Mueller began by reviewing the order creating his office and
the grand jury indictments that allowed him to investigate Russian interference
in the 2016 election. Mueller also highlighted his investigation into possible
obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump, which arose out of actions
the president undertook while the investigation was ongoing.
Mueller reiterated
statements from the Mueller Report that “if we had confidence that
the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.” He also
once again stated that his office did not make a determination about whether
the president had committed a crime due to longstanding Department of Justice
policy asserting that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Mueller said that
the same policy preventing him from indicting the president suggests an
alternative constitutional remedy for holding a president accountable. The
alternative remedy is heavily implied to be impeachment and the purview of
Congress.
Mueller ended his statement by saying that any testimony he gave to
Congress would not go beyond what was already in the report as the document
should speak for itself. Mueller thanked the various attorneys and staff who
worked on the investigation and announced that he was closing the Special
Counsel’s Office and resigning from the Department of Justice to return to
private life.
A number of responses have been released regarding the
Special Counsel’s statement. Trump is holding firmly on the line of “No
Obstruction, No Collusion” with a statement released by Press
Secretary Sarah Sanders. Several members of the House are calling for
impeachment inquiries to begin, including Justin
Amash (R-MI), Bill Pascrell(D-NJ) and Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Several Democrats in the Senate have called for
impeachment as well, including Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala
Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), each of whom is running
for president in the 2020 election. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler held
a press conference announcing intentions to hold the president accountable,
stating that all options including impeachment are on the table but refusing to
commit to impeachment at this time.
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