The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, March 29, 2019, WEEKEND EDITION, Page A6, Image 6

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    A6
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019
Democrats intensify demand
for Mueller’s full report
Fired-up Trump pushes ‘no
collusion’ angle in Russia report
By JONATHAN LEMIRE
and JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
By LISA MASCARO,
LAURIE KELLMAN
and MARY CLARE
JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Democrats intensifi ed their
demands for Robert Muel-
ler’s full report after learning
the special counsel’s fi nd-
ings from his Trump-Rus-
sia investigation run to more
than 300 pages, while Presi-
dent Donald Trump boasted
of total exoneration based on
a four-page summary by his
attorney general.
House Judiciary Chair-
man Jerrold Nadler was told
by Attorney General William
Barr that there’s no inten-
tion of giving the confi den-
tial report to Congress imme-
diately as he redacts grand
jury testimony and other
elements.
Democrats say they may
subpoena the report if it’s not
forthcoming by their Tues-
day deadline, which Barr has
said will not be met.
Through the day, tempers
were rising on Capitol Hill.
Shaking her fi st for
emphasis, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi said Barr’s
summary, which cleared
Trump of campaign collu-
sion with Russia and crimi-
nal obstruction of Mueller’s
federal probe, was “conde-
scending” and “arrogant.”
“Mr. Attorney Gen-
eral,” she said, “show us
the report and we’ll come
to our own conclusions.”
She asked what Trump and
the Republicans were afraid
of and mocked them as
“scaredy-cats.”
The length of Muel-
ler’s still-confi dential report
makes clear that there are
substantially more details
that he and his team have
documented in their inves-
tigation than Barr disclosed
to Congress and the public.
The volume of pages was
described Thursday by a
Justice Department offi cial
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
The attorney general has summarized Robert Mueller’s report.
and another person familiar
with the document.
The Justice Department
offi cial said Barr discussed
the length of the report
during a phone call Wednes-
day with Nadler, who would
only indicate it was less than
1,000 pages.
Barr would not commit
to providing the full report
with its underlying evi-
dence, according to a House
Democratic aide.
The attorney general
has been going through the
report amid Democratic
concerns that what has been
made public so far was
tilted in Trump’s favor. It’s
unclear whether whatever
Barr might release next will
be Mueller’s own words or
another summary. Nadler
offered to join Barr to seek
a judge’s approval to unseal
grand jury testimony, the
aide said.
Barr has said he’ll pro-
vide Congress with at least
a partial version in April and
told Nadler he would agree to
testify before his committee.
As that battle brews,
House Democrats barreled
ahead with their own inves-
tigation of the Trump admin-
istration, and Trump resumed
his attack on Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Calif., just as the
chairman of the intelligence
committee was about to
gavel his panel into session.
“Congressman
Adam
Schiff, who spent two years
knowingly and unlawfully
lying and leaking, should be
forced to resign from Con-
gress!” Trump tweeted early
Thursday.
Republicans picking up
on Trump’s complaints for-
malized their demand that
Schiff resign as chairman of
the intelligence panel over
his comments that there was
signifi cant evidence the pres-
ident and his associates con-
spired with Russia.
“We have no faith in your
ability to discharge your
responsibilities” in line with
the Constitution, the Repub-
licans wrote to Schiff in a
missive they read aloud at
the hearing.
Republicans pointed to
Barr’s synopsis, released
Sunday, that said Muel-
ler’s probe didn’t fi nd that
Trump’s campaign “con-
spired or coordinated” with
the Russian government to
infl uence the 2016 presiden-
tial election.
Schiff stood by his
remarks, listing the meetings
that people in Trump’s circle
had with Russians. He noted
Trump’s pursuit of a deal
to build a Trump Tower in
Moscow.
“There is a different word
for that than collusion, and
it’s called compromise,”
Schiff said, as he opened
the session. The hearing was
called to provide an overview
on how Russia in the past has
blackmailed Americans.
GRAND
RAPIDS,
Mich. — Presenting him-
self as both vindicated and
vindictive, a fi red-up Pres-
ident Donald Trump turned
the fi ndings of the Russia
investigation into a political
weapon at a Michigan rally
that was part victory lap,
part 2020 campaign push.
Trump unleashed a fer-
vent diatribe Thursday
about the inquiry, which he
deemed “the greatest hoax
in the history of our coun-
try.” He warned that those
behind the probe “would
be held accountable,” aired
his grievances about the
“unfair” media coverage
and seethed that the mat-
ter was an attempt “to tear
up the fabric of our great
democracy.”
“After three years of lies
and smears and slander, the
Russia hoax is dead,” said
Trump. “This was nothing
more than a sinister effort
to undermine our historic
election victory and to sab-
otage the will of the Amer-
ican people.”
The rollicking 82-min-
ute speech unfolded before
a boisterous crowd in a
key state Trump swiped
from Democrats in 2016.
It marked his fi rst political
event since Attorney Gen-
eral William Barr released
a summary that said spe-
cial counsel Robert Muel-
ler found no evidence that
his campaign “conspired or
coordinated” with the Rus-
sian government to infl u-
ence the 2016 campaign.
With the cloud of the probe
largely lifted, Trump is hop-
ing to win re-election by
keeping Michigan and sev-
eral other Rust Belt states in
his column.
“It’s going to be so much
easier the second time:
We’re one for one,” Trump
boasted.
He basked in the adu-
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Grand
Rapids, Mich.
lation of his supporters at
the Grand Rapids rally.
The packed crowd, some
of whom began to line up
the night before, delivered
a deafening roar for the
president while unleashing
its vitriol as he bashed the
media and Democrats.
The president linked
Mueller’s probe with the
myriad
investigations
launched by House Demo-
crats and tried to make the
case that, after Mueller’s
fi ndings, further inquiries
are partisan overreach.
“The Democrats now
have to decide if they will
continue to defraud the
American public with this
ridiculous bulls--t,” said
Trump, who urged the
opposing party to instead
work with him on issues
like infrastructure repair and
drug pricing.
While Trump’s base
has long been suspicious
of Mueller, the president’s
team believes indepen-
dents and moderate Dem-
ocrats who backed him in
the last election but have
since soured may return
to the fold if convinced
he was unfairly targeted.
Trump used the moment to
heighten his attacks on the
media, which many Trump
supporters believe unjustly
fanned the fl ames of the
special counsel’s probe in
an effort to bring down the
president.
Trump stood before a
familiar backdrop: a giant
American fl ag, signs read-
ing “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!” and,
of course, “Make America
Great Again.” Though the
aftermath of the probe was
at the forefront of his mind,
Trump also ticked off what
he portrayed as his admin-
istration’s accomplishments,
including a booming stock
market and victories over the
Islamic State terror group.
He also framed the
Democrats’
presidential
candidates as “radical,”
and slammed the Green
New Deal, an ambitious,
wide-ranging plan to com-
bat climate change, as a
“dangerous” reinvention of
American society. But he
spent relatively little time
on his administration’s
renewed push to overturn
the Affordable Care Act,
other than to declare that the
“Republican Party will be
the party of health care.” He
didn’t present many details
as to what the new GOP
plan might be.
His eldest son, Don-
ald Trump Jr., provided
a high-energy warm-up
act and, in particular, sav-
aged family foe Michael
Avenatti, the celebrity
lawyer who represented
Stormy Daniels, the porn
star who alleged an affair
with the president. Avenatti
was arrested this week on
charges of extortion.
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