Valley officials split on Mueller report along party lines

YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson said “many mainstream media journalists and elected Democrats” should “apologize” for “spinning a false narrative to advance their political agenda” related to accusations that President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Special counsel Robert Mueller didn’t find any evidence that occurred, Attorney General William Barr said Sunday. Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, Barr said.

“It was simply, and obviously, a fabricated hoax perpetrated by those who could not accept the fact that Donald Trump won the 2016 election fair and square,” said Johnson of Marietta, R-6th. “So, what happens now? Who will be held accountable for starting this treacherous conspiracy theory that’s wasted so much of our time and the American taxpayers’ hard-earned money?”

He added: “Moving forward, it’s time that we stop all this conspiracy theorizing and focus on the issues that are important to the American people, issues like fixing our broken immigration system and securing our borders, continuing the unleashing of America’s energy potential, and repairing our aging infrastructure. This is America, and the American people deserve better.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, tweeted: “The full Mueller report needs to be made public. A four-page summary released by the Trump administration is not enough. The American people deserve complete transparency.”

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, said of the Mueller summary from Barr: “A summary report is not enough. It’s important that the American public have the answers they deserve about the full scope of the Mueller report and its findings. The Department of Justice should turn over the full report to Congress, the administration should preserve all of the information and underlying evidence it provided to the special counsel, and the report should be released to the public in full.”

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican, said: The “summary by the attorney general says that the special counsel’s report confirms that Russians meddled in the 2016 election but finds no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Finally, the summary indicates that the special counsel reached no conclusion on obstruction of justice. The attorney general and deputy attorney general have concluded that the special counsel’s investigation did not include sufficient evidence to warrant any obstruction of justice charges against the president.”

He added: “As I’ve said consistently, I believe the report should be made public, with important exceptions for grand jury or classified information, and I hope the attorney general provides as much information to the public as he possibly can, as soon as he can.”