One Thorn is Taken Out from President Trump; Democrats Demands Full Transparency of the Mueller Report; No Collusion, But No Exoneration; Mueller Investigation Wraps Up
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was an illegal takedown that failed.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: No collusion. No clear answer on obstruction. Robert Mueller says the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russians but leaves one major question unanswered, victory for the president and his team. Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. Thanks for joining us very early for Early Start. I'm Dave Briggs.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, March 25. It is 3 a.m. in the east. And who would have guessed President Trump and Robert Mueller would end up on the same page. The main takeaways from the special counsel's investigation have now been made public in a letter from Attorney General Bill Barr to Congress. And the top headline, as the president has been saying from the start, no collusion.</s>BRIGGS: The attorney general quoted Mueller saying, "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. That means no one will face charges for conspiring with the Russians."</s>TRUMP: 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. This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully somebody is going to looking at the other side.</s>ROMANS: On the obstruction of justice question, the special counsel decided not to render a judgment. Here's Barr, the attorney general again quoting Mueller. "While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Mueller left the ultimate decision on obstruction to the attorney general who was appointed by this president. Remember, a year ago, the Attorney General, Barr, wrote a memo saying he considered the obstruction investigation, quote, "fatally misconceived."</s>BRIGGS: In the letter, Barr cleared the president of obstruction and lean heavily on Mueller's findings about collusion to do so. He writes, "The absence of such evidence bears upon the president's intent with respect to obstruction." In other words, since this was no collusion with Russia, there could not be obstruction for firing FBI Director James Comey, even though the president did say this.</s>TRUMP: Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.</s>BRIGGS: Now Comey himself tweeted this pensive picture and the words "so many questions."</s>ROMANS: All right. A highly charged bitterly divided reaction in Congress to Barr's summation of the Mueller report, Democrats denouncing the process and gearing up for a fight with Republicans doing the victory dance. Sarah Westwood live from Washington with what comes next. Sarah?</s>SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Good morning, Christine. And House Democrats are prepared to call Attorney General Barr to testify in the weeks ahead to explain why he concluded after reading Mueller's report that the president did not commit obstruction even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his report did not draw any conclusions one way or the other when it comes to obstruction. Democratic House judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler said in a a statement, "It is unacceptable that after Special Counsel Mueller spent 22 months meticulously uncovering the evidence, Attorney General Barr made a decision not to charge the president in under 48 hours." Now even as Democrats were skeptical of that part of Barr's letter, Republicans were ready to take a victory lap after Attorney General Barr revealed that Special Counsel Mueller concluded that one of the main parts of the investigation Russian collusion that did not occur between the president or did not occur with the president's campaign. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican ally of the president was with President Trump in Mar-a-Lago in West Palm beach over the weekend. He wrote in a tweet, "Good day for the rule of law. Great day for President Trump and his team. No collusion and no obstruction. The cloud hanging over President Trump has been removed by this report." Now Doug Collins, that's the ranking Republican on the House committee has said that Democrats should drop their congressional investigations into President Trump, but of course, the judiciary chairman, Nadler and other Democratic-led committees in the House have already issued 81 requests for information or testimony from people associated with President Trump for lines of inquiry that go far beyond Russia. They intend to continue looking in those issues. And Nadler speaking both before and after the Barr letter came out did not seem ready to abandon those investigations. Take a listen.</s>REP. JERROLD NADLER, (D) NEW YORK: President Trump is wrong. This report does not amount to a so-called total exoneration. The attorney general's comments make it clear that Congress must step in to get the truth and provide full transparency to the American people. Obviously, we know there was -- we know there was some collusion. There's been obstruction of justice. Whether they are -- clearly, whether they are criminal obstruction is another question. What Congress has to do is look at a broader picture. We are in charge -- we have the responsibility of protecting the rule of law, of looking at obstructions of justice, at looking at abuses of power and corruption.</s>WESTWOOD: Now President Trump has already begun effectively his victory lap on the Mueller report claiming it vindicates him with no collusion or obstruction, even though Mueller didn't draw a conclusion on that front. A White House advisor tells CNN that there are fears that the president could say something that could cause more trouble for himself, he could overreach as he promotes the results of this investigation. He has a rally this week in Green Rapids, Michigan this week. So, Christine and Dave, we will stay tuned to what the president will have to say about the end of the Mueller probe at that time.</s>ROMANS: Absolutely. All right. Sarah in Washington, we'll talk to you again very soon. Thank you.</s>BRIGGS: It is not clear whether the American people will actually see the Mueller report. That decision is up to the Attorney General Bill Barr. The process to determine what can't be released already underway at the DOJ. The review includes material subject to what is called federal rule six. Essentially says the Justice Department won't release damaging information about people if they are not charged with a crime. But we've have already seen at least one notable exception.</s>JAMES COMEY, FORMER UNITED STATES FBI DIRECTOR: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive and highly classified information.</s>ROMANS: All right. CNN has reported that White House lawyers want to scour the Mueller report before it goes to Congress to exert executive privilege where they consider it necessary. Remember, President Trump was never interviewed in person by Mueller's team. His lawyers submitted written answers covering the time up until the election which would not be covered by privilege. Barr insists he favors transparency with caution.</s>WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: My goal would be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.</s>BRIGGS: The House recently voted 420 to zero to publicly release the reporting. Just last week, President Trump said he had no objections.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the American public have a right to see the Mueller report?</s>TRUMP: I don't mind. I mean, frankly, I told the House if you want, let them see it. Let it come out. Let people see it.</s>BRIGGS: Democrats are prepared to fight to get the entire report released.</s>NADLER: You should not then hide the evidence because that converts it into a cover up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.</s>NADLER: Congress needs that evidence and the American people need that evidence and the information to make judgments.</s>ROMANS: As James Comey noted, there are so many lingering questions. Chief among them, why so much smoke if there was no fire. Court filings established senior Trump associates were eager to accept help from the Russians. Prosecutors zeroed in on one Trump's -- on Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his extensive connections to Russians including one associate with ties to Russian intelligence.</s>BRIGGS: Manafort passed Trump campaign polling data to that associate while he was overseeing the campaign. Prosecutors said that move was at the heart of their investigation. Its revelation even forced the president's lawyer to narrow the scope of that no collusion claim.</s>RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Yes, you have.</s>GIULIANI: I have no idea if -- I have not. I said the president of the United States.</s>ROMANS: Nor has the smoke clear around Roger Stone. Mueller claim Stone was coordinating with Trump campaign officials, at the same time, he talked to WikiLeaks about the release of e-mails stolen from the Democrats. There are still no official word which campaign officials were coordinating with Stone, although Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen tried to clear that up last month.</s>MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER DONALD TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: Mr. Stone told Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of e-mails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign.</s>BRIGGS: Now even though the president may be absolved by Mueller, investigations spawned by the Mueller's probe brought down several members of Trump's inner circle. Among 37 criminal defendants charged by Mueller, there have been seven who pleaded guilty including Manafort, his deputy, Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Cohen, the long-time fixer and personal lawyer.</s>ROMANS: Cohen implicated the president in a hush money case spawned by the Mueller probe, a guilty plea that made the president all but in an indicted co-conspirator.</s>COHEN: And for the record, individual number one is President Donald J. Trump.</s>ROMANS: As many Trump supporters point out that many of these Trump confidants only pleaded guilty to lying to protect Trump. Meantime, the president's own lies to protect his image go unpunished.</s>BRIGGS: And legal trouble lurks for the president and his inner circle, potentially other investigations picking up momentum. Among the targets, the Trump inaugural committee, the Trump organization and the president is also being investigated for allege insurance fraud.</s>REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, (D) NEW YORK: Did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?</s>COHEN: Yes.</s>BRIGGS: Special counsel investigation started with Russia but widened significantly. Even if there was no collusion, offshoots of the Mueller probe are just gaining steam.</s>ROMANS: It's important to keep in mind what Mueller did uncover, the special counsel charged 12 Russian military officers in a sophisticated Kremlin hacking operation against Democrats, and 13 members of a Russian troll farm, internet troll farm accused of trying to manipulate American voters on social media. Russia attacked America's democracy and remains a threat.</s>BRIGGS: The president's nonstop witch hunt rhetoric may have made him the prime focus. But Russian interference is the core issue, it was ambitious, brazen and it is most importantly, ongoing. Even if President Trump won't stand up to Vladimir Putin, his entire intelligence apparatus agrees Moscow is not slowing down its interference campaign. You could argue the Russians got the bargain of a lifetime. They got the chaos and division they sewed and they are not done. They'll be back. What are we doing to protect our current system?</s>ROMANS: Yes. In this four-page, you know, summary from Barr, the attorney general, front and center here, Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is a big reminder that it is still --</s>BRIGGS: Yes.</s>ROMANS: -- a problem. All right. Twelve minutes past the hour. For the second time in a week, the Parkland community is in mourning. Two students commit suicide a year after the massacre, the shooting massacre that left classmates struggling to cope.