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Mueller report release live coverage: Redacted report released to public after AG William Barr says ‘no collusion’

WASHINGTON — The redacted report from special counsel Robert Mueller has just been released to the public.

The report reveals President Donald Trump’s efforts to seize control of the Russia probe and force the special counsel’s removal, AP reports.

WILLIAM BARR PRESS CONFERENCE

Attorney General William Barr held a news conference to present his interpretation of the report’s findings, before providing redacted copies to Congress and the public. During the press conference, Barr said he will give Congress a redacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative report at 11 a.m. ET.

“The special counsel found no collusion by any Americans,” Barr said in reference to Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr held a press conference to discuss the Robert Mueller report shortly before the redacted report is released.

Barr said that President Donald Trump did not exert executive privilege over any information included in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

He said the White House counsel reviewed a redacted version of the report before Trump decided not to invoke executive privilege.

Barr said “no material has been redacted based on executive privilege.”

Shortly after, the president tweeted an image that appeared to reference the show Game of Thrones with the message “Game Over.”

Barr said special counsel Mueller’s report recounts 10 episodes involving the president that were investigated as potential acts of criminal obstruction of justice.

Barr added Mueller did not reach a “prosecutorial judgment” and that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded the evidence was not sufficient to establish the president committed an offense.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump reviewed the final redacted version of the report before its public release, Barr said. He said Trump’s personal attorneys requested and were granted access to the report “earlier this week” but that they “were not permitted to make, and did not request, any redactions.”

The news conference, first announced by Trump during a radio interview, provoked immediate criticism from congressional Democrats.

Even the planned release of the nearly 400-page report quickly spiraled into a political battle Wednesday over whether Barr is attempting to shield the president who appointed him and spin the report’s findings before the American people can read it and come to their own judgments.

Candace McCowan has more on the expected release.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on Twitter that Barr had “thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect” Trump. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “The process is poisoned before the report is even released.”
“Barr shouldn’t be spinning the report at all, but it’s doubly outrageous he’s doing it before America is given a chance to read it,” Schumer said.

A Justice Department official confirmed Barr’s plan to speak and answer questions about his “process” before the report’s public release. He will be accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation after Mueller’s appointment in May 2017. Mueller and other members of his team will not attend, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said.

After the news conference, the report will be delivered to Congress on CDs between 11 a.m. and noon and then be posted on the special counsel’s website, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Barr formulated the report’s roll-out and briefed the White House on his plans, according to a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The White House declined to comment on an ABC News report that it had been briefed on the contents of Mueller’s report beyond what Barr has made public.

At a later date, the Justice Department also plans to provide a “limited number” of members of Congress and their staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public version, according to a court filing Wednesday.

The report is expected to reveal what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that fell short of criminal conduct. It will also lay out the special counsel’s conclusions about formative episodes in Trump’s presidency, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey and his efforts to undermine the Russia investigation publicly and privately.

The report is not expected to place the president in legal jeopardy, as Barr made his own decision that Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted for obstruction. But it is likely to contain unflattering details about the president’s efforts to control the Russia investigation that will cloud his ability to credibly claim total exoneration. And it may paint the Trump campaign as eager to exploit Russian aid and emails stolen from Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s campaign even if no Americans crossed the line into criminal activity.

The report’s release will be a test of Barr’s credibility as the public and Congress judge whether he is using his post to protect Trump.

Barr will also face scrutiny over how much of the report he blacks out and whether Mueller’s document lines up with a letter the attorney general released last month. The letter said Mueller didn’t find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government but he found evidence on “both sides” of the question of whether the president obstructed justice.

Barr has said he is withholding grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigation and the privacy or reputation of uncharged “peripheral” people. But how liberally he interprets those categories is yet to be seen.

Democrats have vowed to fight in court for the disclosure of the additional information from the report and say they have subpoenas ready to go if it is heavily redacted.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Wednesday he will “probably find it useful” to call Mueller and members of his team to testify after reading the version of the report Barr releases.

Nadler also criticized the attorney general for trying to “bake in the narrative” of the report to the benefit of the White House.

Late Wednesday, Nadler joined the chairs of four other House committees in calling for Barr to cancel his news conference. But Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, defended Barr and accused Democrats of “trying to spin the report.”

Collins said Barr has done “nothing unilaterally,” saying he had worked with Rosenstein and Mueller’s team “step by step.”

Mueller is known to have investigated multiple efforts by the president over the last two years to influence the Russia probe or shape public perception of it.

In addition to Comey’s firing, Mueller scrutinized the president’s request of Comey to end an investigation into Trump’s first national security adviser; his relentless badgering of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his recusal from the Russia investigation; and his role in drafting an incomplete explanation about a meeting his oldest son took at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

Overall, Mueller brought charges against 34 people – including six Trump aides and advisers – and revealed a sophisticated, wide-ranging Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. Twenty-five of those charged were Russians accused either in the hacking of Democratic email accounts or of a hidden but powerful social media effort to spread disinformation online.

Five former Trump aides or advisers pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in Mueller’s investigation, including Trump’s campaign chairman, national security adviser and personal lawyer.

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