This is what they ought to be doing,” said Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd, who has often criticized Mueller's focus on Trump and his associates.īut appearing next to British Prime Minister Theresa May outside London hours before the indictment was publicly unveiled, Trump had complained that the Mueller probe has complicated his effort to befriend the Russian leader. Several Trump allies said they welcomed tough action against Russian election meddlers. Mueller, who has been the focus of intense attacks and vitriol from Trump and his allies, was again absent as the new charges were announced. Demers heads the division assigned to take over the case, while O'Callaghan has been overseeing Mueller' probe. While Rosenstein stood alone on the podium five months ago when he announced another Mueller indictment of Russians alleged to have used social media to manipulate Americans during the 2016 election, on Friday he was flanked by two other officials: Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers and Rosenstein's top deputy, Ed O'Callaghan. Mueller is also investigating the president for potential obstruction of justice, related in part to his April 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was then overseeing the federal government's burgeoning Trump-Russia probe.Īlthough the 11-criminal count indictment was obtained by prosecutors from Mueller's office, Rosenstein said plans are to hand the case off to Justice's National Security Division "while we await the apprehension of the defendants." That possibility seems remote-however Democrats on Friday called on Trump to demand their extradition to when he meets with Putin. The indictments are the latest charges in a probe that has already netted guilty pleas from three former Donald Trump campaign aides, two of them for lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russians during or after the 2016 campaign. What impact they may have had or what their motivation may have been-independently of what’s required to prove this offense-is a matter of speculation," the deputy attorney general said. "We know the goal was to have an impact on the election. He said the lack of any claim that the hacking affected vote totals or the outcome of the election was not a conclusion on whether that happened, but rather something beyond the purview of federal prosecutors. However, during a question-and-answer session with reporters, Rosenstein was more cautious. "This is consistent with what we have been saying all along.” "Today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said. Time for Mueller to end this pursuit of the President and say President Trump is completely innocent." "The indictments Rod Rosenstein announced are good news for all Americans," said Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. White House officials and Trump allies declared Rosenstein's statement as validating Trump's claim that there was "no collusion" between his campaign and Moscow. citizen committed a crime, nor that “the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.” Rosenstein added that the indictment does not allege that any U.S. So he needs to understand what evidence we have for an election interference,” he added.
“Obviously it was important for the president to know what information we've uncovered because he's got to make very important decisions for the country. “I'll let the president speak for himself,” Rosenstein told reporters when asked if Trump-who just this morning in Great Britain again blasted the Russia investigation as a “rigged witch hunt”-supported the latest step in the nearly 14-month old Mueller probe. He said the indictment’s timing was “a function of the collection of the facts, the evidence, and the law and a determination that it was sufficient to present the indictment at this time.” Speaking at a press conference at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, Rosenstein said he briefed Trump about the upcoming criminal charges earlier this week. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer quickly called on Trump to cancel the planned meeting. intelligence services have concluded was behind the 2016 election interference scheme. While many of the indictment's details confirmed previous news reports and other assessments, it dramatically shifts the context for Trump's upcoming meeting with Putin, whom U.S. The Russians also illegally downloaded data related to some 500,000 voters from a state database, he charged. Rosenstein said the Russians stole and released Democratic documents after planting malicious computer codes in the network of the Democratic National Committee as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
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