Mueller report: Democrats 'lost on collusion,' Gowdy says
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Former South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy said now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential election, Democrats are going to have to go searching for some other avenue to criticize President Trump.
"They lost on collusion,” Gowdy said on Fox News on Sunday. “They’re going to have to pivot to something else.”
Gowdy, who spent Sunday playing golf with the president in Florida, made his comments shortly after Attorney General William Barr released a letter summarizing the Mueller’s findings from the lengthy investigation. In a four-page letter, Barr wrote that Mueller's investigation did not find evidence that President Trump's campaign "conspired or coordinated" with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
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The letter to Congress also said Mueller's report "does not exonerate" the president on obstruction and instead "sets out evidence on both sides of the question." Barr said there was not sufficient evidence to determine an obstruction of justice offense against Trump.
Despite the findings in the report that were stated in Barr’s letter, Democrats have vowed to press on with their own investigations.
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Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the House Judiciary Committee chairman, tweeted that Barr's letter to Congress says that while Trump may have acted to obstruct justice, the government would need to prove that "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Nadler tweeted Congress must hear from Barr about his decision making and see "all the underlying evidence for the American people to know all the facts."
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Earlier in the day, Nadler said Congress and the public deserve to see the underlying evidence, not just a summary of conclusions, to make their own judgments on the Mueller report
Asked how long Democrats will be willing to wait before considering subpoenas, Nadler said, "It won't be months."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.