There was substantial evidence of criminal intent by the president , in his view. Were going to see bob mueller walk out and were going to be watching for is he alone, is mr. Barr behind him or in the room, what are the first words that bob mueller wants to publicly utter . A man who is reticent, sometimes to a fault his supporters say. He clearly has something to say. Does he in any way elude to or cite what we know to be major disagreements with mr. Barr about what mueller found in his investigation and about evidence about sitting the president. Here we have for the first time publicly in more than two years Robert Mueller. Thank you for being here. Two years ago the Acting Attorney General asked me to sv as Special Counsel. And he created the special
counsels office. The appointed directed the office to investigate russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. This included investigating any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign. Now i have not spoken publicly during our investigation. Im speaking out today because our investigation is complete. The Attorney General has made the report on our investigation largely public. We are formally closing the Special Counsels office, and as well im resigning from the Department Of Justice to return to private life. Ill make a few remarks about the results of our work. But beyond these few remarks it is important that the offices written work speak for itself. Let me begin where the Appointment Order begins. And that is interference with the 2016 president ial election. As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, russian Intelligence Officers who were part of the Russian Military, launched a concerted attack on our political system. The indictment alleges that they used sophisticated Cyber Techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake Online Identities and through the organization, wikileaks. The releases were designed and times to interfere with our election and to damage a president ial candidate. And at the same time as the grand jury alleged in a separate indictment, a private russian entity engaged in a Social Media Operation where russian citizens posed as americans in order to influence an election. These indictments contain allegations, and we are not commenting on the guilt or innocence of any specific defendant. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The indictments allege, and the other activities in our report describe, efforts to interfere in our political system. They needed to be investigated and understand. And that is among the reasons why the Department Of Justice established our office. That is also a reason we investigated efforts to obstruct the investigation. The matters we investigated were of paramount importance and it was critical for us to obtain full and Accurate Information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation oral lies to investigators it strikes at the
core of the governments effort to strike at the truth and hold wrong doers accountable. Let me say a word about the report. The report has two parts, addressing the two main issues we were asked to investigate. The first volume details numerous efforts emanating from russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the trump campaigns response to this activity, as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. And in a second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our Obstruction Of Justice investigation involving the president. The order appointing the Special Counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. And we conducted that investigation and we kept the office of the acting attorney
general apprised of the progress of our work. And as set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. It explains that under Longstanding Department policy a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that too is prohibited. The Special Counsels office is part of the Department Of Justice and by regulation it was bound by that Department Policy. Charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider. The departments Written Opinion explaining the policy makes several important points that further informed our handling of the obstruction investigation. Those points are summarized in our report and i will describe two of them for you. First, the opinion explicitly permits the investigation of a sitting president , because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents available. Among other things, that evidence could be used if there were coconspirators who could be charged now. And second, the opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal Justice System to formally accuse a sitting president of wrong doing. And beyond Department Policy we were guided by principles of fairness. It would be unfair to
potentially it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no Court Resolution of the actual charge. So that was justice Department Policy. Those were the principles under which we operated and from them we concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime. That is the offices that is the offices final position, and we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president. We conducted an independent Criminal Investigation and reported the results to the Attorney General. As required by department regulations. The Attorney General then concluded that it was appropriate to provide our report to congress and to the American People. At one point in time i requested that certain portions of the report be released. The Attorney General preferred
to make that preferred to make the entire report public all at once, and we appreciate that the Attorney General made the report largely public. And i certainly do not question the Attorney Generals good faith in that decision. Now i hope and expect this to be the only time that i will speak to you in this manner. I am making that decision myself. No one has told me whether i can or should testify or speak further about this matter. There has been discussion about an appearance before congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. In addition, access to our underlying work product is being decided in a process that does not involve our office. So beyond what i have said here today, and what is contained in our written work, i do not believe it is appropriate for me to speak further about the investigation or to comment on the actions of the Justice Department or congress. And its for that reason i will not be taking questions today as well. Now before i step away, i want to thank the attorneys, the fbi agents, and analysts, the professional staff to helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. These individuals who spent nearly two years with the Special Counsels office were of the highest integrity. And i will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments that there were
multiple, systematic efforts to interference in our election. That allegation deserves the attention of every american. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Sir, if youre subpoenaed no questions. And there you have it. Roughly nine minutes from special Counsel Robert Mueller and in that nine minutes there were a number of headlines. The Special Counsel saying, quote, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. Bob mueller also leading folks to believe that the statement he made there would serve as his testimony if we were called in to the House Judiciary Committee or a Senate Committee as well. We are joined by quite the panel. Nbc News National security and
justice reporter julia ainsley, live at the Justice Department. I have msnbc justice and security analyst, matt miller is back. Mimi rocah, former assistant u. S. Attorney and msnbc legal analyst. Former feder former federal prosecutor glen kurchne. And, of course, our lead legal analyst, ari melber. Robert mueller said hes speaking out because hes resigning, hes returning to private life. What instruct you the most . On the scene, this was vintage bob mueller. No questions, no bull. And just laying out what hes already laid out in the report. He basically quoted the Key Highlights in this report and in so doing, i think a fair reading of what he said would rebut the white house and parts of what his boss, bill barr, have said
about him. Then he went out of his way to say he doesnt question the, quote, good faith of Attorney General bill barr, his boss. That is huge because democrats in congress have tried to line up an attack on barr as the front edge of their allegations against what they call a corrupt Trump Administration and its attempts to obstruct. Mr. Mueller just brushed that back. He also did Something Else that may be disappointing to people and congress may make a decision whether to demand testimony, he said if you make me talk, im going to read you back this report. Thats it. He said it more artfully. But hes telling the nation if you want to know what we found, read the report. A final point on indicting the president , which is a big deal. Mr. Mueller said something thats as big a piece of news today as it was in the report
that he found substantial evidence the president tried to obstruct justice. He wasnt able to state he didnt commit a crime. And the rules say if you want to deal with it, you deal with it through congress, aka the i word, not through the Special Counsel. He told america, this kicks back to congress, you do something or you dont. Thats what the constitution says when it comes to potential High Crimes And Misdemeanors by the sitting president. He also cited this longstanding policy at the Justice Department that prohibits charging a sitting president with a crime. Yeah, look. I think mueller made as clear today as he possibly could, perhaps without saying it in exactly the way some would want him to have said it more explicitly, that he did not charge trump with a crime because he could not, because of that policy. As ari just said, i think mueller made it clear in the report and today what he chose to highlight was that there was evidence and that, you know, this policy is what prevented him from stating that he would have charged him with a crime. I thought it was interesting that mueller said im not going to respond to hypotheticals. I think the hypothetical hes talking about is this hypothetical that many nearly 1,000 former federal prosecutors signed onto, which is that if trump werent president he would be charged with a crime. Mueller isnt going to answer that question. Hell answer it in the way he said in the statement. One thing i wanted to point out what mueller said. He talked about how Obstruction Crimes strike at the core of our Justice System and democracy. Thats important. Hes saying dont lose sight of this, the fact were talking about Obstruction Of Justice and the president should not go unattended to. It is at the heart of everything that our Justice System and our democracy is about, i think hes calling attention to that. I think its important that he praise the integrity of the prosecutors and investigators who work with him. We dont hear it often enough from the Department Of Justice but you heard it from mueller today. A quick reminder here. This is the sound bite that probably is going to get a great deal of attention from Robert Mueller, which is what he said a few moments ago as it related to evidence against the president. Take a listen. We do not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. It explains that under Longstanding Department policy a president cannot be charged
with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that too is prohibited. The Special Counsels office is part of the Department Of Justice and by regulation it was bound by that Department Policy. Charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider. It sounds like, and you correct me if im wrong here, glen, it sounds like the Special Counsel is very much leaving open the possibility that once President Trump leaves office, there could very well be some sort of indictment. Absolutely agree with you, craig. I think in the near term what hes also saying, and this was one of my top line takeaways, after he said i am not permitted to indict the president he went on to say, that requires a process other than the criminalJustice System to formally accuse a president of wrong doing. You dont need to be rand mcnally to see that road map. He was virtually announcing congress, do your job. Also joined now by rejoined i should say, Barbara Mcquade is with me and so is frank figliuzzi. Another top line and bob mueller saved this to the end perhaps wanting to remind all of us, one of the biggest takeaways here, the fact that the russians tried, on numerous occasions in fact, i think we have the sound. Lets take a listen. It is important that the offices written work speak for itself. Let me begin where the Appointment Order begins, and that is interference in the 2016 president ial election. As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, russianIntelligence Officers who were part of the Russian Military launched a concerted attack on our political system. The indictment alleges that they used sophisticated Cyber Techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the clinton campaign. They stole private information and released that information through fake Online Identities and through wikileaks. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and damage a president ial candidate. Frank, it sounds like bob mueller is challenging congress, challenging the white house, and challenging all of us to remember precisely what it is that the russians did. Bob mueller decided to open his statement with the russian problem and he decided to end his statement with the russian problem by saying its something that all americans should be
concerned about. And if you understand bob mueller, if youve sat across him every morning and perhaps every afternoon, as i have as his Assistant Director and you learn that he speaks in measured but clear tones and style, you understand hes saying this is a huge problem, and its not being addressed, and every american needs to get on this and understand this is still ongoing. Thats how i read this and his choice to start and end his statement with russia reminds all of us were still not resolving this problem. Glen, you also worked for bob mueller, what you saw and heard there from your former boss, is that what you were expecting . If. Yeah, you know, thats the man bob mueller is. Hes