Image source, Reuters

"It's not [his report]. Its a report he did for me," he told a reporter, adding that he has full discretion to make it public or not.

The journalist began asking him to defend himself against accusations that he was spinning the report on Trump's behalf. After he dismissed the question, the news conference ends.

Image source, Getty Images

A reporter asks: Did the special counsel indicate he wanted you to make the decision or Congress?

"Special counsel Mueller did not indicate that his purpose was to leave the decision to Congress. I hope that was not his view since we don't convene grand juries to conduct criminal investigations for that purpose," Barr answers.

"I didn't talk to him directly about the fact that we were making the decision but I was told his reaction to that was it was my prerogative as attorney general to make that decision."

Barr said his summary was done for "one purpose and one purpose only".

He said that he and Rosenstein had to determine: "Yes or no? Was alleged conduct criminal or not criminal?

"That is our responsibility and that's why we have the tools we have. We don't go through this process just to collect information and throw it out" to the public, he says.

"We collect it with the purpose of making that decision.

"And because the special counsel did not make that decision we felt that we had to."

Image source, EPA

Barr says "the report recounts 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offence".

It is unclear what those "episodes" detail, but some of them have long been known.

This includes an NBC interview in which Trump said "this Russia thing" was on his mind when he fired his FBI director. Many accused him of obstructing justice with the move.

Image source, Reuters

"No redactions came from anyone outside this group," Barr emphasised.

That group was the team of Justice Department attorneys, intelligence community officials, prosecutors dealing with current cases and special counsel attorneys.

Barr adds: "Because the White House voluntarily cooperated with the Special Counsel’s investigation, significant portions of the report contain material over which the President could have asserted privilege. And he would have been well within his rights to do so."

"Following that review, the President confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people, he would not assert privilege over the Special Counsel’s report.

Barr added that no material has been redacted based on executive privilege.

Barr says the report contains "limited redactions" related to four categories, and that these have been "clearly labelled and colour-coded" so readers can see which redactions are from which categories.

He says these redactions were mostly done to "prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information" regarding ongoing cases, including that of Roger Stone.

"These redactions were applied by Department of Justice attorneys working closely together with attorneys from the Special Counsel’s Office, as well as with the intelligence community, and prosecutors who are handling ongoing cases."

Image source, Reuters

"In assessing the President’s actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation," Barr says.

"As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinising his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President’s personal culpability.

"Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion."

"Although the Deputy Attorney General [Rod Rosenstein] and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision," Barr notes.

"Instead, we accepted the Special Counsel’s legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the Special Counsel in reaching our conclusion."

"There was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government's hacking."

"The special counsel's investigation also examined Russian efforts to publish stolen emails and documents on the internet."

"Hereto the special counsel's report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of these materials."

"As you will see the special counsels' report states that its 'investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.'" Barr says.

"We now know the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the support of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any American for that matter."

"That is something all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed."

Barr has thanked Mueller for "exposing the nature of Russia's attempts to interfere in our electoral process".

He has also thanked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe after Jeff Sessions - the previous attorney general - recused himself.

Rosenstein has appeared alongside Barr for the news conference but Mueller is not in attendance.

Image source, Getty Images

Barr is speaking from the US Department of Justice now.

He has begun with his opening statement, describing how the Mueller report first began, and the steps he has taken to release it,

"As I said during my senate confirmation hearing and since I'm committed to ensuring the greatest degree possible of transparency concerning the special counsel's investigation," Attorney General Bill Barr told reporters.

"At 11:00 this morning I'm going to transmit copies of the public version of the special counsel's report to the chairman and ranking members of the Senate and House Judiciary committees. The [Department of Justice] will also make the report available to the American people by posting it on the department's website after it has been delivered to Congress. "

Image source, Reuters

As we await Barr's news conference, here's a refresher on what we learned about the inquiry from the attorney general's summary, released on 24 March.

• "The special counsel did not find that any US person or Trump campaign official conspired or knowingly co-ordinated with Russia," Barr wrote.
• There was, he added, insufficient evidence "to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offence".
• In his summary, Barr said the report "ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment".

Read the BBC's Anthony Zurcher's analysis about key lines from the summary here.

And you can read the full text of the summary here.

Rudy Giuliani has said he is preparing a counter-report, which White House lawyer Jay Sekulow told Politico is currently around 34 or 35 pages.

Trump has claimed that the Mueller report points to his "total exoneration", leading some of his critics to question the point of providing a counter-report.

Mr Giuliani told the Wall Street Journal White House lawyers had received "zero" guidance from the justice department during the writing of their counter-report.

Image source, Getty Images

The two top Democrats in Congress released a statement early on Thursday calling for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused the attorney general of "partisan handling of the Mueller report".

"We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsel’s investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible."

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

When asked by radio station WMAL, external whether he would hold his own news conference after the attorney general, Trump said: “We’ll see.”

He is scheduled to leave for his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago this afternoon, and US media say he could speak to reporters on the White House lawn just before catching his flight.

The president has been active on Twitter this morning, just ahead of his attorney general's news conference, blasting the Russia inquiry as a political hoax.

He also included a plug for his favourite news outlet, Fox News.

Jon Sopel
BBC North America Editor

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Finally. The Mueller report. It is here.

For all the hype, the expectation that Washington and cable news specialises in, on the one-to-10 scale, where one is a barely audible whimper and 10 is the eruption of a Krakatoan volcano, this is almost certainly going to be at the lower decibel end.

Why do I say that? Because the Attorney general, Bill Barr, blew any cliff-hanger season finale moment with his four-page letter summarising the findings.

On collusion with Russia, there was none. On whether the president obstructed justice, the Mueller report was more equivocal.

And that is fascinating and why we shouldn't just roll over and go back to sleep.

Read the full analysis here.