Neal Katyal, the former acting solicitor general during the Obama administration, on Thursday claimed President Donald Trump is the only person who uses the term "collusion."
Katyal appeared on MSNBC following Attorney General William Barr's press conference to provide analysis on his remarks, saying he "sounded like a spokesman, not an attorney general."
"The rhetoric here was extraordinary. It sounded like a spokesman, not an attorney general, and the word collusion, a lawyer doesn't use that term because there is no crime of collusion," Katyal said. "Only Trump uses that term, and so you have the attorney general parroting that."
He went on to suggest that one of the biggest takeaways from Barr's press conference was what he didn't say, saying that the panel knows there is a sentence in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report that says the report doesn't exonerate Trump.
"Did we hear a word of that in Barr's, whatever, 15, 10-minute summary? There's nothing about that and that just leads me to wonder is this really an up and up determination, description," Katyal said.
Katyal's suggestion that Trump is the only individual who uses the term "collusion" is erroneous. The mainstream press and Democrats in Congress have been saying "collusion" for over two years. As recently as last month, Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was quoted in the Washington Post saying, "Undoubtedly there is collusion."
"But the Special Counsel found no evidence that any Americans – including anyone associated with the Trump campaign – conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme," Barr said at the press conference. "Indeed, as the report states, '[t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation.' Put another way, the Special Counsel found no 'collusion' by any Americans in the IRA’s illegal activity."