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Mueller Rejects Trump's Claims of Exoneration, 'Witch Hunt'

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - Robert Mueller, the taciturn lawman at the center of a
   polarizing American drama, bluntly dismissed President Donald Trump's
   claims of "total exoneration" in the federal probe of Russia's 2016
   election interference. In a long day of congressional testimony,
   Mueller warned that Moscow's actions represented -- and still represent
   -- a great threat to American democracy.

   Mueller's back-to-back Capitol Hill appearances on Wednesday, his first
   since his two-year Russia probe ended, carried the prospect of a
   historic climax to a rare criminal investigation into a sitting
   American president. But his testimony was more likely to reinforce
   rather than reshape hardened public opinions on the future of Trump's
   presidency and impeachment.

   With his terse, one-word answers, and a sometimes stilted and halting
   manner, Mueller made clear his desire to avoid the partisan fray and
   the deep political divisions roiling Congress and the country.

   He delivered neither crisp TV sound bites to fuel a Democratic
   impeachment push nor comfort to Republicans striving to undermine his
   investigation's credibility. But his comments grew more animated by the
   afternoon, when he sounded the alarm on future Russian election
   interference. He said he feared a new normal of American campaigns
   accepting foreign help.

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