U.S. justice department special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded that U.S. Donald Trump and his presidential campaign did not collude with Russia in an attempt to influence the 2016 election result.
In a letter to Congress following the end of a 22-month probe that consumed Washington, U.S. attorney-general William Barr said Mueller "did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or co-ordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election."
"The special counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it does not exonerate him’,” Barr wrote in his four-page letter.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement declaring it a victory for the White House.
"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," Sanders said.
"No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total exoneration,"Trump tweeted on Sunday. "It was just announced there was no collusion with Russia . . . There was no obstruction," Trump told media on the tarmac. "It was a complete and total exoneration. It's a shame that our country had to go through this . . . This was an illegal takedown that failed."
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election was more positive than he had anticipated, based on the summary of the report released on Sunday.
"It’s better than I expected," Reuters cited Giuliani as saying.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said that Barr’s summary of Mueller’s report “proves what those of us with sane minds have known all along, there was zero collusion with Russia.
"Sadly, instead of apologizing for needlessly destabilizing the country in a transparent attempt to delegitimize the 2016 election, it’s clear that the Collusion Truthers in the media and the Democrat Party are only going to double down on their sick and twisted conspiracy theories moving forward,” Bloomberg cited Trump Jr. as saying.
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said that Attorney General William Barr should release as much of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report as possible.
In a statement, Burr also said his committee would complete its remaining interviews and issue its reports "in the coming weeks and months" on Russian election interference.
Director of the Institute of Political Studies Sergei Markov, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that this report still does not mean that the topic of pressure on Trump with the 'Russian interference' is closed. "Everybody knew that there was no collusion. The Russian issue was promoted, first, in order not to let Trump win, and then to achieve his impeachment," he recalled.
"Before the election, the topic was used to have a legal basis for a wiretap of Trump’s election headquarters. That is, it was a falsification from the very beginning. After the election, Republicans needed artificial pretexts to remove Trump from power. In the near future, most likely, emphasis will be placed on the fact that Trump obstructed justice in order to suspend the investigation of the 'Russian interference', although this is also a lie," Sergey Markov expects.
"For Russia, the Muller report may promise some improvement in the international situation. The official fact that Trump did not have collusion with Russia gives the U.S. president more opportunities to act on the Russian direction in a positive way. Previously, such a possibility was largely blocked for him, so now, at least, there is a chance to resume the negotiation process. On the other hand, we know that the opponents of improving Russian-American relations will surely come up with something else," the director of the Institute of Political Studies concluded.
