The conclusions of Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election were finally made public after a two-year probe. While President Donald Trump may not have had anything to do with Russian interference, the report makes it very clear the Russian government did conduct a large-scale online misinformation campaign during the election. Dozens of Russian nationals have already been indicted. Attorney General William Barr released his summary of the Mueller report Sunday, and the letter has three key takeaways on the question of whether the president obstructed justice. It makes no conclusion on whether the president did or did not. Barr said the Justice Department does not see any conduct on behalf of the president that would constitute obstructive conduct. While there isn't enough information for Barr to indict, it doesn't mean that it exonerates the president. Ad Rep. Andy Levin released a statement that can be read in part below. "According to Attorney General Barr’s brief letter, Mr. Mueller concluded that Russia did, in fact, interfere with our 2016 election. I am relieved that Mr. Mueller concluded that a president of the United States did not conspire in that interference, but I am deeply troubled that he could not exonerate Mr. Trump on obstruction of justice. Given Mr. Barr’s plainly stated animus against the independent counsel process, Congress and the American people must clearly make their own judgment – once we have access to the report and the work supporting it." Rep. Rashida Tlaib released the following statement regarding the summary. "Earlier this month, we voted unanimously in the House of Representatives to call for a full public report of Robert Mueller's investigation. We cannot do our jobs as representatives without the full report. Attorney General Barr's letter does not give a full picture and it would be a disservice to the American people if transparency is not practiced here. The full report must be release to Congress and the American people immediately." Ad The president will have a campaign rally in Grand Rapids on Thursday. You can read the full letter Barr released below. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "https://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();<doc-sep>Attorney General William Barr provided his summary of the recently closed special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election on Sunday, and said the report neither exonerates nor indicts President Donald Trump in regard to whether he obstructed justice. Barr indicated in his summary to Congress that he did not see any reason to move forward with any further obstruction proceedings against the president. The main findings highlighted in a letter from Barr to members of Congress: • Barr wrote in his summary that the "Special Counsel's 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 presidential election." • Regarding allegations that the president conspired with the Russians to sway the outcome of the 2016 election, the special counsel, Barr wrote, recognized that "the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference." • The special counsel made no determination as to whether or not Trump's actions did or did not constitute obstruction of justice. "[W]hile this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," reads Barr's letter to Congress, quoting Mueller directly. • Mueller left it up to Barr's office to determine if the obstruction allegations his team investigated "constitutes a crime." • In response, Barr wrote that, after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the two concluded that the evidence in the Mueller report was "not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." Attorney General Barr delivered his four-page letter to members of Congress on Sunday afternoon, nearly 48 hours after receiving the completed report from Mueller. In the brief summary, which boiled down and provided some analysis of the two-year investigation by Mueller's team, Barr told legislators that the special counsel did not conclude that President Trump or his campaign had colluded or conspired with the Russian government to influcence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Mueller's team did find evidence of Russian attempts to meddle through disinformation campaigns "designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election" but did not, according to Barr's letter, identify anyone associated with the president or his campaign that had "conspired or knowingly coordinated with" the Russians, although Mueller indicted 25 Russian operatives last year. Likewise, with regard to the Russian hacking and theft of documents from the Democratic National Committee's computer network, Barr said Mueller could find no evidence linking the indicted hackers to anyone in or associated with the Trump campaign. The obstruction of justice investigation proved slightly stickier for Mueller. Rather than make any determination regarding allegations that the White House may have interfered with the Justice Department's investigation, Mueller provided Barr with the "evidence on both sides of the question" and wrote that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Ultimately, Mueller left it up to Barr to review the evidence to determine if any crimes had been committed. "After reviewing the Special Counsel's final report on these issues... Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." According to Barr, Mueller's finding that the "evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference" had an impact on his decision to not pursue any further obstruction proceedings. "Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding," wrote Barr, noting that the report did not identify any "actions that, in our judgment constitute obstructive conduct." Following the release of the Barr letter, Democratic legislators criticized the attorney general for what they viewed as giving short shrift to such an extensive investigation. "Special Counsel Mueller worked for 22 months to determine the extent to which President Trump obstructed justice," tweeted Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. "Attorney General Barr took 2 days to tell the American people that while the President is not exonerated, there will be no action by DOJ." Nadler followed that statement with a promise to use his committee's authority to get more information from the attorney general. "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... in the near future," tweeted the congressman from New York. President Trump, who had been uncharacteristically quiet most of the weekend, finally tweeted a message shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday. "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!" wrote the president. No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2019 === Earlier reporting. === 3:40 p.m. Representative Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, posted quotes from the letter sent by Barr to members of Congress "The Department of Justice 'determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgement,'" wrote Nadler, followed by the most salient highlight: "The Special Counsel states that 'while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.'" The Department of Justice “determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgement.” — Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) March 24, 2019 “The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’” — Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) March 24, 2019 The House Judiciary Committee then published the full text of the letter:<doc-sep>MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow outlined 15 questions she said still remain after special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerSenate Democrats urge Garland not to fight court order to release Trump obstruction memo Why a special counsel is guaranteed if Biden chooses Yates, Cuomo or Jones as AG Barr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel MORE’s investigation, HuffPost reported. Among the questions Maddow said were still “driving [her] nuts” were whether President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE would acknowledge Russian interference in the election, whether Mueller expected Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrWatchdog group suing for Trump obstruction memo blasts DOJ for trying to block release Biden DOJ to appeal court order to release Trump obstruction memo CNN reporter's phone and email records secretly obtained by Trump administration: report MORE to make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice, whether Mueller’s full report will be released and whether the completion of Mueller’s probe will affect other ongoing investigations. ADVERTISEMENT Maddow also raised the question of whether Mueller declined to state Trump had committed crimes in order “to protect a future grand jury.” “One of the reasons it might not be proper for a prosecutor, for any prosecutor or for the Department of Justice, more broadly, to jump in and make a pronouncement that a president appears to have committed crimes is because of the possibility that that president could actually be indicted and prosecuted and put on trial for those crimes after he or she has left office,” she said. Maddow also questioned whether Congress would have a chance to review Mueller’s underlying evidence and whether Mueller himself would testify before Congress about his findings. On Tuesday morning, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also said Mueller should testify, saying he does not "deeply respect and trust the Barr summary.” On Monday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders included Maddow's image in a "bracket" mocking pundits and politicians she said overhyped the issue of Russian collusion.<doc-sep>
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) joined calls for the release of special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerSenate Democrats urge Garland not to fight court order to release Trump obstruction memo Why a special counsel is guaranteed if Biden chooses Yates, Cuomo or Jones as AG Barr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel MORE’s full report, saying on Tuesday that he did not trust Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrWatchdog group suing for Trump obstruction memo blasts DOJ for trying to block release Biden DOJ to appeal court order to release Trump obstruction memo CNN reporter's phone and email records secretly obtained by Trump administration: report MORE’s summary of the findings. “The issue here is not just whether there was complicity [in Russia's election interference] that rose to a criminal level,” Blumenthal said on CNN’s “New Day.” “It’s about obstruction of justice, no exoneration there, and the judgment by William Barr may have been completely improper.” ADVERTISEMENT Asked if he trusted Barr to say something publicly about Mueller's report, Blumenthal responded that he trusted the attorney general to comment on his own four-page summary, but said he believed Barr should come forward to testify publicly on the report's findings. "I do not deeply respect and trust the Barr summary, which was designed to frame the message before the information was available. And he succeeded in creating headlines," he said. Democratic @SenBlumenthal calls for the release of the full Mueller report and says Mueller should come before Congress. “I do not deeply respect and trust the Barr summary, which was designed to frame the message,” he says. https://t.co/hxfVnPBxcR pic.twitter.com/ulzWwW0BuU — New Day (@NewDay) March 26, 2019 Blumenthal said a 2016 meeting involving Trump campaign officials and Russian nationals was itself evidence of collusion and noted that Barr, before his confirmation, had expressed his view that a sitting president cannot commit obstruction of justice. "He indicated at the outset that he felt the president of the United States could never commit the crime of obstruction of justice. He was asked to recuse himself in light of that memo and the fact that he was a Trump appointee," the Democrat said. Blumenthal's remarks came amid multiple calls from his Democratic colleagues asking for Mueller's report to be made public. Rep. David Cicilline David CicillineMedia safe harbor bill won't actually help local news Cheney calls Greene's comments on House mask policy 'evil lunacy' Greene under fire for comparing mask policy to the Holocaust MORE (D-R.I.) said Monday it was “impossible” to “write [Russian collusion] off completely” before reading Mueller’s full report. A summary released Sunday by Barr said Mueller’s investigation found no evidence of coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.