Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S. C.) kicked off Wednesday morning’s highly anticipated Committee hearing with a politically-charged opening statement and some questions for U. S. Attorney General William Barr. Graham’s performance was less than stellar.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S. C.) kicked off Wednesday morning’s highly anticipated Committee hearing with a politically-charged opening statement and some questions for U. S. Attorney General William Barr. Graham’s performance was less than stellar.
1. Graham claimed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report “concluded there was no collusion…no collusion, no coordination, no conspiracy.”
This claim is factually inaccurate. As Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrote in his report, the term “collusion” is not a legal term and therefore had no bearing on the Special Counsel’s investigation, which was charged with looking into whether members of the Trump campaign and Russians cooperated in such a manner as to constitute conspiracy to coordinate with a foreign power. While Mueller’s report noted that Trump’s campaign did welcome Russian assistance in combatting Hillary Clinton, he ultimately concluded that the evidence was insufficient to constitute a crime. However, the report did not go so far as to exonerate the Trump campaign of all wrongdoing relating to conspiracy, as Mueller left open the possibility that evidence of criminal coordination may have been deleted or encrypted by members of the campaign.
2. Graham claimed that Mueller intentionally “left it to Mr.
