Trump promises scrutiny on his enemies as he laments ‘no other president should have to be investigated over a false narrative’
5123 Mins Read
President Donald Trump says his enemies who did “evil” and “treasonous things” will be under scrutiny after he was absolved of colluding with Russia. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said no other president should have to be investigated over “a false narrative”.
BBC reports Trump as he spoke a day after the attorney general released a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s completed report. The long-awaited report stops short of exonerating Mr Trump of obstruction of justice.
US Attorney General William Barr ruled there was no evidence requiring prosecution on the obstruction issue.
In an explainer by VOX we read Mueller investigation is done — and according to a summary of the special counsel’s conclusions written by Attorney General Bill Barr and submitted to Congress on Sunday, Mueller did not affirmatively find either collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, or obstruction of justice on the part of President Donald Trump. We don’t yet have Robert Mueller’s report to read it for ourselves. But Barr does quote the special counsel’s exact words on a few key points. On the topic of collusion, Mueller writes, “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” That means Mueller did not find — or at least could not prove — that Russian government officials worked with the Trump campaign in their effort to help elect Trump president.
Second, on the topic of obstruction of justice, Mueller declined to issue a recommendation either for or against prosecution. “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Mueller wrote. However, Barr and Rosenstein then add that they examined the obstruction evidence themselves, and decided that Trump’s conduct was not criminal. Mueller’s reluctance to make a judgment call on this issue, however, will likely spur demands from House Democrats to see the underlying evidence themselves. Unless Barr’s summary of Mueller’s conclusions is highly incomplete or misleading, the report sounds like good news for Trump — and heralds the end of the investigation that has loomed larger over his presidency than any others.
Whether the report will be published or not, Barr writes that his “goal and intent is to release” as much of the report as possible, “consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies.”
But he says there are two issues. First is grand jury secrecy rules — Mueller used a grand jury to obtain much of his information, and Barr says that material cannot by law be made public. So he says he’s asked Mueller to help him identify what information in his report comes from the grand jury process, to block it from release.
The second issue, per Barr, is that he “must identify any information that could impact other ongoing matters, including those that the Special Counsel has referred to other offices.” (That is, he doesn’t want to release information about ongoing investigations.)
So we don’t actually know how long it will take for Barr and other DOJ officials to conduct this review — it could be days, weeks, or even longer until we see anything more. But expect House Democrats to be asking for it.
