Attorney General William Barr suggested in his letter to Congress on Sunday that the public may not know of some actions by President Trump that raised concerns in special counsel Robert Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation.
In his four-page letter, which stressed the 22-month investigation did not find evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Barr said Mueller left the obstruction question unresolved. A line taken from Mueller’s final says, “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Although Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found there was a lack of “sufficient” evidence to determine whether Trump obstructed justice, there may yet be more to the picture than the American public knows already as Democrats rally for the release of Mueller’s full report and underlying documents.
“The report’s second part addresses a number of actions by the President — most of which have been the subject of public reporting — that the Special Counsel investigated as potentially raising obstruction-of-justice concerns,” Barr wrote.
Word of an obstruction inquiry dates back to June 2017. The Washington Post reported former FBI Director James Comey previously assured Trump in private that he was not under investigation, but officials said that changed days after Trump fired Comey in May.
In July 2018, the sources told the New York Times that Mueller was looking at Trump’s tweets about former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Comey as he was pressuring them in private about Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Trump often railed against Sessions, who left the DOJ in November, for recusing himself from the Russia inquiry.
Another matter related to Trump’s actions against the Russia investigation was reported by the New York Times in January 2018. That report said Trump gave the order to fire Mueller in June 2017. Then-White House counsel Donald McGahn warned of the dire consequences of such a move for Trump and threatened to quit rather than inform the Justice Department of Trump’s decision. Trump did not press the order any further after McGahn’s warning.
Trump, who often condemned Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt,” declared Sunday he was vindicated upon the release of Barr’s letter.
“There was no collusion with Russia,” Trump said. “There was no obstruction, and none whatsoever. It was a complete and total exoneration. It’s a shame that our country had to go through this.”
[Read more: 2020 Democrats unsatisfied with Barr’s letter: Release Mueller’s ‘damn’ report]
