FILE – In this June 21, 2017 file photo, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a closed door meeting in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
WASHINGTON — After nearly two years of waiting, America is getting some Trump-Russia answers straight from Robert Mueller.
Eager to get in the last word ahead of the public release of the special counsel’s report, Attorney General William Barr on Thursday laid out in advance what he said was the “bottom line:” No collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government hackers.
While Mueller drew no conclusion about whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice in the investigation, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Trump was “frustrated and angry” about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an “obstruction-of-justice offense.”
Barr said Mueller’s report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Trump and obstruction.
Barr said the president did not exert executive privilege to withhold anything in the report.
And he said the president’s personal attorney had requested and gotten a chance to review the report before its public release.
The Justice Department was to release a redacted version of the special counsel’s report later Thursday on Russian election interference and the Trump campaign, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country. /gsg