Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Complete text of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's statement provided

Two years ago, the Acting Attorney General asked me to serve as Special Counsel, and he created the Special Counsel’s Office.

The appointment order directed the office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. This included investigating any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.

I have not spoken publicly during our investigation. I am speaking today because our investigation is complete. The Attorney General has made the report on our investigation largely public. And we are formally closing the Special Counsel’s Office. As well, I am resigning from the Department of Justice and returning to private life.

I’ll make a few remarks about the results of our work. But beyond these few remarks, it is important that the office’s written work speak for itself.








Let me begin where the appointment order begins: and that is interference in the 2016 presidential election.

As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers who were part of the Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system.

The indictment alleges that they used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. They stole private information, and then released 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.

And at the same time, as the grand jury alleged in a separate indictment, a private Russian entity engaged in a social media operation where Russian citizens posed as Americans in order to interfere in the election.

These indictments contain allegations. And we are not commenting on the guilt or innocence of any specific defendant. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

The indictments allege, and the other activities in our report describe, efforts to interfere in our political system. They needed to be investigated and understood. That is among the reasons why the Department of Justice established our office.

That is also a reason we investigated efforts to obstruct the investigation. The matters we investigated were of paramount importance. It was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.

Let me say a word about the report. The report has two parts addressing the two main issues we were asked to investigate.

The first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from Russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign’s response to this activity, as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy.

And in the second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the President.

The order appointing me Special Counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. We conducted that investigation and we kept the office of the Acting Attorney General apprised of the progress of our work.

As set forth in our report, after that investigation, if we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.

We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the President did commit a crime. The introduction to volume two of our report explains that decision.

It explains that under long-standing Department policy, a President cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view—that too is prohibited.

The Special Counsel’s Office is part of the Department of Justice and, by regulation, it was bound by that Department policy. Charging the President with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider.

The Department’s written opinion explaining the policy against charging a President makes several important points that further informed our handling of the obstruction investigation. Those points are summarized in our report. And I will describe two of them:

First, the opinion explicitly permits the investigation of a sitting President because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents are available. Among other things, that evidence could be used if there were co-conspirators who could now be charged.

And second, the opinion says that the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting President of wrongdoing.








And beyond Department policy, we were guided by principles of fairness. It would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of an actual charge.

So that was the Justice Department policy and those were the principles under which we operated. From them we concluded that we would not reach a determination – one way or the other – about whether the President committed a crime. That is the office’s final position and we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the President.

We conducted an independent criminal investigation and reported the results to the Attorney General—as required by Department regulations.

The Attorney General then concluded that it was appropriate to provide our report to Congress and the American people.

At one point in time I requested that certain portions of the report be released. The Attorney General preferred to make the entire report public all at once. We appreciate that the Attorney General made the report largely public. I do not question the Attorney General’s good faith in that decision.

I hope and expect this to be the only time that I will speak about this matter. I am making that decision myself—no one has told me whether I can or should testify or speak further about this matter.

There has been discussion about an appearance before Congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis, and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself.

The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.

In addition, access to our underlying work product is being decided in a process that does not involve our office.

So beyond what I have said here today and what is contained in our written work, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to speak further about the investigation or to comment on the actions of the Justice Department or Congress.

It is for that reason that I will not take questions here today.

Before I step away, I want to thank the attorneys, the FBI agents, the analysts, and the professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. These individuals, who spent nearly two years with the Special Counsel’s Office, were of the highest integrity.

I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments—that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election.

That allegation deserves the attention of every American.

Thank you.

***

15 comments:

Concerned citizen said...

Inside the Beltway....knife fights as usual...sorry losers have to continue a waste of time

Anonymous said...

The former White House adviser Steve Bannon has described the Trump Organization as a criminal entity and predicted that investigations into the president’s finances will lead to his political downfall, when he is revealed to be “not the billionaire he said he was, just another scumbag”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/bannon-trump-organization-criminal-enterprise-comments-michael-wolff-book

Anonymous said...

This is tiring. Three years into a presidency and we are still at square one. If there was anything criminal to be revealed, I would hope after three years it would be in the open. Either through a criminal elected as president or by inept investigating and partisan witch hunting, the country looks bad.

Anonymous said...

@12:26 Wolff has been proven a lying fraud. What a fine source to draw from. Kitty Kelly has better info. Good Lord.....

Anonymous said...

Commander Bone Spurs thanks you for your support!

Anonymous said...

Mueller and his team deserve a great deal of gratitude from the American people. I cannot imagine what went into their investigation, but on the surface it had to be a extremely tiring task. Each revelation lead them to 5 more investigations and so on it went. To impeach or not is the question, or one of them, the bigger question on so many minds is when is the republican party/congress going to stand up to the obvious fact that the leader, both McConnell and Trump, are worthless and there for themselves and not the citizen. It is a shame that has befallen us and insults the framers and all those honest politicians that have preceded them. Notice how Blunt has been curiously silent and hiding in the shadows? Long does not possess the honest bones needed, but Blunt was a teacher and this does not speak well for a teacher. Maybe the earth is still flat?

Anonymous said...

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rEPUBeLICANT!

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. Thanks for adding to the conversation.

Anonymous said...

GUNS GAWG AND GOOBERMINT!

CAN I GET A HELL YEAH?

there's a reason why yall need some hep!

Anonymous said...

I would have to assume that when you were an infant, a year or two ago, your mother failed to give you enough attention.

There are heros and zeros and we already know what he is said...

The Mango Moron thanks you for your support!

https://nypost.com/2019/05/29/uss-john-mccain-moved-out-of-sight-for-trumps-japan-visit-report/

https://nypost.com/2019/06/01/navy-confirms-request-to-hide-uss-john-mccain-during-trumps-japan-trip/

Hyacinth said...

We need to change the law that says that we can't charge a sitting president with a crime. Many federal crimes have a five-year statute of limitations which means if Trump is re-elected in 2020, he may be beyond the statute of limitations before he is out of office. I now know why Trump wants to be re-elected so badly.

Anonymous said...

What crimes has he committed?

Anonymous said...

It is a rather interesting thing to watch people on the left scream for justice when someone on the right appears guilty, yet none of them cared about things such as Fast and Furious. Same goes for those on the right.

I guess we all just accept that rooting for your favorite political wing just makes you a hypocrite. It would be something if we all just rooted for a better world instead of rooting against half the population.

Anonymous said...

The entire dog and pony show has been designed to keep sides fighting. Rumors and accusations of Russia meddling occurred so it needed investigating. The investigation takes two years and the end result is the investigator says he can't say nothing happened. He apparently also can't say anything did happen either. But he can say just enough for those who believe there was no wrong doing can claim victory while those that believe there was wrong doing can too. It is asinine and it has been harmful to the country. Either we have a crooked president or we have an incompetent, childish opposition to the president and the sad truth is that at this point the country will never be in agreement as to which one it is because of the way this has been handled. Politicians playing politics regardless of the damage done. Anyone still rooting for their side to come out the winner is a fool, because there is no winner.