Attorney General William Barr held a hotly-anticipated press conference ahead of the release of the Mueller Report to the public on Thursday morning.
He said that the Special Counsel found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, then went on to address how he came to the conclusion that Donald Trump did not commit obstruction of justice—a matter on which the report could not reach a conclusion.
According to Barr, the report lists ten incidents of possible obstruction, however Barr said that Trump didn't demonstrate a clear intent to obstruct justice and was, rather, frustrated that Americans were skeptical of his frequent claims that there was "no collusion."
Barr said:
"And as the Special Counsel’s report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks."
Between the portrayal of Donald Trump as a helpless victim to an overreaching investigation and the frequent refrain of "no collusion," many thought Barr was there to defend Trump, rather than justice itself.
Fox News' Chris Wallace was among those who noticed this.
Watch below:
Wallace said of Barr's performance:
"The Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, for the counselor for the president, rather than the Attorney General ... I suspect that Democrats' heads on Capitol Hill were exploding."
Others felt the same.
That wasn't the only critique.
Last year and before his appointment to the AG position, Barr wrote an unsolicited memo to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein criticizing that the Special Counsel was looking into obstruction allegations at all.
Since then, many are critical of Barr's prioritization of the President's perception rather than of the truth.
The report—released moments ago—is already contradicting Barr's words during the press conference.
Yikes.