Emmanuel Thomas l Sunday, March 24, 2019
WASHINGTON, United States – Attorney General of the United States, William P. Barr’s review of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 Presidential election has exonerated President Donald Trump and members of his campaign organisation.
His review was contained in letter he wrote to Hon. Lindsey Graham, Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Dianne Fienstein(member) and Hon. Gerrold Nadler, Chairman, House of Reps Committee on Judiciary, and Hon. Doug Collins, Member House Committee on Judiciary.
In the letter, the AG, William P. Barr said “the Special Counsel investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its effort to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election”, he said. Barr quoted the invesitigation carried out by Mueller that the investigation did not find that the Trump campain organisation or anyone associated with it coordinated with the Russians in its election interference activities.
He however noted that the Mueller’s report established two ways that the Russians interferred. According to him, the first attempt was through the Russian research organisation, the Internet Research Agency(IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States with a view to sow discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election.
He explained that the other way, the Mueller’s report established was the involvement of the Russian government in conducting computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election.
According to him, the special counsel found that the Russian Government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons associated with the Clinton Campaign and Democratic Party Organisations and publicly disseminated those materials throught various intermediaries including Wikileaks.
He argued that based on this the Special counsel brought charges against a number of Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into computers in the United States for the purpose of influencing the election.
On allegations of obstruction to justice, Barr said, he has concluded that evidence developed during the Special Counsel investigation is not sufficient to suggest that the President committed an obstruction to justice offence.
