President Trump claimed “complete and total exoneration” after special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no collusion and Attorney General William Barr determined there was insufficient evidence to charge him with obstruction.
“There was no collusion with Russia. 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. To be honest, it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this,” Trump told reporters Sunday afternoon before flying back to the White House from Florida, where he spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Fresh off of the Mueller report findings, @realdonaldtrump celebrates, but quickly turns saying that the “other side” should be investigated and called it an illegal “takedown that failed.” https://t.co/STC3XrofUh pic.twitter.com/THsPiXlDIO
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 24, 2019
Barr released a four-page letter summarizing the findings of Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation Sunday afternoon.
The attorney general wrote that Mueller concluded there was no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but did not make a determination on whether President Trump obstructed justice.
Mueller did not issue a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation, leaving it to the attorney general to decide whether the president obstructed justice. The special counsel said that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have found that there was not “sufficient” evidence to determine whether Trump obstructed justice.
“This was an illegal take-down that failed,” Trump said. “Hopefully somebody’s going to be looking at the other side.”
Reacting to Barr’s letter, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., tweeted “In light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department following the Special Counsel report, where Mueller did not exonerate the President, we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future.”
