During MSNBC’s live coverage of Attorney General William Barr’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, anchor Brian Williams interrupted the airing to say Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was wrong to state special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no collusion between President Trump’s campaign and the Russians.
“So, no collusion. No coordination. No conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government regarding the 2016 election,” Graham said.
“We’re reluctant to do this, we rarely do, but the chairman of the Judiciary Committee just said that Mueller found there was no collusion. That is not correct,” Williams said. “Nicole Wallace, the report says collusion is not a thing they considered. It doesn’t exist in federal code.”
“And what is stunning is that Lindsey Graham is offering answers to questions not on the table today. The question on the table tonight, after the reporting last night, is why did Barr mischaracterize what was in the report. I’m sorry Lindsey Graham, your defensiveness is showing,” Wallace said.
Mueller had written a letter to Barr about how he felt the summary of the report “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions.” During a call with Mueller after he received the letter, Barr asked if his summary was incorrect, which Mueller said it was not, but said the investigation was being misinterpreted by the media.
According to Barr’s summary of the special counsel’s report, the investigation “did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
On the issue of obstruction of justice, Barr — with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — then concluded Trump did not commit obstruction of justice.
