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US-POLITICS-RUSSIA-INVESTIGATION-MUELLER-FINDINGS
Key findings of the Mueller report
WASHINGTON, March 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US Attorney General Bill Barr
released a summary Sunday of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited
report into allegations that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in
the 2016 presidental election.
Here are the main findings of the two-year investigation the president
regularly denounced as a witch hunt, before claiming vindication upon its
completion.
– Collusion –
Mueller found that there was conclusive evidence that Russia did interfere
in the election, both through a coordinated campaign of disinformation and by
hacking emails from Hillary Clinton’s election team.
In a letter to lawmakers, Barr said that Mueller found that there had been
“multiple offers from Russian-affiliated indivduals to assist the Trump
campaign.”
But quoting directly from Mueller’s report, Barr said that the special
counsel’s investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign
conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election
interference activities.”
– Obstruction –
Many observers had predicted the biggest danger to Trump came from a
possible accusation of obstruction of justice, particularly over his decision
to sack the FBI director James Comey, who headed the investigation before
Mueller.
But Barr said that the evidence outlined in Mueller’s report “is not
sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-
justice offence.”
“In cataloguing the President’s actions, many of which took place in
public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgement,
constitute obstructive conduct,” Barr added in his letter.
But while Barr — who was appointed by Trump — concluded that the
president had not obstructed justice, he acknowledged that Mueller himself
was inconclusive on the question of obstruction.
“The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion — one way or
another — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction,” he
said.
“The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that
the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.'”
– No more indictments –
Trump’s former national security advisor Mike Flynn, his former personal
lawyer Michael Cohen and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort are among the 34
individuals already indicted by Mueller but they will be the last, according
to Barr.
“The report does not recommend any further indictments nor did the special
counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public,” Barr
said in his letter to the heads of the Senate and House judiciary committees.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0937 hrs