Robert Mueller Speaks Publicly for the First Time Since Investigation Started

Former Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller spoke publicly Wednesday to speak on the findings in his report on Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, alleged Trump campaign collusions with those efforts, and possible obstruction efforts by President Trump of the investigation.

Mueller offered no new information on his findings. He reiterated that the report did not find criminal activity between the Trump campaign and Russia, but could not says the Trump campaign did not commit any obstruction. Mueller said once again that his investigation was constrained by Department of Justice guidelines that prohibit the indictment of a sitting president.

Mueller refused to take questions and said he would not engage in hypotheticals. Chief among them is whether Mueller would indict Trump if he were not the president. The report said that, in addition to the DOJ guidelines, such charges may be difficult to prove given the president’s wide latitude to appoint and dismiss officials. Most evidence of obstruction given in Mueller’s report was related to Trump’s failed attempts to fire officials overseeing the investigation.

Mueller Report Released

Attorney General William Barr released the Mueller Report on April 18. The report, which had portions of it redacted to protect information related to ongoing investigations and grand jury testimony, detailed Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, the investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with them and whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice. 

The report says Mueller’s team did not find that the Trump campaign criminally conspired with the Russian government. It did not make a judgment whether the Trump campaign obstructed justice, however. It listed actions by Trump that Mueller viewed as evidence that obstruction may have occurred, such as firing FBI Director James Comey and telling then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, but also wrote that such actions do fall under executive constitutional authority and thus can be hard to prove conclusively as obstruction. In addition, Mueller cited existing Department of Justice guidelines that do not allow indictments of sitting presidents.

Mueller Report Complete, AG Says He Will Release It

A dramatic chapter in US political history has come to an end as Special Counsel Robert Mueller turned in his final report to US Attorney General William Barr, detailing his findings on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and whether the president obstructed justice. The full report has not been released, but a four-page summary released by Barr says the 300-page report concluded there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and there was  insufficient evidence that Trump obstructed justice, leaving the choice to prosecute the president to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein both agreed that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Trump and will not do so, with both not considering whether prosecuting a sitting president is appropriate. Their decision effectively ends the president’s legal worries on that front.

Democrats criticized Barr for not releasing the report, calling for the full publication of the report, a position that has bipartisan support according to polls and a recent House vote on the matter. Barr has said he will release the report in April once the DOJ properly redacts it to prevent the release of classified information.

Trump has claimed complete exoneration on the matter, with Democrats responding the report did not do so, especially on the matter of obstruction. However, given Trump’s repeated claims that his campaign did not collude with the Russians and the report not discovering any evidence of it doing so, the Trump team’s celebration does not appear to be without cause.