More info from Mueller report to be made available in weeks, not months
Washington -- Emboldened by the Justice Department summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, President Trump has gone on the offensive, lashing out at his critics and calling for probes into unidentified people who he said lied to Congress, committed "evil" deeds and participated in "treasonous things."
"We can never let this happen to another president again," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday afternoon.
The president's calls have been echoed by his Republican allies in Congress.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department confirmed that it will take weeks for Attorney General William Barr to release more information from the report.
Democrats, meanwhile, remain unconvinced by Attorney General William Barr's four-page summary of Mueller's investigation. On Monday evening, the Democratic chairs of powerful committees in the House demanded Barr release Mueller's entire report, as well the underlying evidence of the nearly two-year investigation, by early next week.
Although Barr is expected to release more information from the report in the coming weeks, Democrats have vowed to subpoena both Mueller and Barr and compel them to testify before Congress.
Follow our live coverage for updates throughout the day.
When will Barr release more of the Mueller report?
The Justice Department confirmed Tuesday that it would take weeks, not months, for Attorney General William Barr to make additional information available from the Mueller report.
The White House will not be receiving an advance copy, according to the Justice Department. And a lawyer from the special counsel's office will be helping to go through the material to sort out what can be made public.
-Paula Reid and Clare Hymes
Trump questions whether DOJ was tipping the scales
Mr. Trump, asked on Capitol Hill about Sen. Lindsey Graham's call for a second special counsel to investigate the origins of the Mueller probe, reiterated he wants to see "how this all started."
"Those in charge on Capitol Hill will be watching," the president said. "But let's see how this all started. Did we have top people at Justice trying to skip the scales to keep Trump from being elected."
On Monday, Graham told reporters, "I'd like to find somebody, like a Mr. Mueller, that can look into what happened with the FISA warrants, the counterintelligence investigation. Am I right to be concerned? It seems pretty bad on its face--but there are some people that are never going to accept the Mueller report, but by any reasonable standard, Mueller thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign. You cannot say that about the other side of the story."
Trump: Mueller's findings "could not have been better"
Before entering a policy lunch with Republican senators on Capitol Hill, President Trump praised the attorney general's "great" summary of Mueller's final report, saying its findings "could not have been better."
As he has done in the last two days, Mr. Trump misstated the Justice Department summary of Mueller's investigation, claiming on Tuesday afternoon that Mueller found "no obstruction, no collusion."
According to the summary authored by Barr, Mueller did not find evidence of collusion or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but the special counsel did not reach a conclusion in his probe into whether the president obstructed justice. "While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Mueller's report read, according to the Justice Department summary.
Barr, and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, determined the evidence gathered by Mueller did not establish Mr. Trump had committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.
Schiff says calls for his resignation are "nothing new"
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, brushed off calls for his resignation from the White House and Republicans, who have questioned his credibility after the release of Barr's summary of Mueller's report.
"I'm used to attacks from the president and his allies in Congress. This is really nothing new and nothing unexpected," Schiff told reporters Tuesday.
Since the Justice Department unveiled its four-page summary of Mueller's findings, administration officials, Republicans in Congress and conservative media pundits have unleashed a flurry criticism against Schiff, one of Mr. Trump's most vocal critics in the House.
Some Republicans, like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have urged Schiff to give up his gavel in the Intelligence Committee. Others, including White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, have gone further, calling on the California Democrat to resign from Congress imediaetly.
Calling Mueller a "gold standard," Conway warns Democrats not to continue probes
Calling the Mueller investigation a "gold standard," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway warned congressional Democrats that if they continue their committee probes into the president's conduct, policies and business dealings, the American public will see their efforts as a partisan ploy to remove the president from office.
"The Mueller investigation is the gold standard and if the investigators on Capitol Hill want to continue, it will be seen as hyper partisan and politicized," Conway told reporters Tuesday, adding that Democrats should work with the White House on legislative proposals that enjoy bipartisan support, like infrastructure legislation.
Asked if the White House could substantiate claims by the president Monday in which he said some critics who had participated "in treasonous things" should be investigated, Conway demurred. "He said maybe people committed treason -- he said that, so we'll see," she said.
Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.
House Republicans welcome Barr summary release
House Republicans welcomed the release of Barr's summary of the Mueller report in a news conference Tuesday morning.
It's time, Republican leaders urged, for the country to move on, and for Democrats to do so as well. They called on "those who misled the American public" and those who claimed there was circumstantial evidence of collusion to apologize.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the country is owed an apology, and asked if Mr. Trump is owed an apology as well, said he was. McCarthy also called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to remove Rep. Adam Schiff from his position as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
-- Rebecca Kaplan
Pelosi: Impeachment is not on the table until it is on the table
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, asked if she has a message for members of her caucus who still might want impeachment to be on the table after Barr's summary, expressed caution.
"Well I think that we want -- right now the message should be clearly, 'Let us see this report.' I have great respect for -- special counsel Mueller, but let us see the report. We don't need an interpretation by an attorney general who is appointed for a particular job, to make sure the president is above the law. We need to see the report. So that's my message to our members."
When a reporter asked to clarify if impeachment is off the table, she said, "Impeachment's not on the table until it is on the table, so it's not a question of that. This is not about that, this is about us doing our work. Today we're introducing our health care bill, tomorrow we'll be doing climate. It's about building infrastructure in a green way. It's about clean government. We're on our agenda, we've been doing what we said we were gonna do in the campaign, and that's what we're doing. So in addition to that, we are honoring our oath to uphold the constitution of the United States, and we need to see the report so that we can do that. Thank you."
-- CBS News' Rebecca Kaplan
Trump blasts media as "enemy of the people" for Russia coverage
"The Mainstream Media is under fire and being scorned all over the World as being corrupt and FAKE. For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion when they always knew there was No Collusion. They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!" Mr. Trump tweeted early Tuesday morning.
The White House repeatedly faulted the media for its coverage of the 22-month long investigation, with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders telling reporters on Monday, that the "liberal media" should be "embarrassed."
"It's disgraceful the fact that it took two years," she said. "I think that it's disgraceful that we had 25 million dollars in taxpayer money to chase a witch hunt that should've never taken place in the first place."
The Mueller Report: A Turning Point
Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election for nearly two years and Sunday, America finally learned at least some of his findings: In a letter to congressional leaders, Attorney General William Barr quotes the report as saying, "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
But there are still many unanswered questions. Mueller didn't make a determination as to whether Mr. Trump obstructed the investigation, but Barr said there was insufficient evidence to establish that the president committed obstruction of justice. Democratic lawmakers continue to investigate, and say the full report must be made public.
Why was the special counsel appointed? And why did American voters and elected officials alike come to question if the president of the United States colluded with a foreign government?
Watch the CBS News special "The Mueller Report: A Turning Point" to find out more.
Russian Foreign Ministry slams FBI probe as a "fabrication"
Russia's Foreign Ministry slammed the FBI's probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, saying in a statement that Mueller's findings were "to be expected."
"It is surprising, though, that it took 19 lawyers who were assisted by a team of 40 FBI agents, intelligence forensic accountants, and other professional staff, issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses, nearly two years to come to this conclusion. In other words, it took huge efforts and, obviously, a great deal of the taxpayers' money to overturn an obvious fabrication," the statement read.
The Russians, however, still denied having a part to play in the disinformation campaign carried out during the 2016 election, something intelligence chiefs confirmed took place.
"Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has not produced any proof of Moscow's involvement in the infamous cyberattacks and other attempts to erode the American democracy, a charge that has been constantly brought against Russia," the statement read.
According to Barr's summary, Mueller wrote in his report that his investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
The Kremlin, in a jab at a deeply divisive Washington, added: "We hope that Washington will eventually master the courage to officially admit that there was no collusion whatsoever, and that all the allegations about Russian interference are nothing more than a defamation attempt designed for use in U.S. political infighting. This will likely end this never-ending story."
Top Democrats give Barr April 2 deadline to release full report
Citing the need to make their own "independent assessment," the chairs of the House Judiciary, Oversight, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means and Financial Services committees asked the attorney general to release Mueller's full report and material from his investigation by early next week.
In their letter to Barr, released Monday evening, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Elijah Cummings, Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel, Richard Neal and Maxine Waters said the attorney general's summary of the Mueller probe was not "sufficient" for Congress and left "open many questions concerning the conduct of the President and his closest advisors, as well as that of the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election."
The House chairs, who have launched their own sweeping probes into the president's conduct, policies and business dealings since retaking the majority, gave Barr an April 2 deadline to comply with their demand.
Read the full letter here:
From "witch hunt" to campaign slogan: Trump sees Mueller as boost for re-election
For the better part of his presidency and as recently as last week, President Trump denigrated Robert Mueller's investigation as a partisan "witch hunt," and he has at times said it was led by a "a prosecutor gone rogue" and a group of "angry" Democrats.
Now, after the probe found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, the president's view has evolved -- he now sees the special counsel's conclusion as a boon to his re-election campaign.
"Democrats took us on a frantic, chaotic, conspiracy-laden roller coaster for two years, alleging wrongdoing where there was none," said Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. "Despite a roving Special Counsel and desperate Democrats trailing him every step of the way, President Trump has kept his focus where it belongs: achieving for the American people."
Read the analysis from Caitlin Huey-Burns here.
Graham says Barr would be glad to testify before Congress
Attorney General William Barr told Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham on Monday he would be glad to testify before Congress, Graham said Monday. Members of Congress have a number of lingering questions for the attorney general.
Graham, who spoke with Barr after the release of the attorney general's summary, said Barr told him he would be glad to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee but needs time to extract grand jury information and classified material.
Asked if Barr provided a timeframe for such a process, Graham shook his head, saying, "He's got to talk with Mueller, they're working on it. Sooner rather than later is the request and I'm sure he will honor that."
Graham said he doesn't see "any reason" for Mueller to testify before Congress, which is what a number of Democrats are calling for after the release of Barr's summary.
Alan He contributed reporting.
Mueller told DOJ about obstruction impasse 3 weeks ago
Three weeks before submitting his report, special counsel Robert Mueller informed Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that he wouldn't be able to reach a conclusion on his probe into whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice, a source familiar with the situation told CBS News' correspondent Paula Reid.
Trump wouldn't mind if full Mueller report were released
President Trump said Monday it's "up to the attorney general," but it "wouldn't bother" him if William Barr released the full Mueller report.
Answering questions during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Trump said no other president should be subject to the kind of investigation that Mueller conducted.
"We can never let this happen to another president again," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The president, who has said Barr's summary of the Mueller report completely "exonerated" him, added that other people, who he did not name, should be "looked at" for lying to Congress, committing "evil" deeds and participating in "treasonous things."
