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Trump claims vindication after Mueller finds no evidence of collusion

Posted at 6:09 PM, Mar 24, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-24 18:09:48-04

A triumphant President Donald Trump emerged Sunday to claim “complete and total exoneration” after special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence Trump or his campaign associates conspired with Russia to win the presidential election.

The report itself was more circumspect: in a letter to Congress, Attorney General William Barr said Mueller did not have enough evidence to prosecute Trump on obstruction charges, but did not exonerate him.

But the absence of clear evidence of wrongdoing was enough for Trump to boast of vindication after the nearly two-year cloud of the probe has lifted.

“It was just announced there was no collusion with Russia, the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. There was no collusion with Russia. There was no obstruction, none whatsoever,” Trump said, calling Mueller’s investigation “an illegal takedown that failed.”

Speaking to reporters on a tarmac before boarding Air Force One in Florida, Trump declared outright victory.

“It’s a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest, it’s a shame your President had to go through since before I was even elected,” he said.

Instead of calling for the country to move forward, Trump insisted investigators now turn their attention to alleged misdeeds committed by Democrats, though he did not specify any particular targets.

“It began illegally, and hopefully somebody’s going to look at the other side,” he said implying the formation of Mueller’s special investigation could now be subject to scrutiny.

Whether that happens or not remains an open question. But for now, the President appears content to use Mueller’s conclusion that neither he nor his aides cooperated with Russia as a political bludgeon.

Trump was informed of the contents of the report on Sunday afternoon after spending much of the day at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was accompanied by close allies: Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former US congressman Trey Gowdy and his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

Until a tweet moments before his planeside comments, Trump had remained entirely silent this weekend — at least in public — about the conclusion of Mueller’s report. While he was cheered by news on Friday that Mueller would not issue any further indictments, Trump remained cautious through the weekend before being fully briefed by his legal team.

Much of that team — including White House lawyers Emmet Flood and Pat Cipollone — traveled with Trump to Florida, as did a large coterie of senior aides. A person familiar with the matter said the group hoped to help shape Trump’s response to the investigation’s conclusion, conscious the moment would become an inflection point of Trump’s presidehncy.

That is part of the reason Trump avoided any mention of the report on Twitter for much of the weekend, sending only two tweets between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening. One wished his followers: “Have a great day!”

That was in contrast to the more-than 50 tweets he issued last weekend, a stream of anger and vitriol that some aides speculated was pent-up frustration at the then-ongoing Mueller probe.