The Mueller report did not find that the Trump campaign or its associates “conspired or coordinated” with Russia, but it stopped short of exonerating the US president of obstruction of justice, according to the US Justice Department.
The principal conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election has been released by US Attorney General William Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement official, in a four-page summary.
In a verdict celebrated by Trump, Barr’s summary said Mueller found no evidence that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia, despite multiple offers from individuals associated with Russia.
On the issue of obstruction of justice, the summary release was less clear.
Barr quoted Mueller as writing: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
But with Mueller not reaching any conclusions in evaluating the president’s conduct, leaving it instead to the Justice Department, Barr said evidence gathered in the investigation “is not sufficient to establish” that Trump committed obstruction of justice.
Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reached their conclusion without considering constitutional questions regarding bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.
After the summary was published, Trump tweeted that he has been “completely exonerated” of collusion or obstruction of justice - despite Mueller stating otherwise on the latter.
He later told reporters: “This was an illegal takedown that failed and, hopefully, somebody is going to be looking at the other side. So, it’s complete exoneration. No collusion; no obstruction.”
He also lashed out at the investigation, claiming without evidence that it was “an illegal takedown that failed”.
The special counsel wrapped up his investigation on Friday, bringing to a close a probe that has shadowed Trump for nearly two years.
Barr sent this letter to Congress on Sunday laying out the findings of Mueller’s special counsel investigation:
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump has been “completely exonerated” and a lawyer for the president said the summary was more positive than he had anticipated.
“It’s better than I expected,” Rudy Giuliani said, adding that he would have a statement on the matter soon.
The release of the summary is likely to ignite a new political fight in Washington as Democrats push for Barr to release the full report, and Trump seizes on the findings as vindication of his near daily assertion that he was a victim of a “witch hunt” that has cast a long shadow over his presidency.
Senior Democrats said that Mueller “clearly and explicitly is not exonerating the president”.
Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee, tweeted that Barr’s letter to Congress says that while Trump may have acted to obstruct justice, the government would need to prove that “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Nadler tweeted that Congress must hear from Barr about his decision making and see “all the underlying evidence for the American people to know all the facts”.
Trump has always denied collaborating with Moscow or obstructing justice. Russia says it did not interfere in the election, although U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that it did.
The Justice Department announced on Friday that Mueller had ended his investigation after bringing charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former key allies of Trump, such as his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Mike Flynn and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
None of those charges, however, directly related to whether Trump’s campaign worked with Moscow.