Mueller issues first public statement on Russia probe
Special counsel Robert Mueller issued his first public statement on his investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election, emphasizing one of the key points of his report: that his office did not conclude whether or not President Trump committed a crime.
In his statement, Mueller said his office could not bring criminal charges against the president because they believed it to be unconstitutional.
“If we had confidence that the president had clearly not committed a crime we would have said so,” said Mueller, adding, “Charging the president with a crime is not an option we could consider.”
"It would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge,” said Mueller further explaining the reasoning.
Mueller announced that he was officially resigning from the Department of Justice and returning to private life. He said this was his final statement on the matter, and any testimony he might give to Congress would not go beyond what was in the report.
Mueller has been asked to appear by the House Judiciary Committee but he hasn’t said if he will. He said no one — presumably referring to officials in the Justice Department or the administration — has instructed him one way or the other on his appearance.
Mueller did not take questions from the assembled reporters after the ten-minute statement.
The White House said it was notified on Tuesday night of Mueller’s plans to make a statement and CNN reported that Mueller had briefed Attorney General William Barr on its contents. He had remained almost completely silent over the course of the nearly two-year investigation.
The special counsel’s report concluded that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election “in sweeping and systematic fashion,” leading to the indictment of 34 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from computer hacking to conspiracy and financial crimes. Those indictments led to seven guilty pleas. Four people, including the former Trump campaign chairman, were sentenced to prison.
A redacted version of Mueller’s 448-page report, released last month, found no conspiracy between Russia and Trump’s campaign. But it chronicled at least 10 episodes of efforts by Trump to obstruct the federal probe. And while the special counsel declined to charge Trump with obstruction of justice, investigators explicitly refused to exonerate the president despite his repeated public comments to the contrary.
“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” the report read. “We are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
The findings have spurred calls by some Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan to pursue Trump’s impeachment. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged caution, saying she wants to see Mueller’s full unredacted report and hear testimony from current and former members of the Trump administration before considering it.
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The special counsel team has been attacked by Trump as a group of angry Democrats, but Mueller is a Republican who was appointed to head the FBI by President George W. Bush.
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