Special counsel Robert Mueller said Wednesday charging the president of the United States with a crime in his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election was not an option his office could consider, given existing Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
In his first public comments since being assigned in May 2017, Mueller said on Wednesday "it would be unfair" to potentially accuse someone of a crime when the person couldn't stand trial to defend himself.
"Charging the president with a crime was … not an option we could consider," said Mueller. "We concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime."
President Donald Trump has claimed the report exonerates him and his campaign team of "collusion."
Mueller's report did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice charges.
Mueller seemed to emphasize that point in his appearance on Wednesday.
"If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," he said.
Despite that, Trump said on social media within 30 minutes of the presentation at the Justice Department, that "nothing changes from the Mueller Report."
"There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed!" said Trump.
House Democrats have tried to arrange, so far without success, for Mueller to testify publicly. Mueller indicated that he was not open to testifying beyond what was said in the report and his statement.
Mueller, 74, told a news conference he was speaking to the report as his time in the Justice Department would come to a close imminently and he would return to private life.
Mueller, who said no one had instructed him whether to or not to testify, did not take questions from reporters.
Mueller, a former FBI director, was given the brief in May 2017 to investigate "any links and/or co-ordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: "After two years, the special counsel is moving on with his life, and everyone else should do the same."
'Insufficient evidence,' Mueller says
Since Mueller delivered his report in late March, it has been the subject of partisan dispute in Congress and at the White House.
Mueller's report concluded that for the purposes of a successful criminal prosecution, it could not be established that Trump campaign associates conspired with Russian officials to sway the election.
He reiterated Wednesday there was "insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy."
With respect to a controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York attended by Russian individuals promising dirt on Hillary Clinton as well as Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Mueller said "the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the … meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful."
Attempts by Trump associates to lie about the meeting once it was publicly reported "may reflect an intention to avoid political consequences rather than any prior knowledge of illegality," he wrote.
As well, Mueller said it wasn't clear that the thing of value that was being offered to the Trump campaign rose to the level that made it a contravention of federal election law.
Several Trump associates have been ensnared as a result of the investigation or ancillary probes, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Manafort's second-hand Rick Gates, former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, and low-level foreign policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. They were charged with various offences, with Manafort and Cohen currently in prison.
Flynn report info ordered to be made public
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, is said to have co-operated with the Mueller team. A federal judge has set a Friday deadline for the Justice Department to make public unredacted portions of the Mueller report that pertain to Flynn, plus transcripts of Flynn's calls with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and of a voicemail during which someone connected to Trump referenced Flynn's co-operation.
Dozens of Russian individuals and entities were also indicted in Mueller's probe, most related for intrusions of Democratic and Clinton campaign computer systems and for online and social media efforts to sow discord in the U.S. election. The report concluded those efforts largely favoured the Trump campaign over Clinton.
Several portions of the Mueller report were redacted by the Justice Department. A federal judge has set a Friday deadline for the department to make public portions of the Mueller report that pertain to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
"As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers who are part of the Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system," he said.
Russian entities, he said, "used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into and then release that information through fake online identities and through the organization Wikileaks."
"The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate.
Impeachment inquiry calls from Democrats
Democrats in Congress and a lone House Republican, Justin Amash of Michigan, have heavily criticized Trump's attorney general William Barr for a four-page summary he delivered on Mueller's report as well as for the number of redactions in the report.
Mueller, for his part, privately complained to Barr in a letter that the attorney general's summary did not adequately capture the investigation's findings. Barr has called Mueller's letter "snitty."
Many Democrats have slammed Attorney General William Barr, believing he has been acting more in President Donald Trump's interest than that of the nation. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far resisted efforts by some Democrats who would like to launch proceedings for impeachment of the president. The bar for impeaching a president does not require criminal activity.
A statement by Pelosi on Wednesday afternoon stressed the need for Congress to pass legislation to protect U.S. elections from interference, but steered clear of talk of impeachment.
Jerry Nadler, the Democrat chair of the House's judiciary committee, said that given Mueller's limitations because of the Justice Department guidelines, "it falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump " and we will do so. No one, not even the President of the United States, is above the law."
Presidential candidates Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Seth Moulton and Julian Castro were quick to weigh in, each saying that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings, with Booker calling it a "legal and moral obligation."
Amash said simply, "the ball is in our court, Congress."
While Trump first praised Mueller after Barr's summary was released, the president has more recently returned to a recurring theme, alleging without evidence that the Mueller team was a collection of "angry Democrats," with the origins of the Russia probe characterized by political bias.
Trump last week used words such as "coup" and "treason" in speeches to partisan audiences and gave Barr the authority to investigate the origins of the Russia probe.
Mueller said Wednesday that the same Justice Department guidelines that recommend that a sitting president cannot be indicted explicitly permit "the investigation of a sitting president, because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents available.
"The constitution provides for another process to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing," he said.
Barr, currently travelling, was not present at Mueller's appearance.
