Democrats complaining about special counsel Robert Mueller's lack of authority to indict the president as the reason there are no more indictments coming are ignoring "the logical conclusion: There was no collusion," according to Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga.
"At this point the president has been proved right," Rep. Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" of "no collusion" and "witch hunt" claims by President Donald Trump. "I think he was obviously frustrated during this time, and rightfully so, as this report seems to show."
Democrats have long argued the special counsel would get to the bottom of 2016 election meddling after President Trump's victory, which has been delegitimized in the eyes of some Democrats. But continuing House Democrat investigations post-special counsel suggest it was never going to be enough to vindicate the president in their partisan view.
"In their main core of the collusion or investigation of obstruction, they're seemingly coming to the point that the president and those around him had nothing to do with this," Collins told host Chris Wallace. "That is the core finding at least in what we’re seeing so far."
As far as Democrats trying to "paint the president" by pointing to the indictments delivered thus far by Mueller's team – including Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn – they also prove nothing, according to Collins.
"I just think it shows you've got three people who chose to lie to investigators when nobody told them to lie to investigators as far as anything has been pointed out," Collins told Wallace. "If this report comes back – as it seems to be coming back – that there was no collusion on the president or the part of the campaign, then that is the part that we need to take and move from here.
"Why people lie, Chris, that’s a discussion for them and their lawyers and why they chose to do that."