Trump Declares ‘Complete Exoneration’ From Russia Collusion After Mueller Report

US President Donald Trump declared that he had been completely exonerated after his campaign was cleared of colluding with Russia in the 2016 election, in a major boost for his re-election hopes.

The long-awaited final report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Moscow’s election meddling concluded that no member or associate of the campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia in its plot to boost Trump in the vote more than two years ago.

While not completely absolving the president, Attorney General Bill Barr’s letter to Congress summarizing the still-secret Mueller report cleared a dark cloud that had hung over the Trump’s legitimacy since he took office in January 2017.

“There was no collusion with Russia. There was no obstruction. It was a complete and total exoneration,” Trump said of Mueller’s conclusions.

“It’s a shame that the country had to go through this,” he added. “This was an illegal takedown that failed.”

Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Trump was “in a really good mood” and “very happy with how it all turned out.”

Gidley said the president watched television, talked to staff and made calls during his flight home from Florida.

But the end of Mueller’s operation did not leave Trump’s White House in the clear as Democrats in Congress are already conducting some 17 investigations of the administration, spreading their net far more broadly than Mueller’s relatively narrow mandate.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr’s summary of the Mueller findings “raises as many questions as it answers.”