The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel in 2019 said that at the time, then- president Trump had tried to obstruct justice in the Russian investigation under special counsel Robert Mueller.
A federal appeals court ordered the DOJ to release internal memos from March 24, 2019, to see whether Trump has indeed obstructed justice. The released memos show that the evidence in Mueller’s report was not considered by legal advisers to support the conclusion that Trump had indeed made any violations.
They also said that the memos don’t show any evidence for an obstruction charge to be filed. The memo written by Steven Engel, former assistant attorney general for the OLC read, “We believe that certain of the conduct examined by the Special Counsel could not, as a matter of law, support an obstruction charge under the circumstances.” “Accordingly, were there no constitutional barrier, we would recommend, under the Principles of Federal Prosecution, that you decline to commence such a prosecution.”
Two years after Mueller’s investigation ended, there is still no evidence to support that there was any kind of coordination between Trump campaign and Russian officials ahead of the 2016 Presidential election.
Mueller submitted his full report to Barr in late March, and it was Barr who then released the summary noting the lack of evidence regarding any involvement of the Russians with Trump before his Presidential election.
The report also noted that the investigation was thorough and still was unable to find any substantial claims to back the Russia- Trump conspiracy theory.
Mueller also did not reach any decisions regarding the obstruction, which Barr said he felt Mueller could have done.
In April 2019, Mueller also noted that he was confident that Trump had not committed any crime based on the materials found. Still, Congressional Democrats held on to Mueller not deciding on the obstruction of justice allegations and opened further investigations on Trump.
