Attorney General William Barr said on Sunday that U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion between President Donald Trump’s election team and Russia in the 2016 election. Barr said he had determined that Trump did not obstruct justice during the investigation.
Mueller, who spent nearly two years investigating allegations that Russia meddled in the election to help Trump defeat his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, did not find evidence that Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government,” according a summary of Mueller’s findings.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr concluded that the evidence was “not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.” However, Mueller left open the possibility that Trump had obstructed justice in his response to the Russia probe, the summary said. “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Barr quoted Mueller as writing in his report on the issue of possible obstruction of justice.
Mueller said he would leave it to the attorney general to decide whether a crime was committed. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the findings on the Russia probe were a “total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States.” However the release of the summary is likely to urge Democrats to push for Barr to release the full report.
President Trump has always denied collaborating with Moscow or obstructing justice directly related to whether Trump’s campaign worked with Moscow.
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