Special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday broke more than two years of silence over his investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, contradicting Attorney General Bill Barr’s claims of Trump’s “total exoneration” and saying he could not state that the president is innocent of a crime—namely obstruction of justice. Mueller’s remarks came during a surprise appearance at the Justice Department, where he announced he had wrapped up his work and was resigning as special counsel. Mueller repeated his finding that there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump and his campaign with a broader conspiracy with Russia, but he pointedly contradicted Attorney General Barr’s assertion Mueller had concluded Trump was innocent of obstruction of Justice.

Robert Mueller: “A president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited. The Special Counsel’s Office is part of the Department of Justice, and, by regulation, it was bound by that department policy. Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider. … 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.”