Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that there were 10 potential “episodes” of obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump, but that they didn’t amount to illegal activity by the president.
Barr said Trump acted out of “non-corrupt motives” because he was frustrated by the ongoing investigation and media coverage that he felt was hurting his administration.
But Barr acknowledged at a news conference prior to the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that he disagreed with Mueller’s legal theories on whether those episodes amounted to obstruction “as a matter of law.”
With regard to possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, Barr repeatedly insisted that the report did not find “any evidence” of such a conspiracy.
“So that is the bottom line,” Barr said. “After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, and hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the Special Counsel confirmed that the Russian government-sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes.”
Barr also said Trump did not assert executive privilege over the redacted report. He said “most” of the redactions were needed “to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases.” Department of Justice attorneys worked with Mueller’s office on the redaction process, Barr said.
Trump, Barr said, did not exert executive privilege over any part of the report “in the interests of transparency and full disclosure to the American people.”
Trump’s counsel was provided a final version of the redacted report earlier this week, Barr said, adding that the president’s attorneys “were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions.”
Barr’s press conference on the nearly 400-page report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials and if Trump obstructed justice, precedes the release of a redacted version of Mueller’s report. That infuriated critics who say Barr is trying to spin the report before lawmakers, the media and public can see it in order to help Trump.
The report will be made available to members of Congress after 11 a.m. and will also be posted to the special counsel’s website.
Top Democrats had harsh words for Barr Thursday ahead of his news conference. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it an “indefensible plan to spin the report.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., harshly criticized Barr, writing in a tweet prior to the start of his news conference that his “partisan behavior has triggered a crisis of independence & impartiality.”
“The only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsel’s investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible,” she continued.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Justice Department officials held “numerous conversations with White House lawyers” in recent days about Mueller’s conclusions. People with knowledge of the discussions told The Times that the talks “aided the president’s legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the report and strategizes for the coming public war over its findings.”
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported Wednesday that the report will be “lightly redacted” and will offer “granular” details into how Trump was suspected of obstructing justice, people familiar with the matter told the outlet.
Trump was tweeting early Thursday ahead of the Mueller report’s release, writing, “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”
“The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!” Trump wrote in a separate tweet. “Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats.”
At a Wednesday night news conference, House Judiciary chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said the timing of the release was troubling and “wrong.”
“The central concern here is that Attorney General Barr is not letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House,” he told reporters.
