AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s exaggerations about the Russia probe
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is taking his interpretation of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation well beyond the facts.
He says he’s been fully exonerated based on a four-page summary of Mueller’s nearly 400-page report and is casting himself as a victim of illegal practices by the FBI because the agency investigated him in the first place.
But Trump is overstating his case. The FBI has legal grounds to open a probe if investigators have information they believe could lead them to a crime, even if one is not ultimately found. And the summary released by Attorney General William Barr says Mueller did not reach a conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice.