Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, resigned Wednesday but made it clear that he did not exonerate President Donald Trump but did not charge him with a crime as it was "not an option" under guidelines of the justice department.
Speaking about his 22-month investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, he said intelligence officers with the Russian military "launched a concerted attack on our political system" in an attempt to "interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate."
Noting that he has not spoken publicly during the investigation, Mueller said he was "speaking out today because our investigation is complete. The attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public."
He announced he was "formally closing the special counsel's office and, as well, I'm resigning from the department of justice to return to private life."
"If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," Mueller said. "We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime."
He had earlier described Mueller's probe as a "witch hunt."