Testifying in front of the House Appropriation Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Tuesday morning, Attorney General Bill Barr reiterated that his four-page letter about the principle findings of the Mueller report was clear about collusion and obstruction of justice.
"Is there anything new you've seen since the review of the entirety of the report that would change your conclusions?" Barr was asked by Republican Congressman Tom Graves.
"No Congressman. As I've explained, my March 24 letter was meant to state the bottom line conclusions of the report not summarize the report and I tried to use as much of the Special Counsel's own language as I could. But they were just stating the bottom line conclusions and there's nothing to suggest to me that those weren't the conclusions,"
"So, it's over. It's done," Graves said.
"[Laughing] The letter speaks for itself," Barr said.
NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION.
— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) April 9, 2019
AG Barr's summary speaks for itself!@realDonaldTrump is totally EXONERATED! pic.twitter.com/KzTr1tWpLk
As a reminder about what his letter said:
"The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As the report states: "[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," the letter states.
"After reviewing the Special Counsel's final report on these issues; consulting with Department officials, including the Office of Legal Counsel; and applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our charging decisions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."
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Barr also revealed the report will be released to the public "within the next week."
Barr's testimony was supposed to be about Department of Justice budget requests for Congress, but immediately Democrats focused their questions on the Mueller report.
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