Call it "The Problem With Complexity"

Guy who wrote a lot about the Watergate Road Map claiming that grand jury material can't be shared with Congress. https://t.co/GkKWJAlRFN pic.twitter.com/e1pjPrGA5A

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 1, 2019

How short of a "short term" are we talking about?

A press freedom group requested on Monday that judge authorize the release of the grand jury materials in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The grand jury materials are just one of several categories of information in Mueller’s report Attorney General Bill Barr has said he will withhold when he releases a public version of the report sometime in mid-April.

While typically under the law, grand jury materials are kept confidential, there is also a legal process for seeking a judge’s OK to release them. Barr so far has not given any public indication that he plans to pursue that option, despite House Democrats’ request that he work with them to do so.

In its filing Monday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press requested the court’s authorization for the release of all grand jury materials “cited, quoted, or referenced” in Mueller’s report.  It comes on the heels of a March 27 request by the group under the Freedom of Information Act that the Justice Department release the full report.

Not sure the litigation is all that "substantial," either.  I suppose the court won't rule within 2 weeks (Barr's deadline for releasing the redacted report), but still:  there seems to be quite a disparity between this request, and the idea that releasing such information is virtually impossible.

Is Wittes wrong?  Let's just say he's not as right as he wants you to think he is.  Besides, that "substantial litigation" problem lingers in a more substantive form:

There is a mistaken notion that Barr said Rept would not be redacted to protect executive privilege. Actual quote is below. He's saying that Trump is deferring to Barr to make call so no need to submit Mueller Report to WH. @benjaminwittes @KenDilanianNBC Exec priv still in play pic.twitter.com/fdiejSTRXL

— Ross Garber (@rossgarber) April 1, 2019

Maybe a little less pontificating, and a little more circumspection, as a whole, is in order.