[ad_1]
President Trump's legal team is preparing for a rebuttal to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Thursday, to refute any allegations of obstruction against the president, Fox News has learned.
A source close to Trump's legal team told Fox News on Wednesday that the president's lawyers have been working on a counter-report in anticipation of any obstruction of justice claims in the report, which is slated to be released to the public on Thursday.
MUELLER REPORT EXPECTED TO BE RELEASED THURSDAY MORNING
According to Attorney General Bill Barr's summary is published last month of Mueller's report, the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. The purpose of the law is to determine the position of the president of the court.
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the evidence of the case was "not sufficient to establish an obstruction-of-justice offense."
But related allegations could still surface in the Mueller report itself, even without a final determination from the special counsel.
"They're all about finding collusion, so the rebuttal is about obstruction," the source said. "They are preparing a rebuttal to presumed allegations which will be refuted."
Mueller's team of the president.
MUELLER'S QUESTIONS FOR TRUMP: READ THE FULL LIST
"They knew where Mueller was headed," the source said, referring to the obstruction of justice issues.
The special counsel finalized questions for the president last May. Trump and his legal team provided by November.
The questions, obtained by Fox News at the time, covered a wide range of topics, including the President of White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the former Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak; FBI Director James Comey before he was fired; his interactions with form Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his feelings about his recusal from the Russia investigation; and the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 involving Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Russian trainer attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, among others.
Trump's Top Lawyer, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said Tuesday that a counter-report is in the works, and that the team is putting the finishing touches on it. Giuliani said it would be dozens of pages long, but did not detail what the counter-report would focus on. Giuliani said that the report would be released after Mueller's report is made available to the public.
The Justice Department said that the much-anticipated Russia report would be released to the public and the Congress on Thursday morning, with redactions.
TRUMP MAINTAINS 'NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION,' SAYS IT'S TIME TO 'INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS' IN RUSSIA PROBE
Barr, however, said that it is believed that it would be believed to be a large-scale jury material, information the intelligence community believed would reveal intelligence sources and methods, any material that could interfere privacy or reputational interests of "peripheral players."
Barr said the Justice Department, with the help of the special counsel's office, plans to "color code the decisions and provide explanatory notes describing the basis for each redaction."
Barr that the Justice Department has been working diligently to make as much information as possible available to Congress.
Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link