“THE ‘RUSSIA’ INVESTIGATION IS OVER”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 22, 2019) — 5:20 p.m. EDT – After a day of what appeared to be quiet suspense, Fox News has reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report has been delivered to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who commissioned the 22-month-long investigation, and that Rosenstein and Attorney General William P. Barr have reviewed it.
By statute, a special counsel’s report is confidential, with the attorney general having the discretion to distill the information and provide it to Congress.
The House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairmen and ranking members have been notified in writing that the report was delivered to the Justice Department; the letter was posted by the AP late Friday afternoon.
In May 2017, Mueller was tasked with determining whether or not anyone in the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russian operatives to affect the outcome of the 2016 election as well as the extent to which Russians may have attempted to interfere in that election.
Just under three dozen indictments were issued, with 26 being Russian individuals or entities who will likely not be tried in a U.S. courtroom due to the lack of an extradition agreement with Russia. One entity is fighting the indictment in the U.S.
Trump has recently said he wants the report made public and, as he has for the last two years, that no one on his campaign “colluded” with Russia.
Some believed that Mueller’s endeavor was illegitimate because the team of prosecutors Mueller assembled, nearly all of whom were politically left-leaning. Mueller, a former FBI director, assumed the investigation from the FBI after the agency’s then-director, James Comey, was fired at Rosenstein’s recommendation.
“Officially, the ‘Russia’ investigation is over,” Fox News’s Bret Baier said at 5:33 p.m. during a special report.
In recent weeks, House Democrats have pledged to continue investigating Trump in a wide swath of probes involving his business transactions as head of the Trump Organization and an attempt to obtain his recent tax returns. Republicans wish to see approximately 20 pages of a FISA warrant application released to shed more light on why the DOJ and FBI conducted surveillance on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.