Mueller probe done, but no word on details
Final report filed Friday to U.S. attorney general, who controls next steps
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has concluded the investigation that transfixed the United States, filing a widely anticipated report summarizing the findings of his two-year probe into the relationship between President Donald Trump’s election campaign and Russia.
The contents of the report will not be revealed immediately. Mueller submitted the report to newly appointed Attorney General William Barr, who gets to decide how to proceed.
Barr told members of Congress in a Friday letter that he may be able to inform them of Mueller’s “principal conclusions” by the weekend. In addition, he said he was “committed to as much transparency as possible” and that he would consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller himself “to determine what other information from the report can be released to Congress and the public” according to the law and government policy.
Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida when the news was announced. He offered no immediate comment.
“The next steps are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course. The White House has not received or been briefed on the special counsel’s report,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
The investigation has produced criminal convictions of the president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, campaign chair Paul Manafort, deputy campaign chair Rick Gates, national security adviser Michael Flynn and campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, as well as outstanding charges against his longtime adviser Roger Stone.
It has also produced charges against alleged Russian hackers and internet trolls who are unlikely to ever see a U.S. courtroom. By telling a story through his charging documents, Mueller revealed numerous new details about the criminal Russian effort to help Trump win in 2016.
He has not, however, argued that Trump or his campaign conspired with those efforts. None of the convictions is for anything resembling “collusion,” which is not a formal legal term, though Cohen, Flynn, Papadopoulos and Gates pleaded guilty to lying to investigators to conceal interactions with Russia or related to Russia.
The report could conceivably exonerate Trump of collusion-related allegations, lifting a three-year cloud of suspicion about his friendliness toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. It could alternately deepen his problems.
Mueller was known to be investigating whether Trump committed obstruction of justice by trying to impede the probe. And since Mueller’s team is famously secretive, it is not known what else he might have been investigating.
Any immediate Trump crisis stemming from the report is expected to be political, not legal; Mueller is not recommending any additional indictments, U.S. news outlets reported. Democrats could use any finding of serious impropriety as an argument for impeachment proceedings, though party leaders have expressed reluctance.
“We look forward to getting the full Mueller report and related materials. Transparency and the public interest demand nothing less. The need for public faith in the rule of law must be the priority,” House judiciary committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said on Twitter.
The end of the official investigation does not necessarily mean the end of Trump’s legal issues. Federal prosecutors in New York continue to probe various Trump activities. Mueller is known to have distributed investigative leads to prosecutors outside his office. And Stone plans to proceed to a trial rather than plead guilty.
The investigation has hampered Trump’s presidency from nearly the very beginning of his term. Foreign diplomatic trips and other Trump initiatives were regularly overshadowed by Mueller bombshells. The White House and Congress learned to be on edge on Fridays, when Mueller developments tended to be announced.
Trump, who has derided the investigation as a “witch hunt” and relentlessly promised there was “no collusion,” said this week that he would like the entire report released, declaring, “Let people see it.”
The House of Representatives voted unanimously in favour of a full release.