Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered his report to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday. The report ends the lengthy investigation into allegations that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wiki-Leaks to defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Numerous media reports claim that Mueller will not seek any additional indictments. On Saturday, Barr was at the Department of Justice reading the full report, which is reportedly over 500 pages long.
On Sunday, Barr told Congress that Mueller has not uncovered any evidence that the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere with the election..
“This sideshow is finally over,” said Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Alabama, in a statement. “As I expected all along, there are no indictments or charges related to President Trump or his administration. The whole exercise was a waste of time and money. I just hope Democrats will now accept that they lost the 2016 election and let’s move on.”
Former Whitewater Independent Counsel Ken Starr told Fox News that there is no public evidence that we know of regarding collusion.
If the early media reports are true, then Trump will not be indicted, and neither will his son-in-law Jared Kushner nor any member of his family. It is too early to know if the president has been vindicated by the Mueller investigation or if Mueller simply did not have enough evidence to bring any indictments.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow appeared to be tearful on air announcing the news that Mueller is not expected to recommend additional indictments.
Fellow MSNBC host Christopher Mathews angrily said, “How can they let Trump off the hook?”
Saturday, Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan denounced the media for their “slanted coverage.”
“With the Mueller Report complete proving no Russian collusion involving the Trump campaign, it is now time to take a hard look at this entire dark chapter of our nation’s histor,” Lathan said. “The malfeasance of the national media has undermined their credibility. Their obvious slanted coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign and the first two years of the Trump Administration is simply ‘deplorable.’ No president, regardless of their political affiliation, should ever be subjected to such prejudicial accusations by the media in an attempt to destroy a presidency. To do so is an affront to the American people who make these decisions and to our nation’s democracy.”
“Any national media outlet that participates in a mission of ‘seek and destroy’ to sink a president hurts themselves while using ‘freedom of the press’ as a tool to twist facts, perpetuate rumors and stack headlines,” Lathan said. “America rejects being spoken down to by the national media and DC elite. Trust is broken and needs to be repaired.”
Trump has publicly denounced Robert Mueller and the investigation, but he never fired Mueller and the lack of any indictment recommendations for obstruction of justice, would indicate that the White House did not interfere with the investigation, which cost the taxpayers over $30 million.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has said he will subpoena Robert Mueller.
Democrats are holding an emergency conference call on Saturday afternoon to determine how to proceed. Some Democrats had suggested that they would impeach the president. The failure of the Mueller report to recommend indicting the president makes that a much less likely possibility now.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York still has an open investigation into Trump, including investigations into the Trump inauguration committee, purported payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels and the Trump Foundation. There are as many as a dozen federal investigations into matters associated with the Mueller investigation.
The House passed a resolution calling for the Mueller report to be made public.
Barr has said he wants to be as transparent as possible. Parts of the report could be classified for national security, and parts could be classified to protect sources that gave evidence on the condition of anonymity.
Barr could begin briefing members of Congress on the report as early as this weekend.
Mueller is a former director of the FBI. He was appointed as Special Counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein days after Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. Comey has since admitted to leaking material to the press in order to get a special counsel appointed to investigate the president. Rosenstein became in charge of the Russia investigation after then Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. Rosenstein resigned earlier this month after former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told CBS News’s 60 Minutes that Rosenstein discussed removing Trump with him in 2017. Sessions eventually fired McCabe, and Trump fired Sessions in November.
Much of the evidence of misconduct by the president appears to be based on a special report commissioned by the Hillary Clinton campaign and prepared by former British Intelligence agent Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS. The Steele Dossier was used by Comey and the FBI to get a FISA warrant to begin eavesdropping on the Trump campaign and Trump transition team.
The special counsel investigation has taken 675 days, during which time it has dominated mainstream media headlines. Thirty-seven people have been indicted or have pled guilty to various law violations, including lying to the Mueller investigation, but no one has been indicted or convicted of espionage, treason or for conspiring with Russian intelligence as the president’s critics have suggested.
Lathan is ready to move on.
“Now let’s keep making America great again,” Lathan said. “Celebrating Alabama’s new unemployment rate of 3.7 percent – the lowest ever recorded in our great state’s history.”
Byrne represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. Byrne is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Doug Jones.
Original reporting by Fox News, the Federalist Papers, MSNBC and the Washington Post contributed to this report.
