The US President Donald Trump's Ukraine has long since pushed public attention away from the Russian affair - but the final report by special investigator Robert Mueller continues to play an important role in Washington. Now, a US appeals court has stopped issuing the undegraded version to the Congress by temporary injunction.
This is true until a final appraisal, the court in Washington said. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the publication of the unblindered report to the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives and set a deadline until Wednesday. It also confirmed the legality of Trump's impeachment trial. The Ministry of Justice appealed.
The legal dispute concerns both the entire report and the transcript or evidence retained by the Ministry of Justice so far. The Democrat-controlled committee had asked Justice Secretary William Barr, under threat of punishment, to present the undegraded Mueller report and the underlying evidence. Barr declined that.
Mueller did not release Trump
The special investigator Robert Mueller had been investigating for about two years, whether the election campaign team of the Republican Donald Trump secret agreements with representatives of Russia met. It was also about whether Trump later, when he was already US President, obstructed the investigation of the judiciary. Background of the investigation was the alleged interference of Moscow in the US presidential campaign 2016.
At the end of March, Mueller had completed his work and handed over to Barr his final report, which has so far been published only in parts blackened. Mueller found no evidence of collusion by the Trump team with representatives of Russia.
However, the report lists Trump's attempts to influence the investigation. Mueller did not clearly comment on the allegation of judicial disability, but put forward arguments for and against it. He expressly did not release Trump from the accusation. Trump, on the other hand, was completely relieved.
