Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

“As noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”

After outlining the special counsel’s conclusions that the Russian government attempted to interfere with the 2016 election through social media disinformation and hacking the computers and emails of Democratic Party officials, Barr again says there was no evidence of conspiracy or coordination – with a twist.

There were “multiple offers” of Russian help to the Trump campaign

This is probably a reference to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr, senior campaign officials and Russians with ties to the Kremlin.

It also might include Russian contacts by more tangential campaign aides such as George Papadopoulos and Carter Page or, perhaps, former Trump adviser Roger Stone’s attempts to contact Wikileaks to find out about hacked Democratic emails.

The details aren’t provided, but the gist of what Barr is saying is that while there was Russian outreach, there is no evidence that anyone from the Trump campaign took the bait.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Here are some key lines from the attorney general’s letter and what they mean.

“The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Most of Barr’s letter to Congress summarising the special counsel’s investigation was in the attorney general’s own words. In this instance, however, he chose to directly quote Mueller’s report. He clearly didn’t want any misunderstanding about the investigation’s conclusions.

When Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel, he instructed the former FBI director to look for “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump”.

On Sunday, in those 23 words, the special counsel provided his answer.

Some will point to the words “did not establish” in that sentence and note that it doesn’t mean the investigation found no evidence at all or that “collusion” didn’t actually take place.

Perhaps it isn’t the "complete and total exoneration" that Trump is claiming. When it comes to the language used in these type of investigations, however, it’s as close as it is going to get.

Image source, AFP/Getty

Image source, Getty Images

According to expenditure reports, the special counsel's office spent over $25m in the first 21 months of the probe.

Most of the money has gone towards office rent, transportation, contractor fees, supplies and personnel salaries, according to an analysis by Marketplace, external.

Mueller's own pay cheque is estimated at $162,000 based on the Justice Department's sliding pay scale, which takes into account education and experience.

Past special counsel investigations have cost more, with the Kenneth Star investigation of Bill Clinton in the late 1990s costing $79m and the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980s costing $47m.

The Mueller investigation may end up paying for itself, after numerous people have been convicted and forced to forfeit their assets to the US government.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, has been ordered to hand over at least $42m in assets, including his $15,000 ostrich coat, a $18,500 python jacket and a $9,500 ostrich vest.

The Kremlin has been preparing for the release of the report for months by telling the Russian public that is a partisan sham being carried out by Democrats who can’t stand that the election was fairly won by Trump.

“They don’t want to acknowledge his victory and do everything to delegitimise the president,” President Vladimir Putin said at his annual news conference in December 2018, external.

Russia has long denied that it sought to interfere in the US election, despite what the American intelligence community has determined.

Image source, Reuters

Attorney General Barr indicated it would take some time to determine what materials from the report could be shared, but he did not provide a specific time frame.

Whenever he does hand the full report to Congress, if it's not the entire thing, there could be legal challenges from Democratic lawmakers. The chairs of six House committees are demanding the full report.

House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler has already promised to have Barr testify.

And the House, controlled by Democrats since the mid-term elections last November, will also continue to investigate the Trump administration and could ask Mr Mueller to testify as well, or demand that Barr provide all relevant materials to their investigation.

But for now, the ball remains in Barr's court.

Earlier in March, the House of Representatives passed a unanimous resolution to make the Mueller report public once it was complete, by 420-0.

The vote sent a clear message there is bipartisan interest in the special counsel's conclusions.

Image source, Reuters

Echoing what many Republican leaders have said in the wake of Barr's summary, Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and a former presidential candidate, says it's time for the country to move on.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, says "key questions remain about whether Donald Trump was compromised" both during his campaign and now as president.

Here was the president just a moment ago in Florida:

Image source, Reuters

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac before boarding Air Force One, Mr Trump also said:

"There was no collusion with Russia. There was no obstruction and none whatsoever. And it was a complete and total exoneration."

"It's a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest it's a shame that your president has had to go through this for - before I even got elected it began.

"And it began illegally. And hopefully, somebody's going to look at the other side. This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully, somebody's going to be looking at the other side.

"So it's complete exoneration, no collusion, no obstruction, thank you very much."

However, according to the attorney general, the special counsel says while his report did not find the president committed a crime "it also does not exonerate him".

Trump reaction just now in Florida as he heads back to the White House: "After a long investigation, after so many people have been so badly hurt, after not looking at the other side, where a lot of bad things happened, a lot of horrible things happened for our country, it was just announced there was no collusion with Russia, the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard."

As he leaves Florida to return to Washington DC, Trump has tweeted: "Total EXONERATION."

The president's son has issued a statement: "After more than 2 years of non-stop conspiracy theories from CNN, MSNBC, Buzzfeed and the rest of the mainstream media, as well as daily lies and smears coming from Democrats in Washington, the Mueller Report proves what those of us with sane minds have known all along, there was ZERO collusion with Russia.

“Sadly, instead of apologizing for needlessly destabilizing the country in a transparent attempt to delegitimize the 2016 election, it’s clear that the Collusion Truthers in the media and the Democrat Party are only going to double down on their sick and twisted conspiracy theories moving forward.

"It’s my hope that honest journalists within the media have the courage to hold these now fully debunked truthers accountable and treat them with the scorn and ridicule that they so deserve."

In summarising the lack of obstruction of justice, the attorney general notes that many of the president's actions "took place in public view" - the BBC's Paul Danahar calls it an interesting way to defend the president.

Key line from attorney general's letter: “The Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”

Democratic presidential hopefuls have begun to react to the attorney general's summary.

Here's everyone who has joined the race so far.

Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani tells CNN: "It's better than I expected."

Image source, Reuters

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

In his four-page letter to Congress, Attorney General William Barr summarises, mostly in his own words, the conclusions of the special counsel’s investigation.

In one key line, however, he directly quotes the report.

"The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

There, in Robert Mueller’s own words, is the end result of nearly two years of work, 2,800 subpoenas, hundreds of search warrants and countless hours of interviews. There were "multiple offers" of help from "Russian-affiliated individuals" to the Trump campaign, but they never took the bait.

There was, as Donald Trump might say, "no collusion". At least, no evidence of it was unearthed.

The obstruction of justice component is a murkier matter.

The decision of whether to charge Mr Trump with interference with the various investigations wasn’t Mr Mueller’s.

Saying it involved "difficult issues", the former FBI director punted. Instead, Mr Barr – in consultation with Department of Justice staff – decided not to prosecute, in part because there was no apparent underlying crime to obstruct.

Make no mistake, today was a very good day for Mr Trump.

While a bevy of inquiries into his presidency will grind on, the shadow of Mr Mueller’s investigation - hovering over the White House since May 2017 - has been lifted.

Congressman Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will be asking Barr to testify before the committee "in the near future" due to "very concerning discrepancies" regarding the report.

"Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding," Barr's letter says.

"In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgement, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department's principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-of-justice offense."