Many were also talking about impeaching the president if the report reveals collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Democrats were banking heavily on the results of Mueller’s investigation to defeat Trump in the 2020 elections. “After a long look, after a long investigation, after so many people have been so badly hurt, after not looking at the other side where a lot of bad things happened… it was just announced there was no collusion with Russia,” he said. “This was an illegal takedown that failed and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at their other side,” Trump said. To be honest it’s a shame that your president had to go through this.” Terming the allegation of collusion “the most ridiculous thing ever”, Trump said, “It’s a shame that our country had to go through this. The release of the findings was a significant political victory for Trump who described it as a “complete and total exoneration”. “For each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the special counsel views as ‘difficult issues’ of law and fact concerning whether the president’s actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction,” Barr said, adding Mueller “ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment”. “The special counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election,” the attorney general said. The investigation had cast a shadow over the Trump presidency for nearly two years with the Democratic leadership alleging that Russian interference helped him in the 2016 polls.īarr said that Mueller found no proof of such a conspiracy “despite multiple offers from Russia-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign”. The attorney general and his deputy, Rod J Rosenstein, determined that the special counsel’s investigators had insufficient evidence to establish that the president committed that offense.īarr cautioned that “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him” on the obstruction of justice issue. Mueller’s team drew no conclusions about whether Trump illegally obstructed justice, Barr said, so he made his own decision. Mueller, who spent nearly two years investigating Moscow’s determined effort to sabotage the last presidential election, found no conspiracy “despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign,” Barr wrote in the letter to lawmakers. Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey and other actions throughout the probe raised concerns about the president trying to end the investigation. Trump, who repeatedly described the inquiry as a “witch hunt”, said on Sunday “it was a shame that the country had to go through this”, describing the inquiry as an “illegal takedown that failed”. The report was submitted on Friday to Barr, who reviewed the document before handing a summary to Congress. In a four-page letter to top lawmakers on Sunday, Attorney General William Barr highlighted two sections of the long-awaited Mueller report - Russia’s efforts to affect the 2016 presidential election and whether President Trump obstructed justice.
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