TRUMP DIDN’T COLLUDE WITH RUSSIA: REPORT
SPECIAL COUNSEL MUELLER’S CONCLUSION VAGUE ON OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON: US special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation didn’t find any evidence of conspiracy or collusion by President Donald Trump’s campaign with Russia in the 2016 election, but it left open the question of whether he obstructed justice by allegedly trying to influence the outcome of the probe.
The investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russian government in its election interference activities”, according to a summary of Mueller’s findings sent to Congress by attorney general William Barr and released to the public on Sunday. The full report remains confidential.
The special counsel left unresolved the “difficult issues” of law and fact whether Trump’s action and intent could be viewed as obstruction of justice, Barr’s summary said, and went on to quote Mueller’s report, “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Trump, however, called it a “complete and total exoneration”.
“This was an illegal takedown that failed,” he said before leaving Florida, where he spent the weekend, for Washington.
There was a sense of relief and vindication in the Trump camp at the outcome that had hung over the administration for almost two years, casting doubts on its legitimacy. There was rarely a day when Trump did not rail against it, calling it a “witch-hunt” and a “deep state” conspiracy.
“He’s just very happy with how it all turned out,” a White House spokesperson said.
But the claim of “total exoneration” was not supported by Mueller’s report. It drew instead from Barr’s summary sent to US Congress. Barr said it was his conclusion, arrived at in consultation with others, that evidence developed by the Mueller investigation was not sufficient enough to “establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offence”.
The Democrats and critics, however, aren’t buying it.