Findings of Trump-Russia report expected Sunday as Democrats vow further probes

WASHINGTON/WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – The U.S. attorney general’s summary of a special counsel report on an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow will not be delivered to lawmakers on Saturday, an official said, as Democrats vowed to investigate beyond the inquiry.

William Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement official, was examining a report sent to him on Friday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, aiming to transmit a summary to Congress and the public by the end of the weekend.

Republican President Donald Trump, at his Florida resort for the weekend, remained silent on the report of an investigation that also looked into any potential wrongdoing by Trump, whose legal woes appear likely to continue even with the closure of the Mueller investigation.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters that the White House still has not received or been briefed on Mueller’s report.

A Justice Department official said Barr and his deputy were working closely with principal advisers to determine what to include in a letter to Congress. Barr will not deliver the summary on Saturday, the official said.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a statement that Barr’s offer to provide congressional committees with a summary of the report’s conclusions is insufficient and that “Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents.”

Senator Chris Coons, a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Trump and his core team could still face legal risks even if the report does not find that they committed crimes. Trump’s business, his charity and presidential transition operation remain under investigation, Coons said, and congressional Democrats would keep looking into his activities.

“It’s the end of the beginning, but it’s not the beginning of the end,” Coons told reporters on a telephone conference.

Under Department of Justice regulations, Barr is empowered to decide how much to disclose publicly. He said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday that he is “committed to as much transparency as possible.”

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives scheduled a conference call on Saturday afternoon to discuss next steps and messaging, congressional aides said.

Trump has not commented to reporters or taken to Twitter, one of his favorite ways of communicating, on the completion of the investigation that has cast a shadow over his two years in the White House.

Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a political witch hunt and a hoax, may have been uncharacteristically silent but his eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., was active on Twitter, retweeting critics of the media and Democrats who argued recent developments proved there was no campaign collusion with Russia.

The president had no public events scheduled on Saturday and played golf, Gidley said. “He’s fine,” the spokesman said when asked by reporters how Trump was feeling. “He’s good, he’s good.” Gidley declined to say whether Trump had talked about the Mueller report while golfing.

A large pro-Trump float behind a flatbed truck pulled up to the golf course about an hour after he arrived, adorned with American flags and “Trump 2020” signs.

Political analysts expect the Mueller report to have a significant impact on the 2020 presidential campaign – how Democrats might be able to use it stop Trump being reelected and how Trump could use it if he is cleared of wrongdoing.

The big question is whether the report contains allegations against Trump or exonerates him. Mueller investigated whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow to try to influence the election and whether the president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.

FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel Robert Mueller (R) departs after briefing members of the U.S. Senate on his investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

The Justice Department has a policy that sitting presidents cannot face criminal charges.

Mueller did not recommend any further indictments, a senior Justice Department official said, signaling there might be no more criminal charges against Trump associates. Mueller brought charges against 34 people and three companies, with prison sentences for some of Trump’s former aides.

Trump’s convicted former personal lawyer Michael Cohen implicated the president in his guilty plea on campaign finance violations in a separate prosecution brought by federal prosecutors in New York.

Emmet Flood, a lawyer who represents the office of the president in the Mueller investigation, is in Florida with Trump. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone also is there, according to a person familiar with the matter. Flood is a Republican who represented President Bill Clinton in his 1998-99 impeachment proceedings.

By handing over the long-awaited report, Mueller, 74, marked the end of his work, his spokesman said.

Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference. Trump said on Wednesday he does not mind if the public is allowed to see the report.

Trump aides, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, national security adviser Michael Flynn and lawyer Cohen, have already either been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges brought by Mueller.

None of those charges, however, directly related to the question of collusion between the campaign and Moscow.

Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, the two top Democrats in Congress, said the investigation focused on questions that “go to the integrity of our democracy itself: whether foreign powers corruptly interfered in our elections, and whether unlawful means were used to hinder that investigation.”

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U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, said, “The attorney general has said he intends to provide as much information as possible. As I have said previously, I sincerely hope he will do so as soon as he can, and with as much openness and transparency as possible.”

Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Sarah N. Lynch in WASHINGTON and Roberta Rampton in WEST PALM BEACH, Florida; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Eric Beech, Makini Brice, Karen Freifeld, Susan Cornwell, Steve Holland, Richard Cowan, Pete Schroeder in Washington, Nathan Layne in New York; Writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Daniel Wallis

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source: reuters.com