica, the US unit of British behavioral marketing firm SCL, rose to prominence as the firm that the pro-Brexit group Leave.EU hired for data-gathering and audience-targeting. The company is facing an investigation by Britain's parliament and regulators over its handling of information. On Saturday, Britain's information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said: "We are investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used. "It's part of our ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes which was launched to consider how political parties and campaigns, data analytics companies and social media platforms in the UK are using and analyzing people's personal information to micro-target voters." The New York Times meanwhile reported that copies of the data harvested for Cambridge Analytica were still online and that its team had viewed some of the raw data.

Facebook suspends Trump campaign data firm Cambridge Analytica

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Robert Mueller report to be released by mid-April: Attorney general

Facebook suspends Trump campaign data firm Cambridge Analytica