Barr might have just admitted Trump associates were involved in the dissemination of hacked Democratic emails

William Barr on Capitol Hill
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Attorney General William Barr's press conference about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Thursday appeared to let President Trump off the hook for any "collusion" with Russian agents. But sharp-eared listeners also caught some particularly slippery language when it came to Barr addressing the 2016 Wikileaks scandal.

"The Special Counsel ... investigated whether any member or affiliate of the Trump campaign encouraged or otherwise played a role [in the dissemination of hacked Democratic emails]," Barr said. The attorney general added that "under applicable law, publication of these types of materials would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy. Here too, the special counsel's report did not find that any person associated with the Trump campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.