Following a subpoena, the Justice Department made public has published a 2019 memo in which two senior attorneys general proposed against charging then-President Donald Trump with impeding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
Several Democrats at the time, as well as some former Justice Department attorneys, criticized Barr’s decision to exonerate Trump of obstruction charges, alleging that he was shielding his master.
‘The memo presents a breathtakingly generous view of the law and facts for Donald Trump,’ CREW stated this in a statement. ‘Among many other problems, it is premised on the fact that there was no underlying criminal conduct, which is not what Mueller found, and waives its hand at there being no exact precedent to compare it to.’
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The Justice Department appointed Mueller, and he issued a 448-page report detailing the findings of his investigation. Mueller provided evidence of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election to foster division in the country, increase Trump’s possibilities, and denigrate his Democratic opponent Clinton.
Numerous interactions between members of the Trump campaign and Russians were described by the special counsel. Trump and his campaign were not charged in Mueller’s report with a criminal conspiracy with Russia, however, he was also not exonerated of any wrongdoing for attempting to derail the probe. Barr later acquitted Trump of interference.
Barr determined that it would be up to him to determine whether to charge someone after reading Mueller’s assessment, and he asked for advice from the former director of the Office of Legal Counsel and another senior department official.
They detailed explanations for their judgment that Mueller’s findings did not contain enough evidence to support charging Trump of obstructing justice in the recently released March 24, 2019 memo. Barr then made the decision to publish his own summary of Mueller’s conclusions, which opponents claimed was unduly biased in favor of Trump.
According to the memo, it would be difficult to accuse Trump of obstruction of justice because the initial part of Mueller’s investigation did not uncover enough proof that Trump or any campaign adviser had unlawfully plotted with Russia.
‘Given that conclusion, the evidence does not establish a crime or criminal conspiracy involving the President toward which any obstruction or attempted obstruction by the President was directed,’ the memo concludes.
Barr was criticized for being ‘disingenuous’ in how he described Mueller’s reports to the public when he released his own overview of the special counsel’s analyses prior to the publication of the full public report, according to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who initially ordered the department to reveal the memo.
