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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2019)
A4 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2019 Mueller fi nds no Trump collusion, leaves obstruction open Associated Press WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence Presi- dent Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to infl uence the 2016 presidential election but reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. That brought a hearty claim of vindi- cation from Trump but set the stage for new rounds of political and legal fi ghting. The battle began today as White House aides and allies blanketed television news broadcasts to trumpet the fi ndings and claim that Trump has been the victim in a probe that never should have started. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sand- ers said Trump will let Attorney General William Barr decide whether the special counsel’s Russia report should be publicly released, though she adds that “he’s more than happy for any of this stuff to come out.” Trump cheered the Sunday outcome but also laid bare his resentment after two years of investigations that have shadowed his administration. “It’s a shame that our coun- try has had to go through this. To be honest, it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this,” he said. Democrats pointed out that Mueller found evidence for and against obstruction and demanded to see his full report. They insisted that even the summary by the presi- dent’s attorney general hardly put him in the clear. Mueller’s conclusions, summarized by Barr in a four-page letter to Congress, repre- sented a victory for Trump on a key question that has hung over his presidency from the start — whether his campaign worked with Russia to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. That was further good news for the pres- ident on top of the Justice Department’s ear- lier announcement that Mueller had wrapped his investigation without new indictments. That could defl ate the hopes of Democrats in Congress and on the 2020 campaign trail that incriminating fi ndings from Mueller would hobble the president’s agenda and re-election bid. But while Mueller was categorical in rul- ing out criminal collusion, he was more cir- cumspect on presidential obstruction of justice. Despite Trump’s claim of total exon- eration, Mueller did not draw a conclusion one way or the other on whether he sought to stifl e the Russia investigation through his actions including the fi ring of former FBI director James Comey. According to Barr’s summary, Muel- ler set out “evidence on both sides of the question” and stated that “while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” AP Photo/Cliff Owen Special Counsel Robert Mueller walks past the White House after attending services Sunday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Barr, who was nominated by Trump in December, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017 and oversaw much of his work, went further in Trump’s favor. The attorney general said he and Rosen- stein had determined that Mueller’s evi- dence was insuffi cient to prove in court that Trump had committed obstruction of justice to hamper the probe. Barr has previously voiced a broad view of presidential powers, and in an unsolicited memo last June he cast doubt on whether the president could have obstructed justice through acts — like fi r- ing his FBI director — that he was legally empowered to take. Barr said their decision was based on the evidence uncovered by Mueller and not affected by Justice Department legal opin- ions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted. Mueller’s team examined a series of actions by the president in the last two years to determine if he intended obstruction. Those include his fi ring of Comey one week before Mueller’s appointment, his public and private haranguing of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation because of his work on the campaign, his request of Comey to end an investigation into Michael Flynn, the White House’s fi rst national security adviser, and his drafting of an incomplete explanation about his oldest son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign. Mueller’s fi ndings absolve Trump on the question of colluding with Russia but don’t RV AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster President Donald Trump speaks Sunday before boarding Air Force One in West Palm Beach, Fla. entirely remove the legal threats the presi- dent and associates are facing. Federal pros- ecutors in New York, for instance, are inves- tigating hush-money payments made to two women during the campaign who say they had sex with the president. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, implicated Trump in campaign fi nance violations when he pleaded guilty last year. The special counsel’s investigation did not come up empty-handed. It ensnared nearly three dozen people, senior Trump campaign operatives among them. The probe illumi- nated Russia’s assault on the American polit- ical system, painted the Trump campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Dem- ocratic emails to hurt Hillary Clinton and exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at cover- ing up their Russia-related contacts. Thirty-four people, including six Trump aides and advisers, were charged in the inves- tigation. Twenty-fi ve are Russians accused of election interference either through hack- ing into Democratic accounts or orchestrat- ing a social media campaign to spread disin- formation on the internet. Sunday’s summary — and its sugges- tion that Mueller may have found evidence in support of obstruction — sets up a fi ght between Barr and Democrats, who called for the special counsel’s full report to be released and vowed to press on with their own investigations. “Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “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 posi- tion to make objective determinations about the report,” they said. Trump’s own claim of complete exoneration “directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility,” they added. Trump was at his Florida estate when lawmakers received the report. Barr’s chief of staff called Emmet Flood, the lead White House lawyer on the investigation, to brief him on the fi ndings shortly before he sent it to Congress. Mueller submitted his report to Barr instead of directly to Congress and the public because, unlike independent coun- sels such as Ken Starr in the case of Presi- dent Bill Clinton, his investigation operated under the close supervision of the Justice Department. Barr did not speak with the president, Mueller was not consulted on the letter, and the White House does not have Mueller’s report, according to a Justice Department offi cial. Though Mueller did not fi nd evidence that anyone associated with the Trump cam- paign coordinated with the Russian govern- ment, Barr’s summary notes “multiple offers from Russian-affi liated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.” That’s a likely reference not only to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting at which Donald Trump. Jr. expected to receive dam- aging information on Clinton from a Krem- lin-connected lawyer, as well as a conver- sation in London months earlier at which Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos was told Russia had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of thousands of stolen emails. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said Congress needs to hear from Barr about his decision and see “all the underlying evi- dence.” He said on Twitter, “DOJ owes the public more than just a brief synopsis and decision not to go any further in their work.” AND BOAT LOANS We’ll Fetch You a Great Rate for your next camping trip % APR * 4.49 No payment for 60 days! Karen • Loves to camp with her dog, Sparky • Financed a travel trailer to save big • Fibre Family member since 2009 www.tlcfcu.org 503.842.7523 • 866.901.3521 85 W. Marine Dr. Astoria 2315 N. Roosevelt Dr. Seaside *Annual Percentage Rate effective 3/1/19 to 5/31/19. 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