Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and any possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russian associates, said on Wednesday that charging President Donald Trump with a crime was not an option in the probe.

Regarding the obstruction of justice portion of the investigation involving the president, Mueller said that if his office was confident that “the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.”

Mueller said he will not speak any further about the findings contained in his report detailing the conclusions of his investigation. The statement came amid demands for Mueller to testify on Capitol Hill about his findings and tension with Attorney General William Barr over the handling of his report.

“The report is my testimony,” Mueller said.

Mueller did not take any questions after making his first public statement regarding the investigation on Wednesday. Mueller briefly explained the main findings contained in the two volumes of his report.

He explained that the Department of Justice has a longstanding policy that a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime. Mueller said a process outside of the criminal justice system would be needed to formally accuse a president of wrongdoing.

“It would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of an actual charge,” Mueller said.

Speaking about the first volume of his report, Mueller said that as alleged in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. He also said a private Russian entity engaged in a social media operation to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

The redacted version of the Mueller Report was released to the public on April 18. The report concluded that neither the Trump campaign nor anyone associated with it “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. While the report did not say that Trump obstructed justice, it did not exonerate him on that charge either.

Barr has said he was surprised that Mueller did not reach a conclusion, and decided with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that the evidence did not support an obstruction of justice allegation.

However, Democratic lawmakers have said there is enough problematic behavior described in the report to warrant that impeachment proceedings start against Trump. Most recently, Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, broke with his party’s ranks to say that Trump conducted impeachable offenses as described in the Mueller Report.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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