dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Kremlin: No evidence of election interference in Mueller report

The Kremlin on Friday said that the redacted report from special counsel Robert Mueller released by the Department of Justice on Thursday does not offer credible evidence that the Russian state interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there is “no evidence substantiated by any facts” that Russia meddled, according to The Associated Press.

Peskov noted that Moscow and President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly denied the allegations of interference “because there was none.”

“We regret that a document of this quality is having a direct impact on the development of bilateral Russian-U.S. relations that are already not in the best condition,” Peskov added, according to Reuters.

The chairman of Russia’s information committee, Alexei Pushkov, reportedly mocked the probe in the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament on Friday.

Pushkov hit the Justice Department’s investigation for spending millions of taxpayers’ money without proving collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to AP. He noted instead that the probe charged Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, with illegal lobbying on behalf of Ukraine.

The Justice Department on Thursday released the redacted version of Mueller's report looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The report was definitive in Mueller’s conclusion that no Americans or anyone from the Trump campaign conspired with Moscow during the campaign, but said Trump staffers expected to benefit from Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential race against Hillary Clinton.

“Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller wrote.

Outreach from Russian officials to individuals associated with the Trump campaign were noted in the report, including “business connections, offers of assistance to the Campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and Putin to meet in person, invitations for Campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved U.S.-Russian relations.”

The special counsel, however, found that no action by any Trump campaign official rose to the level of conspiracy as defined by federal law.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/439678-kremlin-no-evidence-of-election-interference-in-mueller-report