The White House and President Donald Trump claimed victory after Attorney General William Barr issued his brief summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on Sunday, asserting that it showed “a total and complete exoneration” of the president.
Trump: Barr letter on Mueller report shows “total and complete exoneration”
“The findings of the Department of Justice are a total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States.”
Dylan Scott covers health for Vox, guiding readers through the emerging opportunities and challenges in improving our health. He has reported on health policy for more than 10 years, writing for Governing magazine, Talking Points Memo, and STAT before joining Vox in 2017.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also posted a statement on Twitter:
The four-page Barr letter summarizing Mueller’s report to the Justice Department did state that the special counsel had not established that Donald Trump or anybody associated with his campaign had conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
On the obstruction of justice question, Mueller did not make a determination, instead choosing to lay out evidence on both sides of the case. From the Barr letter (emphasis mine)
“The Special Counsel states that ‘while the report does not conclude that the President has committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ultimately decided that the evidence presented did not rise to the level of an obstruction of justice charge against Trump.
Democrats in Congress have pledged to continue pressing for the full Mueller report to be released and they might call Barr in front of House committees to testify about the findings.
You can read the letter that Barr delivered to Congress on Sunday here.
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