BLAIRSVILLE, GA – District Attorney Jeff Langley presented a prosecutors viewpoint of the Mueller Report during Saturday, Sept. 21 Union County GOP meeting.

Langley read all 400 pages of the Mueller Report and concluded the investigation provided a lack of evidence for collusion or obstruction of justice. He did preface that he didn’t follow all the intricacies during the two-year investigation, but he did read the actual findings.

“Did the Mueller Report exonerate the President? Did it show he committed obstruction?” commented Langley, “We had people for two years accusing the President of treason.”

He noted that even today people disagree on what exactly the report states. It differs based on an individual’s political leanings. For this presentation,

Langley tried to step outside of politics and review it as a lawyer.

Mueller hired 19 lawyers, over 40 FBI professionals, and issued 2,800 subpoenas. At the end of the two years, six indictments were sent out.

Donald Trump. Jr. did meet with operatives who said they had dirt on Hilary Clinton, but after seeking a second opinion, he never took the information.

The report doesn’t uncover any wrongdoing according to Langley’s interpretation of events.

Russians, however, regularly try to interfere with the United States’ elections.

“The Mueller Report laid out a pretty convincing case that Russian military operatives hacked the DNC and provided those leaks to WikiLeaks, not proved absolutely but pretty compelling that was the case,” said Langley.

Additionally, the Russians spent an estimated $100,000 of Facebook ads. The

Trump and Clinton each spent almost $1 billion in advertising on the social media platform.

“It’s a drop in the bucket,” stated Langley, “Don’t let anyone tell you that they stole the election for Trump.”

The investigation discovered that Russians sponsored rallies for Trump and Bernie Sanders, neither very large – around 500 people.

Zero instances uncovered evidence of Russians hacking into voting machines. They did try to hack into voting lists, but not the actual machines.

“Page 175, 181, this investigation did not identify evidence that any US person coordinated or communicated with this IRA [Internet Research Agency], the Russian intelligence agency. This investigation did not establish that the contact described in volume one amounted to any agreement or any substantial found violation, including foreign influence or campaign finance law,” read Langley from the report.

The next 200 pages deal with obstruction. Trump’s behavior provided traction for the investigation, but ultimately, nothing turned up to charge the President.

However, most legal scholars agree that Congress must impeach a president before charging them with a crime. This argument led to the muddy waters that many find themselves in today. Still, the findings, according to Attorney General Barr and Deputy Rosenstein, didn’t provide strong enough evidence to prosecute the President.

2020 Election wise, the Board of Elections representative confirmed that new machines are being tested. Union County will receive enough equipment to process all voters’ ballots. Now, voters will select print ballot instead of cast ballot on Election Day.

The next Union County GOP meeting be on October 19 at 10 a.m. in the Skillet Café with a featured speaker about the upcoming reappraisal throughout the county.