WASHINGTON, D.C.— Congressman Adam Smith released the following statement in response to the release of Attorney General Barr’s letter summarizing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report:

“It is imperative that the American people and the United States Congress see the entire Muller report. Thus far, we have not seen a single word that we know for a fact Special Counsel Mueller wrote, only Attorney General Barr’s opinion of that report. We must see the full report.

“Conspiracy and obstruction are very difficult to prove, and have an incredibly high bar. Apparently, Special Counsel Mueller did not think there was sufficient evidence for conspiracy, and he could not offer a clear opinion on obstruction. That is distinctly possible, but it does not mean that the President and his campaign didn’t do anything wrong. The Mueller probe resulted in the indictment of 34 individuals, including seven guilty pleas and four people sentenced to prison. For anyone to say this report shows no wrongdoing is a gross misstatement of the facts. 

“According to Attorney General Barr, the report does say unequivocally that Russia interfered in the 2016 Presidential election in order to elect Donald Trump president. This is something the President has denied over and over again. The Mueller report shows the President is wrong. It is way past time for the President to personally take steps to hold the Russians accountable for their interference. The fact that Trump refuses to do so is a blot on his presidency and undermines the credibility of our democracy.

“We now also know that the Russians made attempts to influence the election and had contact with people in the Trump campaign to offer to help. The Trump campaign was aware of these offers and aware of what the Russians were doing. The Trump campaign took no steps to alert any authorities, failed to contact the FBI, and didn’t try to stop the Russians in any way. That is not a crime, but it definitely leaves the campaign morally culpable for the result. In terms of the President’s leadership in dealing with the Russian interference in our election, and in terms of what his campaign had to do with the interference, even his own attorney general has put out a set of facts that make it clear that the President behaved at a minimum in an unethical way. At a minimum this is clearly a failure of leadership by the President.”