Special Counsel Robert Mueller shared his first public words ever since he started the Russia investigation on President Donald Trump and the people from his team as he said that the investigation was never going to end with criminal charges against Trump, adding that it was up to Congress to decide if impeachment proceedings are justified.
But Mueller did say that the investigation did not clear Trump of improper behavior.
“The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting President of wrongdoing,’’ he said.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress had different views about what should be happening next, as Republicans believe that it was time to move to other matters, while Democrats called for impeachment, as Senator Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter:
“What Robert Mueller basically did was return an impeachment referral.’’
A redacted version of Mueller’s report was published in April, concluding that Russia repeatedly interfered in the 2016 election and that Trump’s election campaign had multiple contacts with Russian officials, bud did not establish a criminal conspiracy with Moscow to win the White House, Reuters informs.
“If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime,’’ said Mueller.
A former federal prosecutor, Matthew Jacobs said that he thought Mueller was saying in his own way that a crime was committed. On the other hand, a source close to President Trump (who spoke on condition of anonymity) said that the statement made by Mueller amounted to a bad day for the home team.
“Mueller’s statement today was a direct assault on the president. And it will only empower the Democrats to be bolder and more aggressive in their move to impeach him,’’ said the source.
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