Mueller finds no collusion
■ No proof Trump campaign conspired with Russia; No conclusion about ‘obstruction of justice’
Washington: US attorney general William Barr has said special counsel Robert Mueller did not find proof that Donald Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections, following which the US president claimed “complete exoneration”.
Washington, March 25: Donald Trump's campaign did not conspire with Russia during the 2016 election won by him, according to a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report submitted to Congress on Sunday, in a major relief to the embattled US President on an issue that has cast a shadow on his presidency for nearly two years.
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.
The report was submitted on Friday to Barr, who reviewed the document before handing a summary to Congress.
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”.
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.
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. Mueller's team drew no conclusions about whether Trump illegally obstructed justice, Barr said, so he made his own decision. The attorney general and his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, determined that the special counsel's investigators had insufficient evidence to establish that president committed that offense.
Barr 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. The investigation had cast a shadow over the Trump presidency for nearly two years with Democratic leadership alleging that Russian interference helped him in the 2016 polls.