Weeks after special counsel Robert Mueller ended his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Justice Department officials announced they’re releasing a redacted version of the report Thursday.
Mueller’s 22-month investigation, frequently lambasted by Trump as a “witch hunt” aimed at undermining his presidency, often pitted the president against his own Justice Department.
Attorney General William Barr had earlier said he plans to release a redacted version of the Mueller report by mid-April. Democrats have criticized his decision not to release the full report to lawmakers.
Update 7:15 p.m. EDT April 17: A hard copy of Robert Mueller's redacted report won't be available to members of Congress until 11 a.m. Thursday, 90 minutes after Attorney General William Barr's press conference, according to top Democrats, who have expressed concern about the timing of the press conference and the release of the report.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he’s concerned that Barr has briefed the Trump administration on the investigation and that he’s is speaking to the press before publicly releasing the report.
“I’m deeply troubled by reports that the White House is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release. Now, (the Department of Justice) is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon — AFTER Barr’s press conference. This is wrong,” Nadler said on social media.
Without knowledge of what’s in the Mueller report, journalists won’t be able to thoroughly question the attorney general on its findings.
Update 5 p.m. EDT April 17: Attorney General William Barr will hold a 9:30 a.m. ET news conference accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation after Mueller's appointment in May 2017.
It’s unclear if Barr will speak before or after the report is released.
Update 11:55 a.m. EDT April 15: A Justice Department official said Monday that Barr plans to release a redacted version of Mueller's report on Thursday morning, NPR reported.
The report is expected to be released to Congress and then the public, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, according to NPR.
Update 3:05 p.m. EDT April 11: Speaking Thursday from the Senate floor, Schumer said Barr's testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee showed "the title he holds is far less important than the boss he serves."
“In the face of serious questions surrounding the release of the Mueller report the attorney general did exactly what President Trump wanted,” Schumer said. “He dodged questions, pedaled a conspiracy theory and, like the president, lobbed baseless accusations.”
Barr said Wednesday that he believes the Trump campaign was spied on, a comment the president seized on while speaking with reporters Thursday.
"There was absolutely spying into my campaign," the president said, according to The Hill. "I'll go a step further. In my opinion it was illegal spying, unprecedented spying and something that should never be allowed to happen in our country again."
Update 12:10 p.m. EDT April 10: Barr told lawmakers that he expects to release a redacted version of Mueller's report next week.
During a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Barr declined to go into detail about the report’s findings.
“I’m not going to characterize his report,” Barr said Wednesday. “The report will speak for itself, and that’s why I want to get it out.”
Update 10:30 a.m. EDT April 10: Barr is testifying Wednesday morning before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Update 10:05 a.m. EDT April 10: Trump slammed Mueller's investigation as phony and illegal while speaking with reporters Wednesday morning.
“Everything about it was crooked,” the president said. “Every single thing about it. ... This was an attempted coup. This was an attempted take-down of a president and we beat them. We beat them.”
Multiple courts have rejected arguments over Mueller’s authority to conduct his investigation. He was appointed by the Justice Department in May 2017 to serve as special counsel after then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation.
Update 10:30 a.m. EDT April 9: Barr is testifying before the House Appropriations Committee. The hearing started at 9:30 a.m.
The attorney general told lawmakers he plans to release a redacted version of the Mueller report “within a week.”
"My original timetable of being able to release this by mid-April stands," he said Tuesday. "So I think that from my standpoint, by within a week, I will be in a position to release the report to the public.”
Tuesday’s hearing is focused on the Justice Department’s 2020 budget, but several lawmakers took the opportunity to ask Barr about his handling of the Mueller report and related matters.
Update 10 a.m. EDT April 9: Tuesday's hearing is focused on the Justice Department's 2020 budget, but lawmakers also took the opportunity to ask Barr about his handling of the Mueller report.
Update 9 a.m. EDT April 9: Barr is scheduled to appear Tuesday morning before the House Appropriations Committee for a 9:30 a.m. hearing on the Justice Department's 2020 budget.
Politico reported House Democrats plan to use the hearing to question Barr about his handling of Mueller's report, which he's said he plans to release to Congress by mid-April, once necessary redactions are completed.
Barr will be joined by Assistant Attorney General for Administration Lee Lofthus, the Justice Department's chief financial officer.
Update 2:45 p.m. EDT April 8: In a statement posted Monday on Twitter, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., shared his support for a request made by the committee's top Republican to have Mueller testify before Congress.
Earlier Monday, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., called for Mueller to testify before the committee in a letter sent to Nadler.
“I fully agree. Special Counsel Mueller should come before the Committee to answer questions in public about his 22 month investigation into President Trump and his associates,” Nadler said in a series of tweets.
However, he added that Democrats’ move to subpoena the full Mueller report remains necessary, “in order to ask Special Counsel Mueller the right questions.”
The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines last week to authorize a subpoena for the full, unredacted Mueller report. Barr has said he plans to release a redacted version of the report to Congress by mid-April.
Update 11:10 a.m. EDT April 8: In a letter sent Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., called for Mueller to testify before the committee.
“If you seek both transparency and for the American public to learn the full contours of the Special Counsel’s investigation, public testimony from Special Counsel Mueller himself is undoubtedly the best way to accomplish this goal,” Collins wrote.
Barr has told lawmakers that he plans to release Mueller’s report to Congress after he completes redactions of confidential material, a move Democrats have fought. Barr said the report would be released to lawmakers by mid-April.
The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines last week to authorize a subpoena for the full, unredacted report.
In his letter Monday, Collins asked that Mueller be invited to testify before the House Judiciary Committee the week of April 22. Cox Media Group’s Jamie Dupree reported Congress was on break Monday for Easter and not expected to return until April 29.
“Although the House is expected to be in recess that week, I think we can agree this business is too important to wait, and Members of the Committee will surely return to Washington at such a critical moment in our country’s history,” Collins wrote Monday.
Update 11:15 a.m. EDT April 4: In a statement released Thursday, Justice Department officials defended Barr's decision to share a four-page document on Mueller's report as authorities continue working to ensure information is properly redacted before the report's release.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said all of the report’s more than 300 pages were marked with language that indicated they might contain grand jury information -- information that must be redacted by law.
“Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report’s bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately -- without attempting to summarize the report -- with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process,” Kupec said.
The statement was released after The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that members of Mueller's investigative team are getting frustrated over the way Barr has portrayed their findings, which are "more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated," the Times reported.
“Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public,” according to the newspaper.
Barr said in a letter sent last week to Congress that he plans to release a redacted version of the report to lawmakers by mid-April. Democrats have demanded to see the full report and supporting documents. The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to authorize a subpoena for the unredacted report.
Update 10:45 a.m. EDT April 3: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told reporters he doesn't plan to immediately issue a subpoena authorized Wednesday for the full Mueller report.
“We’re going to work with the attorney general for a short period of time in the hope that he will reveal to us the entire Mueller report,” Nadler said.
He declined to provide an exact timeline for serving the subpoena.
Barr said last week he would release a redacted version of the report to Congress by mid-April, a move that Democrats criticized as falling short of the typical disclosure given to Congress after special counsel investigations.
Nadler said lawmakers plan to go to court to get an order allowing them access to grand jury testimony that’s blocked from release by law.
Update 10:30 a.m. EDT April 3: In a vote along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday in favor of issuing subpoenas for the full Mueller report and for five former Trump officials.
The passage authorized the subpoenas, though it will be up to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to determine when to send them.
The subpoenas were authorized one day after Barr declined to meet a deadline set by Democrats to release the report to Congress. He said last week he planned to release a redacted report to lawmakers by mid-April, though Democrats said his failure to release the report in full to Congress hampered lawmakers’ ability to carryout their government oversight roles.
Update 8:45 a.m. EDT April 3: Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee vote on whether to authorize a subpoena for the full Mueller report is expected to pass with a vote along party lines, according to Reuters. During the 9 a.m. vote, lawmakers will also determine whether to authorize subpoenas for five former Trump officials, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
The vote is scheduled after a deadline set by Democrats to release the Mueller report passed. Democrats had given Barr until Tuesday to release the full report to Congress. Barr said last week that he would submit a redacted version of the Mueller report to Congress by mid-April.
"The big question is, do we get the entire report and the documentation?" House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told CNN on Tuesday. "Or does he redact it so it's meaningless?"
Update 2:20 p.m. EDT April 2: In a letter sent Monday to Barr, House Democrats demanded the attorney general "appear before the Judiciary Committee as soon as possible -- not in a month, as you have offered, but now."
Lawmakers said in the letter that they wanted Barr to explain his decision to provide Congress with a 4-page report on Mueller’s findings rather than providing the document itself.
In the letter, signed by the chairs of six House committees including Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Democrats also demanded Barr release Mueller’s report to Congress, together with underlying evidence.
“The allegations at the center of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation strike at the core of our democracy,” officials said in the letter. “Congress urgently needs his full, unredacted report and its underlying evidence in order to fulfill its constitutional role.”
Barr had previously indicated he’s willing to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. He said in a letter sent to lawmakers last week that he intends to release a redacted version of Mueller’s report to Congress by mid-April, at the latest. Democrats had previously said they would give him until Tuesday to release the report before voting to issue a subpoena for access to the documents.
Update 12:05 p.m. EDT April 1: Trump said in a Monday morning tweet that he believes "the crazed Democrats" will never be satisfied with "the No Collusion Muller Report" no matter what it reveals.
“Behind closed doors the Dems are laughing!” Trump wrote.
His tweet came House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D,-N.Y., announced plans to seek subpoenas for access to the full Mueller report and supporting documents.
“As I have made clear, Congress requires the full and complete Special Counsel report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence,” Nadler said Monday in a statement.
Democratic leadership in the House previously said they would give Barr until April 2 to provide Mueller’s full report to Congress.
“Attorney General Barr has thus far indicated he will not meet the April 2 deadline set by myself and five other Committee chairs, and refused to work with us to provide the full report, without redactions, to Congress,” Nadler said Monday. ”The full and complete report must be released to Congress without delay.”
Update 8:55 a.m. EDT April 1: The U.S. House Judiciary Committee plans to authorize a subpoena Wednesday for the unredacted Mueller report, according to Politico.
The House Judiciary Committee also said it planned to subpoena "five individuals, Donald McGahn, Steven Bannon, Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus and Ann Donaldson," Bloomberg News reported.
The planned committee vote would not automatically issue subpoenas but authorize House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to send them.
Update 3:40 p.m. EDT March 29: Barr said in a letter sent Friday to lawmakers that he will release the Mueller report to Congress by mid-next month once he's finished redacting sensitive information from the 300-page report.
Barr said redacted information would fall under any of four categories: information that can’t be released by law, such as grand jury testimony; information that identifies sensitives sources and methods used by law enforcement; information that could affect ongoing proceedings, such as the special counsel’s case against political consultant Roger Stone; and “information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”
“Our process is such that I anticipate we will be in a position to release the report by mid-April, if not sooner,” Barr wrote.
He added that the president will not review the report before its release, although he said Trump “would have the right to assert privilege over certain parts of the report.”
Update 3:20 p.m. EDT March 29: In a letter sent to lawmakers and obtained Friday by The Washington Post, Barr said he plans to release a redacted version of the Mueller report "by mid-April, if not sooner."
Update 11:40 a.m. EDT March 29: Trump celebrated his "total exoneration, complete vindication" at a rally Thursday in Michigan nearly one week after Barr received Mueller's report.
“After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead,” Trump said. “The collusion delusion is over. The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction. I could have told you that two and a half years ago, very easily.”
Contrary to Trump's statements, Barr said in a summary of Mueller's findings that the special counsel found, "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Politico reported.
Democrats have called for a full release of the 300-page report, although Barr told House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler "that there's no intention of giving the confidential report to Congress immediately" as Barr works to redact sensitive portions of the document, like grand jury testimony, The Associated Press reported Friday.
Democrats have said they might subpoena the report if Barr declines to release it before a Tuesday deadline they set to release the document.
“What is the president afraid of?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. “Is he afraid of the truth? They’re just scaredy-cats.”
Update 12:50 p.m. EDT March 28: Barr has told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., that he will testify before his committee, an unidentified Justice Department official confirmed Thursday to The Associated Press.
Additional details were not immediately available.
Update 11:55 a.m. EDT March 28: Justice Department officials told The New York Times and The Associated Press that the Mueller report is made up of more than 300 pages of documents.
The Times reported the length, "suggests that Mr. Mueller went well beyond the kind of bare-bones summary required by the Justice Department regulation governing his appointment and detailed his conclusions at length."
Attorney General William Barr released a four-page summary of the report on Sunday and is expected to release a public version of the document in the coming weeks.
Update 9:50 a.m. EDT March 27: Speaking Tuesday to a crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina, former FBI director James Comey said he was confused by Mueller's decision not to make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice.
Comey was fired from his position as the nation’s top cop in May 2017. White House officials said the dismissal stemmed from Comey’s handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while in office, although Trump later said in a TV interview that he was thinking about “this Russia thing” while making his decision.
"The part that's confusing is, I can't quite understand what's going on with the obstruction stuff," Comey said Tuesday at the Belk Theatre in Charlotte, according to NBC News. "And I have great faith in Bob Mueller, but I just can't tell from the letter why didn't he decide these questions when the entire rationale for a special counsel is to make sure the politicals aren't making the key charging decisions."
Comey said he has not seen the Mueller report, which was submitted last week to Barr.
"The good part is that the special counsel was allowed to finish his work and reached a conclusion. That's very, very important to this country," Comey said, according to NBC News. "The Russians really did massively interfere with the 2016 election with the goal of damaging one candidate and helping the other. That was not a hoax. That was a real thing."
Update 3:20 p.m. EDT March 26: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday that he plans to speak with Barr about releasing a redacted version of Mueller's report later in the day, Politico reported.
“I’m going to talk to him tonight,” said Graham, R-S.C.
Authorities have not provided a timeline on when, if ever, they plan to release Mueller’s findings.
Update 1:10 p.m. EDT March 26: Speaking with reporters Tuesday, the president said Mueller determined there was "no obstruction, no collusion" in the report he submitted last week to Barr.
“The Mueller Report was great,” the president said. “It could not have been better.”
Contrary to Trump's statement, Barr said in a summary of Mueller's findings that the special counsel found, "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Politico reported.
Update 10:30 a.m. EDT March 26: Trump said Tuesday that the media is "under fire and being scorned all over the World as being corrupt and FAKE" after Barr said Mueller found no evidence Trump or his campaign officials colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
"For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion when they always knew there was No Collusion," the president wrote. "They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!"
Trump has often criticized the media for perceived attacks on his presidency. Members of his reelection campaign contacted several networks on Monday and urged them not to allow some Trump critics on air, including a number of House committee chairmen, in light of the Mueller report, Politico reported.
"The issuance of these definitive findings comes after two years of Democrat leaders and others lying to the American people by vigorously and repeatedly claiming there was evidence of collusion," Tim Murtaugh, director of communications for Trump's campaign, wrote in the letter to the networks, according to Politico. "They made many of these false claims, without evidence, on your airwaves."
In a summary of Mueller's findings, Barr said the special counsel found that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Politico reported.
Update 8:30 p.m. EDT March 25: The Democratic leadership in the House has given Attorney General William Barr an April 2 deadline to provide special counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI director James Comey.
“We look forward to receiving the report in full no later than April 2, and to begin receiving the underlying evidence and documents that same day,” according to a statement released Monday by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
As of Monday, the White House had still not seen the full report, The Washington Post reported, citing sources, and, according to administration officials, will not automatically ask for it, either, but Attorney General William Barr may need to share a copy for input on parts of the report that could fall under executive privilege.
Update 6 p.m. EDT March 25: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked a resolution calling for the Mueller report to be publicly released, similar to a vote in the house earlier this month, according to news reports.
The House passed a resolution on March 14 on a 420-0 vote calling for the full Mueller report to be released to the public.
Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., attempted to do the same thing in the same thing in the Senate with a vote on a non-binding resolution.
"Whether or not you're a supporter of President Trump or not, of what you feel, there is no good reason not to make the report public," Schumer said from the floor, according to The Hill. "It's a simple request for transparency. Nothing more, nothing less."
McConnell objected on the grounds that Attorney General William Barr is still working with special prosecutor Robert Mueller to determine which parts of the report should remain classified.
"The special counsel and the Justice Department ought to be allowed to finish their work in a professional manner," McConnell said, according to The Hill. "To date the attorney general has followed through on his commitments to Congress. One of those commitments is that he intends to release as much information as possible."
It’s not clear when Barr and Mueller may finish deciding which parts of the report can be released.
Update 1 p.m. EDT March 25: Asked Monday about the release of Mueller's report, Trump said such a move "wouldn't bother me at all."
The president spoke with reporters Monday while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We can never, ever let this happen to another president again,” Trump said.
Update 12:05 p.m. EDT March 25: Speaking to reporters Monday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., promised to "unpack the other side of the story" of Mueller's probe.
Among other topics, Graham vowed to review the FBI's use of a dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele and a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant issued for Carter Page, who served as a campaign adviser to Trump.
Update 10:35 a.m. EDT March 25: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the lack of evidence found to support allegations that Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election should come as no surprise.
"A Chinese philosopher ... said, 'It is hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if it is not there,'" Peskov said, according to The Washington Post. "Centuries have passed, but unfortunately there has been no understanding of this on the other side of the ocean."
Russian media didn't closely follow all the leaks that accompanied the Mueller probe, but referred to the investigation from time to time as an example of what they described as U.S. hysteria against Russia. Russian officials and state media, who have vehemently denied that the Kremlin wanted Trump to win and was helping him in the campaign, on Monday relished news of Mueller’s findings.
"The results of Mueller's investigation are a disgrace for the U.S. and its political elites," Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information committee at the Federation Council, tweeted on Monday. "All of the accusations were proved to be trumped up."
Update 10:15 a.m. EDT March 25: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear arguments in a mystery case connected to the Mueller investigation, Cox Media Group's Jamie Dupree reported.
Little is known about the case, which involves an unidentified foreign company owned by an unidentified foreign government. The company has been trying to get out of a subpoena for grand jury testimony in the Mueller probe.
Update 9 a.m. EDT March 25: President Donald Trump celebrated the findings of the probe early Monday in a series of tweets.
Update 10:25 p.m. EDT March 24: President Donald Trump was at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, when he first learned the details of what Attorney General William Barr said in his summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report for Congress, according to the Associated Press.
The AP cited White House spokesman Hogan Gidley, who briefed reporters aboard Air Force One as the president was flying back to Washington.
“This is very good,” Gidley said the president told him.
The president watched TV in his office aboard Air Force One and made phone calls according to CNN, which described the atmosphere during the flight as “jovial.”
Update 8:25 p.m. EDT March 24: Vice President Mike Pence weighed in on Attorney General William Barr's summary of the Mueller report Sunday, issuing a statement calling the report "a total vindication of the President of the United States."
“After two years of investigation, and reckless accusations by many Democrats and members of the media, the Special Counsel has confirmed what President Trump said (all) along; there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election,” Pence said.
“This total vindication of the President of the United States and our campaign should be welcomed by every American who cherishes the truth and the integrity of our elections,” he said.
Update 7:45 p.m. EDT March 24: Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Attorney General William Barr's four-page summary on the Mueller report "inadequate." Feinstein said in a statement Sunday that Barr's summary "demonstrates why Congress needs to obtain the full report and underlying evidence."
She also said she’ll call on Barr to release the whole report and underlying material to Congress for proper Congressional oversight of the investigation.
Feinstein said Barr was obviously biased in his summary of the report.
“Mueller elected to describe the facts, leaving it to Attorney General Barr to decide whether the president committed a crime. However, months ahead of his nomination, Barr wrote a 19-page memo concluding the president couldn’t commit obstruction, so it’s no surprise he reached the same conclusion now,” she said in the statement.
Update 7:00 p.m. EDT March 24: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement on Attorney General William Barr's summary of special prosecutor Robert Mueller's report.
Pelosi and Schumer said Barr’s letter “raises as many questions as it answers.”
The pair are calling for the Justice Department to release the full report.
“The fact that Special Counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public,” Schumer said on social media.
The statement calls into question Barr’s ability to be objective about the Mueller report.
“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 Pelosi and Schumer’s statement.
“And most obviously, 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.
Update 6:00 p.m. EDT March 24: The Mueller report is divided into two parts, according to the summary Attorney General William Barr sent to Congress Sunday.
The first part of the report describes the Mueller team’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and outlines Russia’s attempts to influence the election, including the crimes committed by people associated with the Russian government, Barr said.
A primary focus for the Mueller team was whether any Americans, and specifically associates of President Donald Trump, worked with the Russians in interfering with the election, which would be a federal crime.
“[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to the Mueller report.
>> Related: Mueller report: Trump claims 'Complete and Total’ exoneration
The second part of the report, according to Barr’s summary, focuses on whether Trump obstructed justice.
The Mueller report leaves “unresolved whether the president’s actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction,” Barr said in his summary.
“While the report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him” on obstruction allegations, Barr said.
Mueller left a decision on obstruction of justice charges against Trump to the Justice Department.
Barr confirmed he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that Trump’s conduct did not constitute a crime.
>> Related: What is in the Mueller report?
Update 5:20 p.m. EDT March 24: The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, responded to President Donald Trump's statement Sunday afternoon that the Mueller report offered him "complete and total exoneration."
Nadler disputed Trump’s characterization of the report, clarifying what Mueller actually said in the report.
“The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,’” Nadler said
Nadler also confirmed his plan to call Attorney General William Barr to testify before the committee.
“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 before (the House Judiciary Committee) in the near future, Nadler said on Twitter.
Update 5:10 p.m. EDT March 24: Attorney General William Barr detailed the resources special prosecutor Robert Mueller used during his two-year investigation in his summary of the report to Congress.
Barr said the Mueller team “employed 19 lawyers who were assisted by a team of approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff. The Special Counsel issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.”
Barr said Mueller’s report also does not recommend any further indictments.
Update 4:50 p.m. EDT March 24: President Donald Trump and members of his administration feel vindicated by the Mueller report.
Trump just sent his first tweet on the report since Robert Mueller sent it to the Justice Department on Friday.
“No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!,” the president wrote.
His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued this statement after Attorney General William Barr sent a summary of Mueller’s report to Congress Sunday afternoon.
"The Special Counsel did not find any collusion and did not find any obstruction. AG Barr and DAG Rosenstein further determined there was no obstruction. The findings of the Department of Justice are a total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States.”
Update 4:15 p.m. EDT March 24: The summary included these points:
-The investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller did not find President Donald Trump or any of his campaign team coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to a summary Attorney General William Barr sent to Congress Sunday.
-The probe also did not find sufficient evidence that the president illegally obstructed justice, but the Mueller team stopped short of exonerating the president, according to The Associated Press.
-Barr’s summary said Mueller did not reach any conclusions on the president’s conduct.
-Barr also said in the summary that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did not consider constitutional questions relating to criminal charges against a sitting president in reaching their conclusion, the AP reported.
Update 3:30 p.m. EDT March 24: Rep. Jerry Nadler said the Department of Justice issued a letter saying it is "determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgement" in terms of the findings in the report.
Related: What is in the Mueller report?
Nadler tweeted quotes from the letter, which can be read in full here.
Update 3:10 p.m. EDT March 24: Congress has been told to expect a Mueller report summary with in the hour, The Associated Press reported, according to two unnamed sources familiar with plans from the Justice Department.
Update 2:30 p.m. EDT March 24: President Donald Trump has been relatively quiet leading up to the release of the report, according to The Associated Press. Sources not authorized to speak publicly claim Trump is relieved no new indictments have come from the probe.
The AP reported that Trump has been in Palm Beach, Florida, over the weekend, golfing and spending time with family. He's also been less engaged on Twitter, only posting "Good Morning, Have A Great Day!" and "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Sunday morning.
Update 9 p.m. EDT March 23: Attorney General William Barr scoured special counsel Robert Mueller's confidential report on the Russia investigation with his advisers Saturday, deciding how much Congress and the American public will get to see about the two-year probe into President Donald Trump and Moscow's efforts to elect him, according to The Associated Press.
Barr was on pace to release his first summary of Mueller’s findings on Sunday, people familiar with the process said.
Update 1:50 p.m. EDT March 23: Congress will not receive a summary of Mueller's findings Saturday, multiple media outlets have reported.
The Washington Post cited a "senior Justice Department official" for this information, while Politico tweeted that "two sources familiar with the discussion" confirmed the news.
President Trump flew Friday to his Mar-a-Lago resort with senior White House officials and lawyers, The Washington Post reported.
Original report: The delivery of the report to Barr officially concludes the probe that has cast a shadow over the Trump administration from its earliest days.
Trump, who flew to Florida on Friday, has not yet commented on the report. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said the White House would not be seeing the report -- at least not for now.
Barr, in a one-page letter, told Congressional leaders he would be able to advise them of the “principal conclusions” of the report as soon as this weekend.
In the letter, Barr confirmed that there was no requests made by Mueller to take a specific action – such as subpoenaing a witness – that was not granted by the DOJ.
“There were no such instances during the Special Counsel’s investigation."
It is up to Barr how much of the report Congress or the public will be able to see. Trump has said he would not care if the report was released to the public.
According to an anonymous DOJ source, there will be no further indictments born out of the investigation, meaning Mueller’s work is done.
>> Who has Robert Mueller already indicted in his investigation?
Since the investigation began in May of 2017, Mueller’s team of prosecutors has indicted or accepted plea deals from 35 people.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, issued a joint statement, saying “it is imperative for Mr. Barr to make the full report public and provide its underlying documentation and findings to Congress. . . . The American people have a right to the truth.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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