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Casey, other lawmakers weigh in on Mueller probe

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<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; House Democrats pressed the Justice Department Monday to provide the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller even as Republicans gleefully called for them to &#8220;move on&#8221; from the Russia investigation. President Donald Trump accused those responsible for launching Mueller&#8217;s probe of &#8220;treasonous things against our country&#8221; and said they &#8220;certainly will be looked into.&#8221;</p><p>Trump said the release of Mueller&#8217;s full report &#8220;wouldn&#8217;t bother me at all,&#8221; and Democrats quickly put that statement to the test, demanding that his administration hand over the entire document and not just Sunday&#8217;s four-page summary from Attorney General William Barr.</p><p>Six House Democratic committee chairmen wrote to Barr that his summary is &#8220;not sufficient&#8221; and asked to be given Mueller&#8217;s full report by April 2. They also want to begin receiving the underlying evidence the same day. The information is &#8220;urgently needed by our committees to perform their duties under the Constitution,&#8221; they wrote, implying that the information would be subpoenaed if it is not turned over by the deadline.</p><p>Barr said in his letter to Congress that Mueller did not find that Trump&#8217;s campaign &#8220;conspired or coordinated&#8221; with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election &#8212; knocking down arguments from Democrats who have long claimed there was evidence of such collusion.</p><p>But he also said Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed the federal investigation, instead setting out &#8220;evidence on both sides&#8221; of the question and stating that &#8220;while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.&#8221; Absent a recommendation from Mueller, Barr stepped in and decided there wasn&#8217;t sufficient evidence to establish that the president obstructed justice. Democrats said Barr&#8217;s judgment is not the final word.</p><p>&#8220;All I&#8217;m interested in is them releasing the full report, the full Mueller report,&#8221; said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.</p><p>Despite Mueller&#8217;s refusal to exonerate Trump, his spokesmen and leading congressional Republicans all claimed total vindication for the president anyway. Questioned by reporters, Trump said he welcomed Mueller&#8217;s results but complained he had been abused by the investigation occurring at all and taking too long.</p><p>&#8220;We can never let this happen to another president again,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There are a lot of people out there that have done some very evil things, very bad things, I would say treasonous things against our country.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Those people will certainly be looked at. I&#8217;ve been looking at them for a long time. And I&#8217;m saying, why haven&#8217;t they been looked at? They lied to Congress. Many of them you know who they are.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Mueller </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_mueller.jpg</photo0><caption0>Mueller </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_barr.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Barr </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_barr.jpg</photo1><caption1>Barr </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Republicans say &#8216;move on&#8217;</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Clare Jalonick</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Democrats ask for Mueller files, Republicans say ‘move on’