WASHINGTON — Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation leaves open the question of whether President Trump’s conduct rose to the level of obstruction of justice, one of many takeaways after a redacted version of the highly anticipated document was released to the public on Thursday.
In the report, Mueller examined 10 incidents of possible obstruction of justice, but he and his team did not “draw ultimate conclusions about the president’s conduct.”
“The evidence we obtained about the president’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment,” the report stated. “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. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that conclusion. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
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The release of the report captivated Congress, the news media, and much of Washington for what it says about Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, and the behavior of President Trump and members of his team.
Media outlets raced to read through the two volumes of the report, numbering over 400 pages, and quickly zeroed in on the questions of obstruction as well as the extent of interactions that members of Trump’s campaign had to figures or sources linked to the Russian government. Mueller did not find that the campaign engaged in a conspiracy with Russian interests as they attempted to interfere in the 2016 election.
The report is here.
Earlier on Thursday, Attorney General William Barr, who released the report, reiterated multiple times that Mueller did not find evidence of illegal collusion or conspiracy by members of Trump’s campaign and Russian sources. He also defended his conclusion that Trump did not obstruct justice as the investigation unfolded, and cited the president’s frustration over news media coverage and leaks.