President Donald Trump took an early victory lap Thursday, tweeting “game over” in a “Game of Thrones”-style meme following Attorney General William Barr’s news conference on special cousel Robert Mueller’s report.
Trump’s tweet inspired by the hit HBO series reiterated Barr’s determination that the two-year long investigation found no collusion.
“NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION. FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS,” Trump tweeted.
Barr outlined the findings of the report in an early morning news conference. While Mueller drew no conclusion about whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice in the investigation, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Trump was “frustrated and angry” about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an “obstruction-of-justice offense.” Barr said Mueller’s report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Trump and obstruction.
Trump tweeted or retweeted 12 times Thursday morning about the investigation, proclaiming his innocence and insisting that the probe was politically motivated.
On Thursday Trump expressed confidence about the finding of Mueller’s Russia probe in an interview with conservative radio host Larry O’Connor, saying “You’ll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow.”
Trump’s comments came amid reports that White House lawyers and Justice Department officials had “numerous conversations” about Mueller’s findings before the report was released Thursday. According to The New York Times, the talks have helped Trump’s legal team prepare its rebuttal and its public relations strategy to the report.
Barr addressed the interaction between the Justice Department and the White House during a news conference Thursday, saying that because of the president’s cooperation with the investigation, “significant portions of the report contain material over which the President could have asserted privilege.”
“Following my March 29th letter, the Office of the White House Counsel requested the opportunity to review the redacted version of the report in order to advise the President on the potential invocation of privilege, which is consistent with long-standing practice,” Barr said.
He added that Trump did not invoke executive privilege over any information included in the report and said “no material has been redacted based on executive privilege.”
The revelation sheds new light on Barr’s refusal to tell Congress during a budget hearing last week whether the DOJ had discussed Mueller’s findings with the White House ahead of the report’s release.
Pressed by U.S. Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-NY, on whether the White House had seen or been briefed on the contents of the report, Barr refused to answer, saying “I’m not going to say anything more about it until the report is out and everyone has a chance to look at it.”
Democrats have pressed for the full report and the underlying evidence Mueller used to formulate his conclusions, arguing that Barr is a political appointee who could not be trusted to give a full accounting.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee criticized Barr’s decision to give his committee a redacted version of Mueller’s report hours after holding a news conference. New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler also accused the attorney general of “waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump,” saying in a news conference late Wednesday that Barr “cherry picked” findings in his March 24 letter to Congress about the report and “withheld” Mueller’s summaries that were “intended for public consumption.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr has “thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect” Trump.
Source : Nbcnewyork
