Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s long-awaited report on Russia\u2019s role in the 2016 U.S. election will be released on Thursday, providing the first public look at the findings of an inquiry that has cast a shadow over Donald Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney General William Barr\u2019s \nplanned release of the nearly 400-page report comes after Mueller \nwrapped up his 22-month investigation last month into the Trump \ncampaign\u2019s contacts with Russia and questions about obstruction of \njustice by the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its disclosure, with portions expected \nto be blacked out by Barr to protect some sensitive information, is \ncertain to launch a new political fight spilling into the halls of \nCongress and the 2020 presidential campaign trail, as Trump seeks \nre-election in a deeply divided country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The release marks a \nwatershed moment in Trump\u2019s presidency, promising new details about some\n of the biggest questions in the probe, including the extent and nature \nof his campaign\u2019s contacts with Russia and actions Trump may have taken \nto hinder the inquiry including his 2017 firing of FBI Director James \nComey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also may deepen an already bitter partisan rift between\n Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans, most of whom have rallied around the \npresident, and his Democratic critics, who will have to decide how hard \nto go after Trump as they prepare congressional investigations of his \nadministration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Copies of the report will be delivered to Capitol\n Hill more than an hour later, between 11 a.m. and noon, a senior \nJustice Department official said. The delay in seeing the report sparked\n Democratic complaints that Barr, a Trump appointee, wanted to shape the\n public\u2019s views during his news conference before others had a chance to\n draw their own conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mueller\u2019s investigation, which Trump\n has called a \u201cwitch hunt,\u201d raised questions about the legitimacy of \nTrump\u2019s presidency and laid bare what the special counsel and U.S. \nintelligence agencies have described as a Russian operation to derail \nDemocrat Hillary Clinton\u2019s candidacy and elevate Trump, the Kremlin\u2019s \npreferred candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some Democrats have spoken of launching \nimpeachment proceedings against Trump in Congress, allowed under the \nU.S. Constitution to remove a president from office for \u201ctreason, \nbribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,\u201d but top Democrats have \nbeen notably cautious.Mueller charged 34 people and three Russian \ncompanies. Those who were convicted or pleaded guilty included figures \nclose to Trump such as his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, \npersonal lawyer Michael Cohen and national security adviser Michael \nFlynn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mueller submitted the report to Barr on March 22. Two days\n later, Barr sent lawmakers a four-page letter saying the inquiry did \nnot establish that Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign team engaged in a criminal \nconspiracy with Russia and that Mueller had not exonerated Trump of \ncommitting the crime of obstruction of justice. Barr subsequently \nconcluded that Trump had not committed obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since\n Barr released that letter, Trump has claimed \u201ccomplete and total \nexoneration,\u201d and condemned the inquiry as \u201can illegal takedown that \nfailed.\u201d At a March 28 rally in Michigan, Trump said that \u201cafter three \nyears of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing\n people with knowledge of the discussions, the New York Times reported \non Wednesday that White House lawyers held talks with U.S. Justice \nDepartment officials in recent days about the conclusions in Mueller\u2019s \nreport, aiding them in preparing for its release.Justice Department \nregulations gave Barr broad authority to decide how much of Mueller\u2019s \nreport to make public, but Democrats have demanded the entire report as \nwell as the underlying investigative files. Barr is due to testify to \nCongress in public about the report in early May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s long-awaited report on Russia\u2019s role in the 2016 U.S. election will be released on Thursday, providing the first public look at the findings of an inquiry that has cast a shadow over Donald Trump\u2019s presidency. Attorney General William Barr\u2019s planned release of the nearly 400-page report comes after Mueller wrapped up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59409,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59407\/revisions\/59409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}