Reuters
- The special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report in the Russia investigation includes 10 instances of potential obstruction by President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday.
- Barr said that, however, that he determined Trump did not obstruct justice because he did not have corrupt intent.
- The report will be delivered to Congress at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday and it will be published online by the DOJ shortly after.
In a press conference Thursday morning, Attorney General William Barr told reporters that the final report in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation includes 10 potential instances in which President Donald Trump may have obstructed justice in the Russia investigation.
Barr held the press conference at 9:30 a.m. ET, over an hour before a redacted version of Mueller’s report was delivered to Congress. It did not include Mueller or any members of his team.
In a March 24 letter to Congress, Barr said Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to bring a conspiracy charge against Trump or anyone associated with his campaign for coordinating with the Russian government during the 2016 US election.
He also said Mueller did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether Trump had obstructed justice. Instead, the special counsel laid out all the evidence on both sides of the issue, but did not draw a conclusion one way or another.
Read more: The Mueller report is dropping today. Here’s everything we know about the 400-page document.
Barr said that he reviewed the evidence and, after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and other senior Justice Department officials, he determined that Trump did not obstruct justice.
On Thursday, Barr said "there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated … by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency … and fueled by illegal leaks."
But "the president took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation," Barr added. "The evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation."
Barr was later asked to address Mueller’s thought process behind his decision not to come to a conclusion in the obstruction case.
Barr replied that when he, Rosenstein, and other DOJ officials met with Mueller on March 5, they asked him whether his actions were influenced by Justice Department guidelines that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.
"We specifically asked him about the [Office of Legal Counsel] opinion and whether or not he was taking a position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the OLC opinion," Barr said. "And he made it very clear several times that that was not his position."
Barr was also asked why he took the step of concluding Trump did not obstruct justice instead of leaving it up to Congress.
"The very prosecutorial function and all our powers as prosecutors … is for one purpose only," Barr said. "It’s to determine, yes or no, was alleged conduct criminal or not criminal. That’s our responsibility and that’s why we have the tools we have."
"Because the special counsel did not make that decision, we felt the department had to," Barr added.
The redacted report will be delivered to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday. He also said the Justice Department will post a copy of the report to its government website after it has been delivered to Congress.
The attorney general’s decision to give an overview of the report before lawmakers or the public saw it sparked immediate and sustained backlash on Capitol Hill.
"The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said in a hastily arranged press conference Wednesday evening, after news of Barr’s presser broke.
"Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller’s nearly 2-year investigation" in Trump’s favor, he added.
See Also:
- The Mueller report is dropping today. Here’s everything we know about the 400-page document.
- ‘This whole thing is a s—show and a sham’: Capitol Hill is in a frenzy following 2 bombshell revelations about the upcoming Mueller report
- As the Justice Department gets ready to release the Mueller report, Ted Cruz says he hopes ‘very little of it is redacted’
Source: Business Insider – ssheth@businessinsider.com (Sonam Sheth)