The Department of Justice announced Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not find evidence that President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government in the 2016 presidential election. Further, Mueller did not “exonerate” the president of obstructing justice, according to Attorney General William Barr, who said his summary “sets out evidence on both sides of the question.”
**Follow all of the events on the Breitbart News Live Wire below. All times in eastern.**
11:50 PM —
11:24 PM — MSNBC host Ari Melber says House Democrats must accept that Mueller did not find a “chargeable election conspiracy” and there will be no additional indictments.
“Some people want those charges because they just think they are true, they expected that there would be a chargeable conspiracy after hearing so much about Trump publicly asking for Russia’s help and his aides going to meetings,” Melber said, according to Mediaite. “Other people, let’s be real may just hope for charges that challenge the legitimacy of this very controversial president. Those motivations are not what guides our justice system.”
11:24 PM — ICYMI:
11:03 PM — MSNBC analyst not happy tonight:
10:49 PM — WikiLeaks says “no-one from Robert Mueller’s team (or any other element of the US DoJ) ever approached WikiLeaks or its staff for information.”
10:32 PM — Ready for more?
10:19 PM —
10:12 PM — After Mueller concludes no Trump campaign-Russia collusion occurred, Democrat National Committee head Tom Perez asks if President Trump was compromised by Russia.
9:23 PM —
9:06 PM — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggests Comey will be asked to testify before his panel.
8:56 PM —Meadows discusses pardons with Politico: “It is too soon to have discussions of pardons but many of us who have a deeper understanding of what transpired and the motivations surrounding General Flynn’s case believe justice would be served with extreme leniency from the sentencing judge.”
8:32 PM — Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) echoes former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), says it’s not a prosecutor’s job to exonerate a subject―they either uncover evidence or they don’t.
8:14 PM — House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) breaks his silence:
7:39 PM — A senior White House official tells the Daily Mail that they haven’t witnessed the president “this happy in months. It’s like election night again.”
7:36 PM — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) calls Barr’s summary of the Mueller report “inadequate.”
7:24 PM — Vice President Mike Pence issues a statement on the Mueller report summary’s findings:
“Today is a great day for America, President Trump and our entire administration. After two years of investigation, and reckless accusations by many Democrats and members of the media, the Special Counsel has confirmed what President Trump said along; there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election,” the vice president said. “The Attorney General also confirmed that there was no obstruction of justice. This total vindication of the President of the United States and our campaign should be welcomed by every American who cherishes the truth and the integrity of our elections.”
He continued: “In the days ahead, the American people can be confident that the President and our entire administration will continue to focus where we always have, on the issues most important to our country. We can only hope that Democrats, who have spent so much time on these discredited allegations, will join us to advance an agenda that will make our nation even more prosperous and more secure for every American.”
7:11 PM — President Donald Trump returns to the White House from Mar-a-Lago. “I just want to tell you that America is the greatest place on earth,” he told reporters.
7:10 PM — CNN political analyst says media coverage of Mueller probe was “not quite aggressive enough.”
7:08 PM — Some analysis by the Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel:
6:58 PM —
6:57 PM —
6:56 PM —
6:55 PM — Failed Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams reacts to Mueller clearing the president of collusion with Russia:
6:48 PM —
6:46 PM —
6:43 PM — Just one day ago:
6:36 PM — Former Justice Department spokesperson Matthew Miller is spinning the theory that Mueller wanted Congress to determine whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, but Barr took it upon himself to decide it could not be proven.
6:32 PM — Ex-Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a former federal prosecutor, says it was Mueller’s responsibility to determine whether the president committed a crime, not exonerate him.
6:27 PM — Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee, issues statement following the release of the Mueller report summary:
6:20 PM — House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will give remarks in roughly 30 minutes.
6:13 PM — This did not age well:
6:09 PM — Donald Trump Jr. reacts to Democrat congressional leaders casting doubt on Barr’s summary of the Mueller report:
6:07 PM — The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur claims the Mueller investigation failed to adequately investigate the president:
6:04 PM — President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign releases a video montage of Democrats hyping Russia collusion claims:
5:55 PM — President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale issues a statement: “Today marks the day that President Trump has been completely and fully vindicated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, exposing the Russia collusion conspiracy theory for the sham that it always was and catching Democrats in an elaborate web of lies and deceit.”
5:53 PM — The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald with another zinger:
5:45 PM — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issue joint statement, say Barr letter “raises as many questions as it answers.” Further, the Democrat congressional leaders claim Barr has a “public record of bias” against the Mueller probe and request the “full report and the underlying documents.”
Read their full statement below:
“Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers. The fact that Special Counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay. Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report.
“And most obviously, for the president to say he is completely exonerated directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility.
“Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents so that the Committees can proceed with their independent work, including oversight and legislating to address any issues the Mueller report may raise. The American people have a right to know.”
5:39 PM — Fired FBI Director James Comey tweets he has “So many questions” after Mueller report summary released.
5:33 PM — 2020 Democrat presidential candidates call for the Mueller report to be released to the public:
5:22 PM — Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA), on live television, falsely claims Barr authored quote from the Mueller report summary that states the 2016 Trump campaign did not collude with Russia.
5:22 PM — Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani reacts to the Mueller report summary:
5:21 PM — The founder of the now-defunct Weekly Standard was wrong again:
5:19 PM — White House aide Kellyanne Conway congratulates President Trump:
5:15 PM — (AP) — The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald eviscerates those who pushed Trump-Russia collusion theories over the last two years.: “Everyone who questioned this bullshit scam from the start – who endured accusations of being Kremlin agents, Putin stooges, Trump supporters, anti-US haters, who got banned from cable news & had smear jobs published in the New Yorker & the like – should wear it all with pride.”
5:14 PM — (AP) — A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Kremlin has not yet seen the summary of the U.S. special counsel’s report on the investigation into whether the Trump administration colluded with Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Sunday night after the Justice Department released the summary. “We are not familiar with the report.”
5:07 PM — Lynne Patton, a senior Department of Housing and Urban Development official, lauds the summary of the Mueller report:
5:01 PM — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) weighs in: “The Special Counsel’s conclusions confirm the President’s account that there was no effort by his campaign to conspire or coordinate with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.”
4:50 PM — Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, says the Mueller probe was grounded on “false pretenses, false intel, and false media reports.”
4:50 PM — President Trump tells reporters that the Russia probe was “an illegal takedown that failed.”
“It’s a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest, it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this,” he adds.
4:42 PM —
4:31 PM — MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough scolds the media’s reaction to Mueller clearing President Trump’s campaign of collusion.
4:30 PM — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) questions whether Barr’s “interpretation” of the Mueller probe summary is correct:
4:27 PM — Donald Trump Jr. issues a statement on the Mueller probe summary:
“After more than 2 years of non-stop conspiracy theories from CNN, MSNBC, Buzzfeed and the rest of the mainstream media, as well as daily lies and smears coming from Democrats in Washington, the Mueller Report proves what those of us with sane minds have known all along, there was ZERO collusion with Russia.
Sadly, instead of apologizing for needlessly destabilizing the country in a transparent attempt to delegitimize the 2016 election, it’s clear that the Collusion Truthers in the media and the Democrat Party are only going to double down on their sick and twisted conspiracy theories moving forward.
It’s my hope that honest journalists within the media have the courage to hold these now fully debunked truthers accountable and treat them with the scorn and ridicule that they so deserve.”
4:28 PM — CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says the Justice Department’s report on Russian interference during the 2016 election gave President Trump “total vindication” regarding collusion.
4:27 PM — Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) says he will call on Attorney General William Barr to testify soon before the House Judiciary Committee.
4:13 PM — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issues a statement on Mueller summary findings:
4:02 PM — Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) weighs in our Mueller report summary:
4:00 PM — (AP) — Mueller investigated whether Trump obstructed justice but did not come to a definitive answer, Attorney General William Barr said in a letter to Congress summarizing Mueller’s report.
The special counsel “does not exonerate” Trump of obstructing justice, Barr said, and his report “sets out evidence on both sides of the question.”
After consulting with other Justice Department officials, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined the evidence “is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.”
Barr released a four-page summary of Mueller’s report Sunday afternoon. Mueller wrapped up his investigation on Friday with no new indictments, bringing to a close a probe that has shadowed Trump for nearly two years.
Barr’s chief of staff called White House counsel Emmet Flood at 3 p.m. Sunday to brief him on the report to Congress. Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, about to return to Washington after spending the weekend there.