Mueller revealed ‘disturbing evidence’ of Trump obstruction
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Senior Democrats said Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report revealed a two-year campaign of obstruction by President Donald Trump, and vowed to hold him accountable.
''Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evi
dence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct,'' said Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
''The responsibility now falls to Congress to hold the president accountable for his actions,'' he said in a statement.
Attorney General Bill Barr on Thursday released the redacted 400page report after already announcing that it showed no proof that Trump colluded with Russian intelligence to tilt the 2016 presidential election.
But the report made no conclusion on whether Trump sought to obstruct justice in the ensuing investigation.
Nadler, who has asked Mueller to testify before his committee by May 23, said that the report directly contradicted Barr's findings and accused him of failing to cooperate with Congress.
''Attorney General Barr appears to have shown an unsettling willingness to undermine his own department in order to protect President Trump,'' Nadler said.
Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said the report ''paints a stunning picture of bottomless corruption.''
''When a foreign adversary attacked our democracy, Donald Trump and his team were thrilled to reap the benefits,'' he said.
''When an investigation was launched to get to the bottom of that effort, he launched a two-year interference campaign to conceal the truth from the American people.''
Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee of the Senate, where Republicans remain in control, asked for an unredacted report and a commitment by Barr not to ''interfere'' in other ongoing investigations.
''The Mueller report lays out not only how Russia interfered in the 2016
election, but also related activities carried out by Trump campaign officials,'' Feinstein tweeted.
''It also details many instances where President Trump tried to obstruct or stop the investigation.''
Trump feared the probe into Russian election meddling would doom his presidency and attempted to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the top investigator said in the report.
Shortly after the Justice Department made public the more than 400page report in redacted form, Trump declared a political victory, saying with a smile: ''I'm having a good day.''
The report – which landed as the United States dives into the ferment of a bitter presidential campaign – did support Trump's repeated assertions that he never colluded with Russian intelligence efforts to tilt the 2016 election in his favor.
''As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION!'' he tweeted.
However, the report – based on
nearly two years of interviews by Mueller's team with Trump's inner circle – emphasized that despite the Republican president's claim, he had not been cleared of obstruction of justice.
And while finding that no Americans took part in the Russian meddling, Mueller determined that Trump was happy enough to gain an advantage from the dirty tricks.
This included the release by WikiLeaks of emails stolen by Russian agents from the team of Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
''The campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts,'' the report said.
Nadler called the report ''disturbing,'' while Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal saw a ''detailed, deeply damning portrait of criminal wrongdoing and national scandal.''
‘This is the end of my presidency’
The secretive Mueller probe has consumed Washington – and the first half of Trump's first term in office – over the last two years.
Throughout, Trump has labeled the investigation a ''witch hunt,'' while his Democratic opponents have talked up the extraordinary idea that an American president might have been colluding with Russian agents.
The report released Thursday paints an unflattering picture of Trump in crisis mode as the scandal first hit the White House in 2017.
US intelligence services had already been looking into the Russian meddling. But after Trump fired his FBI director, James Comey, Mueller was appointed as an independent prosecutor to handle the highly sensitive probe.
''The president slumped back in his chair and said: 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked','' the Mueller report said.
Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway rejected that portrayal, telling reporters: ''That was not the reaction of the president that day.''