US President Donald Trump’s campaign did not conspire with Russia during the 2016 election, a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report says.
However, the summary submitted to Congress by Attorney General William Barr is inconclusive as to whether Mr. Trump illegally obstructed justice.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump responded: “No collusion, No obstruction. Complete and total exoneration.”
Opposition Democrats are demanding full access to the Mueller report.
Mr. Trump, who had repeatedly described the inquiry as a witch hunt, said “it was a shame that the country had to go through this”, describing the inquiry as an “illegal take down that failed”.
The report is the culmination of two years of investigation by Mr. Mueller which saw some of the president’s closest former aides prosecuted and, in some cases, imprisoned, although not on charges related to the alleged Russian collusion.
“The special counsel did not find that any US person or Trump campaign official conspired or knowingly co-ordinated with Russia,” Mr. Barr writes.
On the issue of whether justice was obstructed, Mr. Mueller’s report says: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
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In his summary, Mr. Barr said the report “ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment”.
There was, he adds, insufficient evidence “to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offence”.
Mr. Barr ends his letter by saying further extracts from the report will be released but notes that some of the material is subject to justice department restrictions.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement that Mr. Barr’s letter “raises as many questions as it answers” and called for access to the full report.
“For the president to say he is completely exonerated directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility,” the statement said.
Congressman Jerry Nadler, the Democratic Chair of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, emphasised that Mr. Trump had not been cleared of obstructing justice.
“Barr says that the president may have acted to obstruct justice, but that for an obstruction conviction, ‘the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct’.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said the report was “better than I expected”.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney welcomed the “good news”, tweeting that it was now “time for the country to move forward.”
The release of the report’s key findings on Sunday could mark the start of a lengthy battle to see the entire Mueller report made public.
BBC
