The Mueller Report is In. Who’s Going to Jail Next?

23 Mar, 2019

The U.S. attorney general’s summary of a special counsel report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow will not be delivered to lawmakers on Saturday, an official said, as Democrats vowed to investigate beyond the inquiry.

William Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement official, on Saturday was examining a report sent to him on Friday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, aiming to transmit a summary to Congress and the public by the end of the weekend.

Republican President Donald Trump remained silent on the report of an investigation that also looked into any potential wrongdoing by Trump, whose legal woes go beyond the end of the Mueller investigation.

A Justice Department official said Barr and his deputy were working closely with principal advisers to determine what to include in a letter to Congress. Barr will not deliver the summary on Saturday, the official said.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a statement that Barr’s offer to provide congressional committees with a summary of the report’s conclusions is insufficient and that “Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents.”

Senator Chris Coons, a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Trump and his core team could still face legal risks even if the report does not find that they committed crimes. Trump’s business, his charity and his presidential transition operation remain under investigation, Coons said, and congressional Democrats would keep looking into his activities.

“It’s the end of the beginning, but it’s not the beginning of the end,” Coons told reporters on a telephone conference.

Under Department of Justice regulations, Barr is empowered to decide how much to disclose publicly. He said in the letter that he is “committed to as much transparency as possible.”

Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee scheduled a 2 p.m. conference call to talk about next steps and messaging, congressional aides said. The 235 members of the Democratic caucus in the House scheduled a 3 p.m. call, a senior Democratic aide said.

Trump, who is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, has not commented to reporters or taken to Twitter, one of his favorite ways of communicating, on the completion of the investigation that has cast a shadow over the Republican’s two years in the White House.

Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a political witch hunt and a hoax, may have been uncharacteristically silent but his eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., was active on Twitter, retweeting critics of the media and Democrats who argued recent developments proved there was no campaign collusion with Russia.

Trump had no public events scheduled on Saturday and played golf, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said. “He’s fine,” Gidley said, when asked by reporters how Trump was feeling. “He’s good, he’s good.” Gidley declined to say whether Trump had talked about the Mueller report while golfing.

A large pro-Trump float behind a flatbed truck pulled up to the golf course about an hour after he arrived, adorned with American flags and “Trump 2020” signs.

Political analysts expect the Mueller report to have a significant impact on the 2020 presidential campaign – how Democrats might be able to use it stop Trump being reelected and how Trump could use it if he is cleared of wrongdoing.

The big question is whether the report contains allegations of wrongdoing by Trump or exonerates him. Mueller investigated whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow to try to influence the election and whether the Republican president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.

The Justice Department has a policy that sitting presidents cannot face criminal charges.

Mueller did not recommend any further indictments, a senior Justice Department official said, signaling there might be no more criminal charges against Trump associates. Mueller brought charges against 34 people and three companies, with prison sentences for some of Trump’s former aides.

Trump’s convicted former personal lawyer Michael Cohen implicated the president in his guilty plea on campaign finance violations in a separate prosecution brought by federal prosecutors in New York.

The White House has not received or been briefed on the report, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Friday, adding that “we look forward to the process taking its course.”

Emmet Flood, a lawyer who represents the office of the president in the Mueller investigation, is in Florida with Trump. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone also is there, according to a person familiar with the matter. Flood is a Republican who represented President Bill Clinton in his 1998-99 impeachment proceedings.

By handing over the long-awaited report, Mueller, 74, marked the end of his work, his spokesman said.

Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference. Trump said on Wednesday he does not mind if the public is allowed to see the report.

Reuters

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