[ad_1]
Attorney General Bill Barr said Friday in an interview that he did not agree with "much legal analysis" in the report of Special Advocate Robert Mueller and said that it "does not reflect the views" of the Ministry of Justice, the latest split between Prosecutor General of President Trump and leader of the investigation on Russia.
In an interview with Jan Crawford of CBS News, Barr was asked about the treatment of his initial four-page summary of Mueller's report, which he shared at the end of March. Barr and former Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the evidence found in Mueller's investigation was not sufficient to charge the President with an offense for obstructing justice.
BARR SAYS THAT IT SEEMS PERSONALLY MELLERIE COULD HAVE REACHED THE DECISION ON OBSTRUCTION
"We did not agree with the legal analysis, much of the legal analysis of the report," said Barr. "It did not reflect the views of the department. It was the point of view of one or more lawyers, so we applied what we saw to be the right law. "
Speaking of Mueller's findings on obstruction, Mr. Barr said, "Bob Mueller has identified some episodes. He did not reach a conclusion. He provided both sides of the question. And his conclusion was that he did not exonerate the president, but did not find a crime either. "
Barr's comments come after Mueller made a rare public appearance this week, the first and only of his mandate as a special advisor. Mueller announced that the investigation was officially over and that he was resigning from the Department of Justice to return to privacy.
Mueller detailed the findings of the report, stating that there was "no evidence" of a conspiracy related to collusion between Russia and members of the Trump campaign at the time of the war. 2016 presidential election, and explained his investigation's investigation decisions as to whether the president was obstructing justice. .
"If we had confidence that the president had clearly not committed a crime, we would have said," said Mueller Wednesday at the Justice Ministry. "We did not determine if the president had committed a crime."
Mueller explained the long-standing policy of the Justice Department, which states that a president in office can not be charged with a crime, and added that "to accuse the president of" a crime was not an option we could consider. "
"We concluded that we would not be able to determine whether, in any way, the president had committed a crime," Mueller said. "It's the final position of the office."
But Barr told CBS News that he felt Mueller could have come to an official conclusion of the investigation.
"Personally, I thought he could have made a decision," said Barr. "The opinion says that you can not accuse a president while he is in office, but he could have decided whether it was a criminal activity, but he had his reasons for not doing so. that he explained. "
MUELLER INDICATES THAT LOADING TRUMP WITH CRIME WAS "NOT AN OPTION" IN RUSSIA PROBE
Barr added, "I will not discuss these reasons, but when he did not make a decision, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I felt that it was necessary that we, department heads, make this decision. "
This week, Mueller also said that even if the opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) prevents a president from being indicted, "the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse the president of wrongdoing ". left took this as a green light to launch discussions on a dismissal procedure against the president.
When asked if he thought Mueller was suggesting that Congress could be the "place" to hold the president accountable, Mr. Barr said that he was "not sure".
"Well, I'm not sure what he was suggesting," Barr said in the interview. "You know, the Department of Justice does not use our investigative powers over crimes as a complement to Congress."
Barr also responded to Mueller's announcement this week that, despite negotiations with the highest Congressional committees, he does not intend to testify in public or in private.
"It depends on Bob, but I think the line he's tracing, that is, he's going to stick to what's in the report, is the line that suits any department manager, "said Barr.
TRUMP BLASTS MUELLER AS "HIGHLY CONFLICTED" CALLS THE APPEARANCE OF A SALE, dirty, disgusting word & # 39;
Earlier this month, the Judiciary Committee of the House voted to condemn Barr in defiance of the Jury's summons, demanding that he file an unredacted version of Mueller's report, as well as documents and evidence underlying. In turn, the president affirmed the executive's privilege over the material in order to protect these files from the publication.
Despite criticism of Barr for handling the report, Mueller defended it on Wednesday, saying he "did not question the Attorney General's good faith" in the decision to release the report in full, with the expurgations, to the public and to Congress. Mueller said he suggested "publishing some parts of the report," adding that he "appreciated" Barr's decision.
Meanwhile, Barr was also subjected to a scrutiny of his testimony last month before a congressional committee when he stated that he thought that "espionage had actually occurred" during of the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
Since then, Barr has appointed a Connecticut US lawyer John Durham to investigate the origins of the investigation into Russia.
When asked how he used the word "espionage", Barr replied, "I mean, I guess it became a dirty word, it has never been to me. There is nothing wrong with spying in. The question is always to know if it's allowed by law. "
He added: "It's part of the madness of modern times, that if the president uses a word, he then suddenly becomes disconnected.This is a perfectly correct English word and I will continue to ;use."
Barr's examination of the origins of the FBI's initial investigation into Russia revolves around several other investigations, including by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Michael. Horowitz. Horowitz has been investigating for more than a year allegations of professional misconduct related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is expected to be completed by the end of next month. Durham, however, cooperates with Durham, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, and Gina Haspel, director of the CIA.
But last week, the president signed a memo to declassify the documents related to the 2016 monitoring of the Trump campaign leaders. The content of the documents or the time they will be declassified is not clear.
"I had a lot of questions about what was going on, and I thought I would get answers when I got in, and I did not get any satisfactory answers and, in fact, I probably have more questions, "Barr told CBS. New. "Some of the facts I've learned do not agree with the official explanations of what happened."
He added, "That's all I'm really going to say, things just are not happening …."
[ad_2]
Source link