Image source Wikimedia
According to a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report submitted to Congress on March 24, President Donald Trump’s campaign did not conspire with Russia during the 2016 election.
The summary did not draw a conclusion as to whether Donald Trump illegally obstructed justice, but did not exonerate the president.
The report was summarized for Congress by the attorney general, William Barr.
Donald Trump tweeted in response: “No Collusion, No Obstruction.”
The president, who has repeatedly described the inquiry as a witch hunt, said on March 24 that “it was a shame that the country had to go through this”, describing the inquiry as an “illegal takedown that failed”.
The report is the culmination of two years of investigation by Robert Mueller.
He wrote in his report: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
The summary letter by William Barr outlines the inquiry’s findings relating to Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
He concluded: “The special counsel did not find that any US person or Trump campaign official conspired or knowingly co-ordinated with Russia.”
The second part of the letter addresses the issue of obstruction of justice. William Barr’s summary says the special counsel report “ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment”.
The letter read: “The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion – one way or the other – as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.”
William Barr says that the evidence was not sufficient “to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offence”.
The attorney general ends his letter to Congress by saying he will release more from the full report, but that some of the material is subject to restrictions.
William Barr wrote: “Given these restrictions, the schedule for processing the report depends in part on how quickly the Department can identify the [grand jury] material that by law cannot be made public.
“I have requested the assistance of the Special Counsel in identifying all information contained in the report as quickly as possible.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders described the findings of the report as “a total and complete exoneration of the president”.
President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said the report was “better than I expected”.
Congressman Jerry Nadler, the Democratic Chair of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, emphasized that the attorney general did not rule out that President Trump may have obstructed justice.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, said that while there was a lack of evidence to support “a prosecutable criminal conspiracy”, questions remained over whether President Trump had been compromised.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney welcomed the “good news”, tweeting that it was now “time for the country to move forward”.
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