WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department declared Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not find evidence that President Donald Trump's campaign "conspired or coordinated" with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The president in a Twitter post embraced the report summary as a "complete and total exoneration," even though Attorney General William Barr quoted Mueller's report as stating that it "does not exonerate" the president on the issue of obstructing justice.
Barr's four-page letter to Congress notes that Mueller's team said no conspiracy or coordination with Russia was found "despite multiple offers from Russia-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign."
Mueller's investigation left open the question of whether Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey and drafting an incomplete explanation about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign.
"While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Barr quoted Mueller as writing.
That left it to the attorney general to decide.
Barr said Mueller's report "sets out evidence on both sides of the question," but Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that the evidence "is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense" that prosecutors could prove in court.
Barr, nominated to his job by Trump last fall, said their decision was based on the evidence uncovered by Mueller and not based on whether a sitting president can be indicted.
Trump, talking to reporters Sunday before he departed West Palm Beach, Fla., to return to the White House, called Mueller's inquiry an "illegal takedown that failed."
"After a long look, after a long investigation, after so many people have been so badly hurt -- after not looking at the other side, where a lot of bad things happened, a lot of horrible things happened for our country -- it was just announced there was no collusion with Russia," the president said.
"It's a shame that our country had to go through this," Trump added. "To be honest, it's a shame that your president has had to go through this."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who accompanied Trump to Florida, echoed the president's language in a statement, calling the Justice Department's findings "a total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States."
Mueller wrapped up his investigation on Friday with no new indictments, bringing to a close an inquiry that has shadowed Trump since May 2017 and that the president has called the "biggest scandal in the history of the country." A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment on Barr's summary.
DEMOCRATS' CRITICISM
Congress' top Democrats put out a statement saying Barr's letter raises as many questions as it answers, including about his decision not to prosecute on obstruction of justice.
"Given Mr. Barr's public record of bias against the special counsel's inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report," according to the statement from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
Trump's claim of complete exoneration "directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility," they added.
The Justice Department summary sets up a battle between Barr and Democrats, who called for Mueller's full report to be released and vowed to press on with their own investigation.
The House Judiciary Committee chairman said Congress needs to hear from Barr about his decision and see "all the underlying evidence."
Mueller "clearly and explicitly is not exonerating the president," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., in a series of tweets. Nadler said Barr is telling "the American people that while the president is not exonerated, there will be no action" by the Justice Department.
Nadler said that he plans to call Barr to testify about "very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department."
Democrats noted that the House voted 420-0 to support the release of the full Mueller report.
"This is about transparency and truth -- and a 4 page summary from Trump's AG doesn't cut it," tweeted Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee. "The American people deserve to see the whole thing."
But Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., disagreed. Although he was among the representatives who voted in support of releasing the full report, he told Fox News' Fox & Friends Sunday that Mueller "should have never been appointed, and I say that, and we can take any part of this investigation and we can show you how fraudulent it is."
"We can just burn it up," Nunes added of the report. "I mean, it is a partisan document."
Other Republicans cheered Sunday's summary.
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a text message: "It's better than I expected."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the findings a "good day for the rule of law. Great day for President Trump and his team. No collusion and no obstruction. The cloud hanging over President Trump has been removed by this report. Bad day for those hoping the Mueller investigation would take President Trump down."
Graham had spent Sunday golfing with the president, as well as two former South Carolina congressmen -- Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting chief of staff.
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the investigation was "long, thorough and conclusive: There was no collusion. There is no constitutional crisis."
He called on Democrats in Congress to now dial back their "sprawling" inquiries into the same issues.
INQUIRY'S RESULTS
Mueller's investigation led to criminal charges against 34 people, including six former Trump associates and advisers.
The inquiry illuminated Russia's assault on the American political system, painted members of the Trump campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Democratic emails to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton, and exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at covering up their Russia-related contacts.
In all, Russian citizens interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and presidential transition, according to public records and interviews.
Barr said that Mueller "thoroughly" investigated the question of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia's election interference, issuing more than 2,800 subpoenas, obtaining nearly 500 search warrants and interviewing 500 witnesses.
However, Mueller was not able to interview Trump in person.
The special counsel submitted his report to Barr instead of directly to Congress and the public because, unlike independent counsels such as Ken Starr in the case of President Bill Clinton, Mueller's investigation operated under the close supervision of the Justice Department, which appointed him.
The Justice Department regulations governing the Mueller inquiry only required the special counsel to give a succinct, confidential report to the attorney general explaining his decision on whether to seek further criminal charges.
But Mueller was still given a wide mandate to investigate not only Russian election interference but "any matters that may arise directly from that investigation." Mueller has farmed out numerous aspects of his inquiry to several U.S. attorneys' offices, and those investigations continue.
As part of the investigation, Mueller dug into a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York. Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with a Russian lawyer after being told she had damaging information on Clinton that was being offered as part of the Russian government's support for the GOP candidate, according to emails exchanged in advance of the meeting.
The lawyer has said she was not working on behalf of the Russian government. Trump Jr. and Kushner have said she did not provide any information about Clinton at the meeting.
Trump Jr. said in a statement that Barr's summary of Mueller's report "proves what those of us with sane minds have known all along, there was ZERO collusion with Russia.
"Sadly, instead of apologizing for needlessly destabilizing the country in a transparent attempt to delegitimize the 2016 election, it's clear that the Collusion Truthers in the media and the Democrat Party are only going to double down on their sick and twisted conspiracy theories moving forward," Trump Jr. said.
Information for this article was contributed by Eric Tucker, Michael Balsamo, Chad Day, Julie Pace, Zeke Miller, Catherine Lucey, Jonathan Lemire, Deb Riechmann, Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press; by Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Felicia Sonmez, Paul Sonne and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; by Mark Mazzetti and Katie Benner of The New York Times; and by Margaret Talev and Justin Sink of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 03/25/2019