Congress has been told to expect a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation Sunday afternoon, according to two people familiar with the Justice Department's plans. The report is expected to reveal for the first time the main findings of Mueller's nearly two-year probe into President Donald Trump and Russian efforts to elect him.
Attorney General William Barr has spent the weekend combing through Mueller's report, which he received Friday, deciding how much of it Congress and the public will see. Democrats are pressing for full disclosure of Mueller's report and vowing to use subpoena powers and other legal means if necessary to get it.
Mueller's investigation is known to have concluded without a recommendation for further indictments after having snared nearly three dozen people, senior Trump campaign operatives among them. The probe illuminated Russia's assault on the American political system, painted the Trump campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Democratic emails to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton and exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at covering up their Russia-related contacts. White House officials were buoyed by word that Mueller was bringing no new charges. Trump spent the weekend at his Florida estate, making no public appearances and tweeting only: "Good Morning, Have a Great Day!" Then he followed up: "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Mueller submitted his report to Barr instead of directly to Congress and the public because, unlike independent counsels such as Ken Starr in the case of President Bill Clinton, his investigation operated under the close supervision of the Justice Department, which appointed him. Mueller was assigned to the job in May 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw much of his work. Barr and Rosenstein analyzed Mueller's report on Saturday, labouring to condense it into a summary letter of main conclusions. Barr said he wants to release as much as he can under the law. That decision requires him to weigh the Justice Department's longstanding protocol of not releasing negative information about people who aren't indicted against the extraordinary public interest in a criminal investigation into the president and his campaign. Democrats are citing the department's recent precedent of norm-breaking disclosures, including during the Hillary Clinton email investigation, to argue that they're entitled to Mueller's entire report and the underlying evidence he collected.He faces a separate Justice Department investigation in New York into hush money payments during the campaign to two women who say they had sex with him years before the election. He's also been implicated in a potential campaign finance violation by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who says Trump asked him to arrange the transactions. Federal prosecutors, also in New York, have been investigating foreign contributions made to the president's inaugural committee. A number of Trump associates and family members have been dogged by speculation of possible wrongdoing. Among them are Donald Trump Jr., who helped arrange a Trump Tower meeting at the height of the 2016 campaign with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was interviewed at least twice by Mueller's prosecutors. All told, Mueller charged 34 people, including the president's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and three Russian companies. Twenty-five Russians were indicted on charges related to election interference, accused either of hacking Democratic email accounts during the campaign or of orchestrating a social media campaign that spread disinformation online. Five Trump aides pleaded guilty and a sixth, longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges that he lied to Congress and engaged in witness tampering. Justice Department legal opinions have held that sitting presidents may not be indicted. But many Democrats say Trump should not be immune from a public accounting of his behaviour.Special Counsel Robert Mueller walks to his car after attending services at St. John's Episcopal Church, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2019. Mueller closed his long and contentious Russia investigation with no new charges, ending the probe that has cast a dark shadow over Donald Trump's presidency.
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