Congressman André Carson on Friday joined others in the Democratic Party in questioning some of the conclusions made in the Mueller report, which looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Carson, who represents Indiana's 7th congressional district, says special counsel Robert Mueller did not have the ability to fully investigate the case.
“He could investigate if Americans conspired or coordinated directly with the Russians to influence our election, and he acquitted them with these actions," Carson says. "But it was harder to determine if Russia was able to exert influence over Americans through more indirect means.”
Carson attributes this lack of investigative power to stringent legal standards and prosecutorial guidelines.
"This is no different than any other criminal getting off on a technicality. We we can see plainly...something happened, but circumstances prevented them from being charged," Carson says.
READ: The Mueller Report, with redactions
Carson maintains that Mueller did not exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice. And he says Congress should receive the complete, unredacted report, and has the responsibility now to initiate its own investigative process.
"It seems that Director Mueller has given us this charge of sorts, if you want to interpret it that way," Carson says, "to continue to subpoena witnesses, to have the committee's jurisdiction receive the full unredacted report, so that we can contextualize Director Mueller's summary and move forward with our own hearing and set of interviews."
U.S. Congresswoman Susan Brooks was unavailable for comment.