Attorney General William Barr will send a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report to Congress later today, he announced at a press conference Thursday morning.
Summarizing the report, Barr said that Mueller did not find any evidence there was collusion between members of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia's government.
“The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process," Barr said at the news conference. "The special counsel found no collusion by any Americans."
Barr said Mueller did investigate several links and contacts between officials with the Trump campaign and individuals connected with Russia, but that "after reviewing those contacts, the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate US law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign."
The Justice Department will send the redacted version of the report to Congress at 11 a.m. ET Thursday. It will also be posted for the public on the department's website.
"So that is the bottom line. 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 told reporters.
Barr added that none of the material contained in the report was redacted based on Trump claiming 'executive privilege.' The Attorney General also added that at no time was the president's personal lawyers permitted to make or request any redactions in the report.
When it came to possible obstruction of justice charges, Barr said Mueller examined ten different incidents in which the president may have obstructed justice. Barr said that the evidence found by Mueller was not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.
"After finding no underlying collusion with Russia, the special counsel’s report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the President could amount to obstruction of the special counsel’s investigation," Barr said. "As I addressed in my March 24 letter, the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. Instead, the report recounts 10 episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense."
"Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision," Barr said. "Instead, we accepted the Special Counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the Special Counsel in reaching our conclusion."
Barr said that a group of bipartisan leaders will see an almost unredacted version of the report.
"In an effort to accommodate congressional requests, we will make available to a bipartisan group of leaders from several congressional committees a version of the report with all redactions removed except those relating to grand-jury information," he said.
This is a breaking news update. More details will be added as they become available
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