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Republicans tried to get Mueller to say that Trump didn’t criminally conspire with Russia, but he refused to make that statement.

Mueller wouldn’t say that Trump didn’t conspire with Russia:

Q: My question is when did you permanently reach that conclusion?

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Mueller: We were ongoing for two years.

Q: You were ongoing. You wrote it at some point during that two-year period. At some point, you had to come to the conclusion that I don’t think there’s — there’s not a conspiracy going on here. There was no conspiracy between this president and — I’m not talking about the rest of the president’s team. I’m talking about this president and the Russians.

Mueller: As you understand, developing a criminal case, you get a piece of information, a piece of information, witnesses and the like. And you make your case.

Q: Right.

Mueller: And when you make a decision a particular case depends on a number of factors.

Q: Right. I understand.

Mueller: Though I cannot say specifically that we reached a decision on a particular defendant at a particular point in time.

Q: But it was sometime well before you wrote the report. You wrote the report dealing with a myriad of issues. You reached the decision that, okay, with regard to the president himself, I don’t find anything here. Fair enough?

Mueller: Well, I’m not certain I do agree with that.

Video:

Mueller won't say that he reached the conclusion that Trump didn't conspire with the Russians. #MuellerHearings #MuellerDay pic.twitter.com/LqlakRQjlJ — PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 24, 2019

The purpose of this exchange was to try to get Mueller to confirm Trump’s false statements that he was cleared early in the investigation and that he didn’t conspire with Russia. Mueller refused to answer because his report didn’t address whether or not Trump conspired with the Russians. The report also did not exonerate or clear Donald Trump of anything. Mueller has stated repeatedly that Trump wasn’t cleared, and this lack of exoneration may also apply to conspiracy with Russia for help to win a presidential election.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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