Wall Street shrugs off Mueller report as partisan fault lines hold

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent to 26,559 in New York trading, still below a 2018 high, and the broader S&P 500 climbed 0.16 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.02 percent.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell slightly, to 2.56 percent, indicating confidence in the government, while the price of gold — viewed as a safe haven when stock and fixed-income markets turn volatile — inched up 0.15 percent to $1,277 an ounce.

The report from Mueller, who was appointed after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid an investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election and contacts between Kremlin agents and Trump’s campaign, prompted glee from Republicans, some of whom had characterized the investigation as a partisan witch hunt.

“The attorney general concluded what we long suspected: no collusion, no obstruction,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a fierce supporter of the president. “This sad chapter of American history is behind us. It’s time to turn back to the people’s work of improving the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of how their tax dollars are spent.”

The president’s 2020 re-election campaign went even further. “Now the tables have turned,” campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “It’s time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever.”

Democrats, who panned a morning news conference in which Barr echoed Trump’s statements that there was “no collusion” with Russia, nonetheless found reams of information in the 448-page document to support their suspicions of the real estate mogul who won an election despite having no political experience.

And Barr himself made clear that any cooperation with Wikileaks, the website controlled by Julian Assange that published emails the Kremlin obtained through hacking Democratic accounts, wouldn’t violate criminal law.

Trump said during the campaign that he loved Wikileaks and famously urged Russia to dig up more of the e-mails deleted from a personal server that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used while in office.

Nor did the report counter Democratic worries that Trump attempted to undermine Mueller’s probe once it had begun.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, posted a picture on Twitter in which one paragraph from the report was highlighted: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller’s team wrote. “The evidence we obtained presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred.”

Barr, however, argued that Trump’s actions must be examined in the context of what he called an unprecedented situation.

“As he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates,” the attorney general said. “At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the president’s personal culpability.”

Despite the president’s frustration and anger, arising from “a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,” Barr said the White House fully cooperated. Regardless of whether any actions might have obstructed the probe, “this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent,” he said.

Democratic lawmakers, including some hoping to run against Trump next year, dismissed that assessment as a partisan ploy.

“It’s a disgrace to see an attorney general acting as if he’s the personal attorney and publicist for the president of the United States,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat seeking her party’s nomination.