MANDEL NGAN / Contributor

Special counsel Robert Mueller stressed what he previously wrote in his 448-page report: If President Donald Trump had not committed a crime, investigators would have said so.

In other words: They never gave Trump that clean bill of health.

Mueller made very clear that no matter what they discovered on obstruction, the overriding principle that a president could not be indicted prevailed. Those Justice Department guidelines, which say a sitting president has temporary immunity from federal prosecution, date back to the Nixon era and were reaffirmed in the Clinton administration.

Mueller’s statement Wednesday on this topic was not in line with Attorney General William Barr’s previous comments downplaying the role of the decades-old guidance from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The role of Congress: Additionally, Mueller made clear he believes Congress has a role, saying the Constitution allows for a process outside of the criminal justice system to hold federal officeholders accountable. This was also featured in his report, which explicitly said that Congress has the power to a President accountable for obstruction-of-justice offenses.

He also defended his team and the right to investigate the issue of obstruction, amidst repeated charges by the President that the investigation was a politically motivated “witch hunt” that was riddled with corruption. Mueller noted that the order appointing him as special counsel in May 2017 explicitly authorized his obstruction inquiry.