Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced Wednesday afternoon that he is closing the special counsel’s office and resigning from the justice department, following the conclusion of his investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“I am speaking out today because our investigation is complete, the attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public. We are formally closing the special counsel’s office, and I am resigning from the department of justice to return to private life.”

Mueller emphasized that his report concluded there was “insufficient evidence” to implicate the Trump campaign in a “broader conspiracy” of coordination with Russia during the 2016 elections.

As for his inquiry into whether Trump obstructed justice, he noted that “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”

“Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider,” Mueller explained, adding that, as per "longstanding" justice department policy which says that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, “it would be unfair to accuse someone of a crime when there could be no court resolution of the charge.”

“We concluded that we would not reach a determination, one way or the other, about whether the president committed a crime. That is the office’s final position, and we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president.”

He added that he wouldn’t say anything more publicly than what is included in the report.

"The work speaks for itself," Mueller said. "The report is my testimony."

Attorney General William Barr last month released the full Mueller report with redactions, after having released a summary of the report upon its completion in March.