WASHINGTON – Democrats are in an uproar over Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the highly anticipated report by special counsel Robert Mueller, demanding that he cancels a planned news conference on Thursday about Mueller’s findings before actually releasing the report to the public.

For weeks, House Democrats have criticized Barr’s handling of the report but those critiques intensified significantly on Wednesday, one day before the Justice Department is set to release a redacted version of the 400-page report to the public. 

“Once again, Barr wants to shape the public’s perception of the report,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote on Twitter. “This is not justice. Just PR.”

In a joint statement, Democratic House chairs called Barr’s news conference “unnecessary and inappropriate” and called for release of the full report.

“These new actions by the Attorney General reinforce our concern that he is acting to protect President Trump,” the statement says.

“He should let the full report speak for itself. The Attorney General should cancel the press conference and provide the full report to Congress, as we have requested,” the statement continues. “With the Special Counsel’s fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress’ responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly.”

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will hold news conference at 9:30 a.m. EDT, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. The report is expected to go to Congress between 11 a.m. and noon EDT and likely will be released to the public around the same time.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi railed against the decision and pointed to a New York Times report indicating that Justice officials had briefed the White House on the contents of the report in advance of its public release. White House and Justice officials declined to comment on The Times account.

More: AG William Barr to hold news conference Thursday on before Mueller report goes to Congress

“AG Barr has thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter. “The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin.”

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said the idea to release the report after Barr’s news conference was ill-advised. “This is wrong,” he wrote in a tweet. He continued, saying he was “deeply troubled” by the Times report about contact between the Justice Department and the White House before the report was released. 

Nadler, D-N.Y., along with four House Democrats, held a last-minute news conference in New York to discuss both Barr’s delayed release of the report and his handling of the probe as a whole. 

“The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report,” Nadler said during the news conference. “Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation.” 

He continued, listing out concerns echoed by fellow Democrats, saying that Barr was attempting to create a narrative about the report before its release to help the White House.

“The central concern here is that the Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in a narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House,” Nadler said. 

Alongside Nadler was Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who tweeted that Barr’s handling of the report equated to a “dog and pony show” and urged Barr to “keep your mouth shut.” 

“So-called Attorney General is presiding over a dog and pony show. Here is a thought. Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut,” Jeffries said. “You have ZERO credibility.”

Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also questioned Barr’s intentions. 

“Why is William Barr holding a press conference if not to (once again) try and frame the Special Counsel’s findings,” he wrote on Twitter. “Just release the full report and let the American people judge for themselves!”

On Twitter, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia, lashed out at Nadler while defending Barr’s handling of the report.

“The only person trying to spin the report is @RepJerryNadler,” Collins tweeted. “The AG has done nothing unilaterally. After partnering with DAG Rosenstein to share principal conclusions, Barr is releasing the report voluntarily, working with Mueller’s team step by step.”

Well before Wednesday, Barr had already become a magnet for Democratic criticism.

He was lambasted by Democrats for making the determination that Trump’s conduct did not constitute a crime after the special counsel did not make a decision on whether the president’s actions during the investigation amounted to obstruction of justice.

Barr was also criticized over his four-page letter to members of Congress that went over aspects of Mueller’s conclusions. Members of Mueller’s team said that Barr’s letter “failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated,” according to the New York Times, which cited a number of unnamed officials. 

Democrats have pushed for Barr to release the full report, without redactions, and said they would subpoena a full copy. Barr, no doubt, will be criticized for any redactions made to the report when it’s released Thursday.

A less-redacted version would be made available to select members of Congress, according to a Wednesday court filing.

He has also been targeted for his past conduct before he was nominated attorney general by the president. 

In June last year, Barr authored an unsolicited, 19-page memo outlining his opposition to an obstruction investigation of Trump. He shared that memo with White House lawyers. 

That memo, written months before Trump selected him as the next attorney general, called the obstruction theory “fatally misconceived” and said that it was based “on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law.” Barr acknowledged that he did not know what type of case Mueller was pursuing, but argued that Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey didn’t constitute obstruction and that the president shouldn’t be forced to testify to Mueller’s investigators.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY