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Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Lauren Gambino in Washington and Adam Gabbatt in New York (earlier)

Democrats round on Barr over 'misleading' Trump exoneration – as it happened

This live blog has closed. Follow the latest coverage of the Mueller report on our new blog.

Evening summary

So that was a day.

Updated

Pelosi: Congress will not be silent

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi appears to be rallying the House Democrats, sending a letter to her colleagues and planning for a Monday conference call to discuss the Mueller report.

President Trump has been tweeting about the Mueller report for almost 12 hours now.

The Mueller report may possibly be the most-read document in the country at this point, but it’s not doing so hot on Goodreads.

From the one review: “The previous owner used a black highlighter on all the interesting bits and the main character has no redeeming qualities.”

Updated

Ilhan Omar to sign Tlaib's impeachment resolution

Congresswoman Omar joins fellow Democratic freshman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in signing Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s resolution.

A little bit of levity to lighten a day full of the Mueller report:

The House Democratic committee chairs issued a joint statement noting that they are “profoundly troubled by the astonishing efforts by President Trump identified in the report to obstruct justice”.

“It is now Congress’ responsibility to review and assess the evidence.”

The eight Congressional leaders who are briefed on classified intelligence matters will be allowed access to the less redacted Mueller report in an in-camera review on Monday, with the order that the redacted portions remain confidential.

Trump: I could have fired everyone

President Trump continues to double down on his defense that the Mueller probe was all a witch hunt.

AOC to sign impeachment resolution

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to make her sentiments clear.

The Guardian's coverage so far

  • Mueller “described 11 instances in which Donald Trump or his campaign engaged in potential obstruction of justice and suggested Congress might prosecute these acts as crimes.”
  • Over in Washington, Sabrina Siddiqui has a rundown of some key takeaways from the Trump-Russia investigation, including that the Trump campaign was “receptive” to help from the Russians.
  • Jon Swaine provides us with some much needed analysis: “Any other president in America’s history would have had to resign or now face being ousted. But no past president has so frequently denied reality, nor seemed so unfamiliar with the very concept of shame.”
  • Washington bureau chief David Smith takes a look at how Democrats are mobilizing in the wake of the explosive report.
  • Julian Borger and Marc Bennetts report that Trump claimed to have known in advance about the publication on the WikiLeaks website of hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton.
  • Over in Opinion, Richard Wolffe weighs in: “An entire crew of Trump staffers worked diligently together with several crews of Russians both before and after the 2016 election. George Papadopolous, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Erik Prince, Steven Bannon, Michael Flynn: there are more than enough Trumpsters in the Mueller section on Russia to prove collusion. The only problem is that collusion doesn’t exist as a legal concept.”

Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast, taking over for Lauren Gambino. What a day.

The release of the redacted Mueller report is a reminder that the Russian government doesn’t necessarily need to equip its spies with wigs, fake teeth, and poisoned umbrellas; US social media platforms provided the influence operation with a ready made platform for creating false identities.

Facebook is mentioned 81 times in the redacted report; by comparison, Ivanka Trump’s name comes up just 15 times. Other platforms that merited a mention include Twitter (68), Instagram (7), Google (6), YouTube (5) and Tumblr (1).

Much of the detail of how the operation leveraged these platforms to influence Americans has already been made public through congressional testimony, federal indictments and academic research. The Internet Research Agency (IRA) began building up its social media presence in 2014, with “specialists” focusing on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Still, the un-redacted portions of the report appear to provide some previously unreported details of the extent to which the Internet Research Agency (IRA) was able to manipulate unwitting Americans. IRA agents were able to recruit individuals to “perform political acts”, including “walking around New York City dressed up as Santa Claus with a Trump mask”.

The report makes clear that Facebook groups – the semi-private message boards within Facebook – were a major factor in the IRA’s success on the platform, alongside public pages and advertisements. One group, “United Muslims of America”, had more than 300,000 members, while “Don’t Shoot Us” had more than 250,000.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly touted Facebook groups as a key product that he argues will help Facebook achieve its mission of bringing the world closer together. The Guardian has previously reported on how the groups can also be hotbeds of extremism and misinformation.

The report also points out that the IRA accounts were promoted by close allies and advisors of the Trump campaign. One IRA-controlled Twitter account was retweeted by Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr and Eric, former campaign manager and senior advisor Kellyanne Conway, political aide Brad Parscale (who is now managing Trump’s re-election campaign) and former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Trump’s own Facebook page also posted photographs taken at a political rally organized by the IRA.

“Mr Trump posted about our event in Miami,” an IRA-controlled account wrote in response to the Facebook post. “This is great!”

The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington spotted this important passage as he fastidiously pours over the 448-page document.

Mueller lays out clear evidence that Trump attempted to lean on a couple of key witnesses to deflect the Russia inquiry away from him. The first was Paul Manafort.

Mueller recounts how Trump essentially dangled the promise of a pardon in front of his former campaign manager. “The president made repeated statements suggesting that a pardon was a possibility for Manafort, while also making it clear that the president did not want Manafort to ‘flip’.”

The report concludes that “with respect to Manafort, there is evidence that the president’s actions had the potential to influence Manafort’s decision whether to cooperate with the government.”

The second key witness was former White House counsel Don McGahn. Not only did Trump order McGahn to fire Mueller himself at a time when the Russia investigation was generating heat, but when the story of that order leaked to the press he ordered McGahn to lie and deny it.

Here’s the killer quote: “Substantial evidence indicates that in repeatedly urging McGahn to dispute that he was ordered to have the special counsel terminated, the president acted for the purpose of influencing McGahn’s account in order to deflect or prevent further scrutiny of the president’s conduct toward the investigation.”

In both these cases, Mueller is making a crystal clear case of witness tampering. As he explains in other parts of his report, he decided not to recommend charges on these or any other counts, not because – as the attorney general Bill Barr later ruled – there was insufficient evidence.

On the contrary, Mueller says there is plenty of evidence. But he is leaving the dilemma of what to do with it up to Congress.

Trump boarded Marine One en route to Mar-a-lago without taking questions from reporters, the Guardian’s David Smith reports.

Adam Schiff, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the report indicates that the actions of Trump’s campaign and associates “are unquestionably dishonest, unethical, immoral and unpatriotic”.

“That is not the subject of vindication, that is the subject of condemnation,” Schiff said speaking from California.

Asked about Trump’s claim that it is “game over,” Schiff said that it is certainly not.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer – the second-ranking Democrat in the House – told CNN he thinks, at least at this point, impeachment is “not worthwhile”.

In an interview on Fox News, White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway likened the investigation to a “proctology exam” and declared Trump had emerged with “a clean bill of health”.

She maintained that the report was an unblemished exoneration of the president and reiterated her demand for House intelligence chairman Adam Schiff to resign.

“I was the first person to publicly call for Adam Schiff’s resignation from Intelligence Committee Chairman a couple weeks ago on your network,” she told Fox. “I’m going to double down on this. Not only should he resign, but he should produce the evidence that he says he had… he ought to put up or shut up.”

Reporters have long accused White House press secretary Sarah Sanders of not being truthful with the press corps. But here, in sworn testimony, she confirms that the reason she offered for Trump firing Comey – that Comey had lost the confidence of the rank and file members of the FBI - was “not founded on anything.”

As details emerge…

from the Mueller report, The Guardian will continue to investigate, report and expose the truth to make sure we understand the complete story. At this critical moment in American history, we’ll use the strength of independent journalism to challenge false narratives, sort facts from lies and create transparency to hold the powerful accountable.

But we need your help, too. More people, all around the world, are reading and supporting The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall. We have chosen an approach that allows us to keep our reporting accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live or what they can afford. We hope you’ll consider making a contribution. Every contribution we receive goes directly into funding our journalism. Support The Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you

Nadler: Barr's defense of Trump 'disingenuous and misleading'

Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler is holding a press conference in New York.

He accuses Barr of “undermin[ing] his own department in order to protect President Trump”. He said it was “disingenuous and misleading” of Barr to say Trump is “clear of wrongdoing”.

Barr is scheduled to testify before the committee on May 2. Nadler said he has formerly requested Mueller also testify before the committee because “we can’t believe what Barr tells us.”

The Mueller report outlines “disturbing evidence” that president Trump engaged in obstruction of justice, Nadler says.

He said the report is clear that Mueller did not exonerate Trump and that the responsibility now lies with Congress.

Asked about impeachment, Nadler said: “It’s too early to talk about. We will have to follow the evidence where it leads.”

He said he believes the report provides Congress a “road map”.

Updated

White House: Today is the 'best day' of Trump's presidency

White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters that the publication of the Mueller report is “really the best day since he got elected”. She reiterated Trump’s insistence that there was “no collusion, and there was certainly no criminal conspiracy with any Russians”.

“We’re accepting apologies today, too, for anybody who feels the grace in offering them,” Conway said.

Updated

Hello! Lauren Gambino here in the nation’s capital. I’m taking the keyboard from Adam for the duration of the afternoon. Stay tuned for our continuing coverage of the Mueller report.

Updated

Mike Pence, vice-president and Christian, has issued a statement on the Mueller report. It’s a greatest hits of nonsense, containing the same lies as Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s statement earlier.

I’ve put the bits that are incorrect in bold:

Today’s release of the special counsel’s report confirms what the president and I have said since day one: there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and there was no obstruction of justice.

After two years of investigation, conducted with the full cooperation of this administration, that involved hundreds of witness interviews and millions of pages of documents, the American people can see for themselves: no collusion, no obstruction.

Now that the special counsel investigation is completed, the American people have a right to know whether the initial investigation was in keeping with long-standing justice department standards — or even lawful at all. We must never allow our justice system to be exploited in pursuit of a political agenda.

While many Democrats will cling to discredited allegations, the American people can be confident President Trump and I will continue to focus where we always have, on advancing an agenda that’s making our nation stronger, safer, and more secure.

Mike Pence
Mike Pence, right. Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Political reaction to the report had been baked into the cake by Barr’s four-page summary last month. Trump and Republicans inevitably circled the wagons and claimed vindication again; Democrats seized on the damning evidence that the president attempted to obstruct justice and was saved only by those around him.

The timing of the report was fortunate for Trump, with Congress not in session and Washington winding down for Easter. Attorney general William Barr also did his best to positive spin on the findings in a pre-publication briefing. Garry Kasparov, the Russian human rights activist, tweeted: “Barr’s press conference reminded me of the Soviet spokesmen reassuring people in bread lines that the grain harvest is again at record levels.”

Responses to the report itself broke down along predictably partisan lines. Trump himself, speaking at an unrelated White House event, said: “This should never happen to another president again. This hoax – it should never happen to another president again.” He added on Twitter: “GAME OVER” with a photoshopped image from Game of Thrones.

There was also a preview of how Trump will attempt to use the report to his advantage in next year’s presidential election, arguing that it was cooked up by Democrats and the deep state in an attempt to thwart his supporters.

His reelection campaign said in a statement: “President Trump has been fully and completely exonerated yet again. Now the tables have turned, and it’s time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever.”

There were few cracks in the Republican wall. Congressman Jim Jordan, ranking member of the House committee on oversight and reform, said: “It would be a miscarriage of justice to use cherry-picked bits of information from the report to sow further divisiveness and spread conspiracies that serve only to undermine our democratic institutions.”

But there was plenty of fodder for Democrats and other critics of the president, including his attempt to remove Mueller, which McGahn refused. Mueller writes: “The president’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement: “The differences are stark between what Attorney General Barr said on obstruction and what Special Counsel Mueller said on obstruction.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi
Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

“As we continue to review the report, one thing is clear: Attorney General Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice while Mueller’s report appears to undercut that finding.”

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler added: “Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct.

“The report concluded there was ‘substantial evidence’ that President Trump attempted to prevent an investigation into his campaign and his own conduct. Contrary to the Attorney General’s statement this morning that the White House ‘fully cooperated’ with the investigation, the report makes clear that the president refused to be interviewed by the special counsel and refused to provide written answers to follow-up questions; and his associates destroyed evidence relevant to the Russia investigation.”

Democrats have called for Mueller to testify on Capitol Hill. Some may even reconsider whether to push for Trump’s impeachment, although Republican control of the Senate could make that a messy and inconclusive process.

Updated

From Russia with (no) love: Russian officials have branded Mueller’s allegations of election meddling “absurd”, according to the Guardian’s Marc Bennetts:

“Two years of work and tens of millions of dollars wasted,” is how Russian state TV’s Channel One described Mueller’s investigation into allegations of collusion between Trump and Russia. There has been no comment yet from the Kremlin on Mueller’s findings that there were multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government.

Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections were “absurd,” evidence of “Russophobia,” and part of an “internal political struggle in Washington”.

He also warned that the accusations that Russia tried to sway the election had seen US-Russia relations hit “rock bottom” and that as a result “fundamental agreements on arm control” were in danger of collapse.

Slutsky said: “Politicians in Washington must finally come to their senses and realize that such activities have brought the world to the brink of war.”

Bill Barr’s pre-spin on the Mueller report is looking shakier by the minute. The attorney general told us this morning that the White House had “fully cooperated” with the investigation.

Let’s not forget that Trump refused to be interviewed by Mueller – instead he only agreed to give written responses. Now, we get to see for the first time the president’s answers to the questions the special counsel posed him, reproduced as an appendix.

As a clearly exasperated Mueller notes, “the president stated on more than 30 occasions that he ‘does not recall’ or ‘remember’ or ‘have an independent recollection’” of information called for by the questions.

When you read Trump’s answers you can see what Mueller means. Take the first three responses the president gives relating to the Trump Tower meeting between his eldest son, Don Jr, and a group of Russians in June 2016.

They begin:

- “I have no recollection…”

- “Nor do I recall…”

- “I have no independent recollection…”

After he received these replies, Mueller went back to Trump and asked again for a face-to-face interview, given the “inadequacy of the written format”. Trump declined.

Updated

The Trump 2020 campaign has put out a statement about the Mueller report which makes a series of incorrect claims.

The statement, from Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale, claims Trump has been “fully and completely exonerated”, which is incorrect. Mueller specifically wrote that the report “does not exonerate” Trump.

Parscale also mentions “obstruction conspiracy theories”, despite Mueller detailing 11 instances in which Donald Trump or his campaign engaged in potential obstruction of justice, and despite the Special Counsel suggesting that Congress might prosecute the acts as crimes.

With those caveats, here’s Parscale’s piece:

STATEMENT ON RELEASE OF FULL MUELLER REPORT

“President Trump has been fully and completely exonerated yet again. Now the tables have turned, and it’s time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump, motivated by political retribution and based on no evidence whatsoever.

There is simply no denying that ‘spying did occur’ on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, as Attorney General Barr himself noted in testimony before Congress.

Barr went on to testify that there was a ‘failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelon [of the FBI]… [and] I feel I have an obligation to make sure that government power is not abused.’

Now that the collusion and obstruction conspiracy theories have been exposed for the pathetic hoaxes they always were, the Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people. Justice will be served.

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, who apparently has not read Mueller’s report. Photograph: Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images

Updated

Witnesses: Trump personally discussed WikiLeaks email dump

Mueller floats evidence in his report that Trump was personally involved in discussions over the WikiLeaks dumps of Democratic emails hacked by Russia.

The report says that when WikiLeaks began publishing emails stolen from the Democratic National Convention in July 2016, Trump’s campaign aides “reacted with enthusiasm to reports of the hacks”.

“[REDACTED] discussed with campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release the hacked material. Some witnesses said that Trump himself discussed the upcoming releases.”

Rick Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, told Mueller that in the summer of 2016, a few months before the presidential election: “The campaign was planning a communications strategy based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks”.

Updated

In Fox News land, there is nothing which damages Trump in this slew of disclosures, says Guardian fellow Lauren Aratani, who has been watching the right-wing news channel.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s personal legal team, declared victory during an interview with host Bill Hemmer this afternoon. But. Giuliani seemed to be relying on, in his words, it being “very, very hard to make an obstruction case”.

“We’re very, very happy. It’s a clear victory,” Giuliani said.

Look at page two of the report, [Mueller] says two statements: ‘He says we can’t conclude the president has commit a crime, but we can’t exonerate him.’ Well, nobody is asking to exonerate him. The reality is that the overarching principal of obstruction law is very, very hard to make an obstruction case, that there’s an underlying crime, so you have to assume the president is innocent, which he is.

Hemmer asked Giuliani why Mueller didn’t make a call on obstruction of justice. Giuliani offered this:

I suspect he had a disagreement amongst his staff. The attorney general today laid out the classic view of obstruction. I had many debates with him. What the independent special counsel’s office is doing was trying to extend that statute beyond their reach.

Renowned lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Renowned lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Updated

After Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were indicted by a grand jury on multiple felony counts Manafort told Gates he had spoken to Trump’s personal counsel, and said: “We’ll be taken care of.”

The word “pardon” is not explicitly mentioned, but Mueller writes that Manafort told Gates he “had talked to the president’s personal counsel and they were ‘going to take care of us’”.

Manafort also told Gates it was stupid to plead, saying that he had been in touch with the president’s personal counsel and repeating that they should “sit tight” and “we’ll be taken care of.”

That snippet is on page 123 of Vol 2 of the report.

Trump attempted to fire Special Counsel, told lawyer: 'Mueller has to go'

The Mueller report says that in June 2017, Trump directed told his White House counsel to call acting attorney general Rod Rosenstein and order him to fire Robert Mueller, Trump saying: “Mueller has to go.”

Don McGahn, the counsel, refused, deciding he would rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential “Saturday Night Massacre” – of Watergate firings fame.

According to the Mueller report, Trump twice told McGahn to order Rosenstein to fire Mueller, saying Mueller had “conflicts that precluded him from serving as special counsel”.

McGahn, who left the White House in October 2018, recalled the president telling him:

“Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be special counsel.”

McGahn also recalled Trump telling him: “Mueller has to go” and: “Call me back when you do it.”

The incident is detailed on page 85 and 86 of Vol 2 of the report.

White House counsel Don McGhan.
White House counsel Don McGahn. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

We heard Barr say earlier this morning that Mueller divides the second half of his report into 10 episodes of possible obstruction of justice by Trump. In fact, the special counsel lists 11 key issues, which he headlines as:

1) How the Trump campaign reacted to reports that Russia was trying to interfere with the 2016 presidential election on Trump’s behalf, including response to WikiLeaks’ dump of emails

2) How Trump behaved over the investigation into his first national security adviser Michael Flynn

3) Trump’s reaction to the start of the FBI’s investigation into potential links with Russia, including when he asked the then FBI director James Comey to “lift the cloud” over his presidency

4) The firing of Comey

5) Trump’s efforts to have Mueller himself fired – a particularly ironic episode given the report’s author

6) The president’s on-going attempts to curtail Mueller’s investigation and limit its remit

7) Trump’s efforts to prevent details becoming public of the notorious Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 between his son Don Jr, son-in-law Jared Kusher and Paul Manafort with a group of Russians peddling dirt on Hillary Clinton

8) The president’s bid to force Jeff Sessions, the then attorney general, to reverse his decision to recuse himself from the Russia inquiry and take back the reins of the investigation

9) A new detail this: How Trump not only ordered then White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller in June 2017, he then went on to order McGahn publicly to deny that he had told him to do so. (McGahn refused to do either.)

10) Trump’s behavior towards Flynn after the latter began cooperating with investigators, including asking Flynn to give him a “heads up” if he knew “information that implicates the President”.

11) The president’s conduct towards his longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, particularly after Cohen “flipped” and began cooperating with Mueller.

Updated

Summary - key takeways from Mueller report so far

•Robert Mueller described 11 instances in which Donald Trump engaged in potential obstruction of justice and suggested that Congress might prosecute the acts as crimes, though Mueller stopped short of recommending such a prosecution.

•Mueller went much further than attorney general Bill Barr has suggested, the special counsel pointing to serious wrongdoing on Trump’s part that could amount to criminal activity. Mueller said that had his team concluded that the president had committed no crime, they would have said so. Instead, Mueller wrote: “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

•Mueller’s investigation found that “in some instances, the [Trump] campaign was receptive” to Russian offers of help in the presidential election. In other instances campaign officials “shied away”, Mueller wrote. “Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the campaign co-ordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” the report says.

•Trump believed he was “fucked” and his presidency over when Robert Mueller was appointed. According to notes kept by Jody Hunt, who served as Sessions’ chief of staff, Trump’s reaction to Mueller’s appointment was as follows: “The President slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.’”

Updated

Page 52 of the report has a heading: “Contacts with the campaign about WikiLeaks”, but there are a tantalizing number of redactions over the following six pages.

There is a reference to Ted Malloch, a London-based American academic: “Malloch recalled that [Jerome] Corsi also suggested that individuals in the ‘orbit’ of UK politician Nigel Farage might be able to contact [Julian] Assange and asked if Malloch knew them.

Malloch told Corsi that he would think about the request but made no actual attempt to connect Corsi with Assange. But some passages on the page are blacked out.

Assange was arrested last week, and the US is seeking his extradition over allegations he conspired with former US military analyst Chelsea Manning to download classified databases.

Updated

Earlier the House judiciary committee asked Robert Mueller to testify, and now the House intelligence committee, chaired by Adam Schiff, wants in on the act:

Mueller is going to be busy...

Trump is hosting a Wounded Warrior event at the White House today. He says he is having a “good day”:

“They’re having a good day, I’m having a good day too. It’s called no collusion, no obstruction,” Trump said.

“We do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say. And this should never happen, I say in front of my friends, Wounded Warriors, but i just call them warriors ... we just shook hands and they look great.”

“This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. It should never happen to another president again. Thank you.”

Trump believed he was “fucked” when Robert Mueller was appointed, according to this snippet spotted by Politico’s Dan Diamond:

That’s on page 290, if you’re also reading the report.

Mueller 'unable to reach judgement' that Trump did not commit crime

In his introduction to the second part of his report, on obstruction of justice, Robert Mueller goes much further than attorney general Bill Barr has suggested and points to serious wrongdoing on Trump’s part that could amount to criminal activity.

Mueller states that had his team concluded that the president had committed no crime, they would have said so. Instead, Mueller writes:

Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.

There’s more trouble for Trump in the next sentence. Mueller alludes to having found “evidence about the president’s actions and intent” that “prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred”. Mueller adds:

“Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Trump campaign was 'receptive' to some offers of help by Russians

Mueller’s investigation found that “in some instances, the [Trump] campaign was receptive” to Russian offers of help in the presidential election, according to the report.

The special counsel also found that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts”.

From page 179 of the report, if you’re reading along:

In sum the investigation established multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government.

Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the campaign. In some instances, the campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the campaign officials shied away.

Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the campaign co-ordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Updated

Mueller report is made public

The Department of Justice has published Robert Mueller’s report.

It’s here.

More to follow.

Updated

Donald Trump has done a tweet ripping off Game of Thrones.

(Of course, we now know that Mueller’s report identified 10 episodes of potential obstruction, all involving Trump, but Barr decided the instances “did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law”.)

Analysis: 10 episodes of potential obstruction will be powerful line of inquiry

One part of Bill Barr’s comments that is likely to be the subject of hot debate relates to the obstruction of justice piece of the Mueller report. The attorney general said 10 episodes of potential obstruction, all involving Trump, had been identified in the report.

He then went on to say that he and his deputy Rod Rosenstein had disagreed with Mueller over his legal thinking. They “felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law”.

That is a big flashing light as to what to watch for when the redacted report is finally released, probably within the next hour. Bear in mind that Barr is not a neutral player in the obstruction game.

Months before Trump handpicked him as attorney general, Barr took it upon himself to draw up a memo for senior justice officials in which he argued that Mueller’s investigation into obstruction was “fatally flawed”. Trump, he said, was totally within his powers to fire the then FBI director James Comey.

This is likely to be a powerful line of inquiry once the report comes out, and in the days and weeks ahead: what were the legal differences of opinion between Mueller and Barr over the 10 episodes of potential obstruction laid out in the report?

How serious were those disagreements? And what does it reveal about why Barr took it upon himself to conclude that there was insufficient evidence to justify an obstruction charge – something that Mueller himself declined to do.

Donald Trump
Bill Barr found Trump did not obstruct justice. Photograph: UPI/Barcroft Images

Updated

Guardian US’s reporting fellow, Lauren Aratani, is keeping an eye on the Fox News reaction to Barr’s presser and, later, Mueller’s report.

There seems to be a cheery vibe over there. And why wouldn’t there be! Barr has just told us Trump did nothing wrong!

Lauren reports that this was the take of Fox chief national correspondent Ed Henry:

As we talk about this back and forth, let’s just have a time-out and remember that William Barr, the attorney general, is now saying directly that a narrative pushed by the Democrats is false. The collusion in the Trump campaign, the White House and the Russians [... ]You heard William Barr say that again and again.

Let’s not forget, we haven’t heard from the Democrats because they haven’t seen the full report [...] But [Representative] Adam Schiff and the House Democrats, for two years, they’ve been accusing, claiming they have evidence of collusion. The attorney general of the United States is again saying definitively that is not true.

Updated

Barr’s handling of Mueller report ‘regrettably partisan’ – Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer

House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer put out a joint statement earlier, reiterating Jerrold Nadler’s call for Mueller to appear before Congress and laying into Bill Barr’s performance today.

(Take a deep breath because this is a long sentence):

Attorney General Barr’s regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report, including his slanted March 24 summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress last week, and his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference [...] – hours before he allows the public or Congress to see it – have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality.

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer: unimpressed.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer: unimpressed. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Democrats ask Mueller to testify before House committee

Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary committee, has written to Robert Mueller, asking him to appear “as soon as possible”.

“I request your testimony before the judiciary committee as soon as possible – but, in any event, no later than May 23 2019,” Nadler wrote.

Russia has responded to the impending publication of the Mueller report. It seems the Kremlin isn’t that bothered:

“This is not an issue for us,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, when asked if Moscow was concerned about the imminent release of Mueller’s report.

“It is not a thing that interests us or causes us concern… We have plenty of other important, interesting, fruitful, and constructive things to do. That’s what we prefer to focus on.”

Thanks to the Guardian’s Marc Bennetts for that snippet.

Analysis: Barr’s performance confirmed worst fears of Democrats

Maybe Rudy Giuliani ought to worry about his job as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. William Barr seemingly just auditioned to replace him. His press conference was a performance that appeared to be aimed at an audience of one.

The attorney general sought to tug at the heart strings, telling how Trump “faced an unprecedented situation” as federal agents and prosecutors scrutinized his conduct before and after taking office and the media speculated personal culpability. The president “was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks”, Barr said.

To many ears, these sounds like lame excuses for Trump’s own “unprecedented” and unhinged attacks on Mueller and the FBI. Barr went on to claim that the White House “fully cooperated” with the special counsel’s investigation. Yet Trump himself did not agree to be interviewed, apparently on advice that he would likely incriminate himself.

Barr’s performance will have confirmed the worst fears of Democrats that he is an apologist for the president. It will also have gone down very well at the White House, perhaps even better than an episode of Fox and Friends. Once again, the world got to see the Barr report and was left wondering what lurks in the Mueller report.

Updated

Some reaction from political journalists:

Barr has finished speaking. The attorney general’s press conference lasted 22 minutes, and was full of positive news for Trump, but also contained dubious claims and theories which seemed weighted in favor of the president.

Barr said that Trump did not obstruct justice – but in doing so admitted he had “disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories” in coming to that conclusion.

Barr also claimed, falsely, that the White House “fully cooperated” with Mueller. In fact, Trump refused to be interviewed.

Barr also seemed to claim that Trump being “frustrated and angered” mitigated against some of the obstructions of justice allegations.

Four times Barr said there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Bill Barr holds a news conference on the Mueller report.
Bill Barr holds a news conference on the Mueller report. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

As the Mueller report unfolds…

The Guardian offers clarity at this critical moment in American history. We’ll continue to provide factual reporting and insight to bring the whole truth to light as the most momentous political probe since Watergate unfolds.

But we need your help, too. What makes The Guardian different from so many others in media is our editorial independence, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. Every contribution we receive from readers like you, big or small, goes directly into funding our journalism. This support enables us to keep working as we do – but we must maintain and build on it for every year to come. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you

Updated

Barr: Report examined 'ten episodes' of potential Trump obstruction of justice

“The report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense,” Barr says.

It’s hard to avoid the sense that Barr is going out of his way to defend Trump here. Because while Mueller documented those ten episodes, Barr says he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein:

“Concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

Barr adds:

Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision.

Barr says one of the other things that influenced his belief that Trump did not obstruct justice is that there was evidence that Trump was “frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the [Mueller] investigation was” hindering his presidency.

But the White House “fully cooperated” with the special counsel’s investigation, Barr says.

Updated

The special counsel “did not find that any person associated with the Trump camp illegally participated in the dissemination of” hacked materials – such as the hacked DNC emails – Barr says.

“After nearly two years of investigation”, Barr says, “the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts” to influence the 2016 presidential election.

But Barr adds that the special counsel:

“Did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those efforts.”

Updated

Attorney general Bill Barr speaks

Bill Barr is speaking at a news conference ahead of the Mueller report being released.

“I’m committed to ensuring the greatest degree” of transparency, Barr said.

“At 11 this morning I’m going to transmit copies [of the report] to Congress,” Barr says. The report will be posted the department’s website “after it has been delivered to Congress”.

“Volume 1” of the special counsel’s report is on the topic of Trump-Russia collusion, Barr says. Barr repeats the assertion from his four page summary that Mueller:

“Did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”

Barr discusses Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. We now know, Barr says, that Russia: “Did not have the cooperation of president Trump or the Trump campaign.”

Barr says there was “no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Updated

Trump has posted a video super-cut of him saying “no collusion”. You can watch it below if that’s your thing.

Remember that Mueller’s report absolutely did not find “no obstruction”. On the issue of obstruction of justice, Mueller wrote:

While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.

Updated

Justice department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Barr’s 9.30am press conference will focus on:

Addressing the DoJ’s interactions with the White House over Mueller’s report, whether executive privilege was invoked, and the process Barr used to black out portions of the document.

As previously mentioned, Democrats are unhappy. House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had “thrown out his credibility” and “the DOJ’s independence”.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said “the process is poisoned before the report is even released.”

“Barr shouldn’t be spinning the report at all, but it’s doubly outrageous he’s doing it before America is given a chance to read it,” Schumer added.

Rep Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, had this:

Here’s our man! And he’s rolling out the hits:

Trump has tweeted the phrase “presidential harassment” 14 times in the last six months. Lest we forget, Trump was a prominent “birther theory” voice and constantly harassed President Barack Obama during his time in office.

The president has also urged his followers to watch Barr’s “press conference” at 9.30am. Trump said his adherents should view it on Fox News.

Those redactions...

... could prove contentious.

Barr has said the redactions will be divided into four categories: grand jury material; classified material from US intelligence agencies or allies; details that could compromise ongoing investigations; and, in Barr’s words: “information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties”.

“That last category could prominently include Trump,” writes my colleague Tom McCarthy.

Barr is seen as a Trump loyalist with a low opinion of Mueller’s investigation. Barr will probably be challenged to explain why certain material was deemed unfit for public view. Democrats in the House have already said they will subpoena the full report.

What else do we know about the report?

Well, it is long: at about 400 pages it’s lengthier than Donald Trump’s “co-written” book The Art of the Deal.

Barr has previously said the report is split into two parts: one part dedicated to Russian tampering efforts, and another focussing on evidence of alleged obstruction of justice by the president.

The report is the result of Mueller’s 22 month investigation, during which the special counsel issued nearly 500 search warrants and more than 2,800 subpoenas indictments, and interviewed about 500 witnesses. Mueller’s probe resulted in 37 indictments or guilty pleas, including some from Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Bill Barr walking
Bill Barr (middle) will hold a briefing on the Mueller report at 9.30am. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Redacted Mueller report to be released

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage of US political news. Today is a big day: we’ll finally get to see Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Department of Justice is due to release the report to Congress between 11am and noon ET, then released generally on the DoJ website after that.

Barr is holding a news conference at 9.30am to discuss the report, which will clearly limit the questions journalists can ask. Democrats, including Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, have criticized Barr’s process, accusing the attorney general of attempting to prejudice public reception of the report in favor of the White House.

Barr released a four page summary of the report on 25 March, in which he said Mueller had found no evidence that neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides colluded with Russia during the election.

Regarding potential obstruction of justice by Trump, however, Mueller was far less equivocal. According to Barr’s summary, Mueller wrote: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

One of the big questions – once we eventually get the report – will be how much of it has been redacted. Barr says his redactions, which fall into four different categories, will be color-coded.

Follow here for the latest news and analysis as the Mueller report is finally released to the public.

Updated

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