Robert Mueller to make first public statement on Russia investigation

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is making a rare public statement about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election Wednesday morning. Mueller has not spoken publicly since his report was published in April.

The special counsel found that there was significant interference by the Russian government in the 2016 election, but that the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russia to influence the election.

The special counsel did not reach a conclusion on whether President Trump obstructed justice, but the Mueller report did examine 10 “discrete acts” in which he may have done so. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that Mr. Trump did not obstruct justice.

A senior White House official said that “the White House was notified” Tuesday night that Mueller might make a statement today.

Barr is in Alaska on Wednesday for a Native American roundtable on justice issues.

Mueller’s statement comes after the Guardian published an excerpt from journalist Michael Wolff’s new book, “Siege: Trump Under Fire,” which claimed that there had been a draft version of a three-count criminal indictment against Mr. Trump compiled as early as March 2018. A spokesman for the special counsel, Peter Carr, flatly denied this reporting, which was attributed to “a source close to the Office of Special Counsel.”

“The documents that you’ve described do not exist,” Carr said.

Mueller is scheduled to begin speaking at 11 a.m.

Most Americans believe Mueller should testify before Congress

A CBS News poll published last week found that 74% of Americans want Mueller to testify before Congress, although they remain divided on whether Democrats should continue to investigate election interference in the 2016 election.

More than half of Americans want congressional Democrats to drop the Russia matter and move on to other issues, but 73% percent of Democrats want congressional Democrats to continue to investigate.

Overall, 58% of Americans feel they have heard enough about the Mueller report, while 37% say they’d like to hear more about it, though most Democrats do want to hear more.

Still, if there are investigations, 77% of Americans — including most Republicans — feel the Trump administration should cooperate.

Americans remain split over the findings of the Mueller report. Thirty-one percent feel the report has cleared Mr. Trump of illegal activity and 33% feel it has not. Thirty-six percent still feel it is too soon to know.

Trump calls Mueller report “beautiful” in Tokyo

Mr. Trump most recently commented on the Mueller report during his visit to Tokyo on Monday. The president reiterated that the report found that there was “no collusion” and “no obstruction.”

“It’s a beautiful report,” Mr. Trump said. He criticized congressional Democrats for continuing to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying that Democrats “cannot understand what happened.”

“And Bob Mueller, I guess you could say, he wasn’t a friend of mine, but he did something that was really the right thing to do. They were very disappointed. They can’t get over the fact that I never spoke to Russia, never dealt with Russia, having to do with the subject we’re talking about,” Mr. Trump said.