Morning Journal/Mary Ann Greier County Republican Party chairman David Johnson addresses the crowd at Wednesday’s Lincoln Day Dinner at the Timberlanes complex in Salem.

SALEM — Fox News commentator Gregg Jarrett delivered his views on the just-released Mueller report live from the Timberlanes Complex Thursday night, first in person to rousing applause from Columbiana County Republicans, then on the Sean Hannity show.

In short, he said “this was a hoax.”

Jarrett’s best-selling book, “The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme To Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump,” said as much, a fact he kept pointing out as he discussed the big news of the day. The legal analyst for Fox News served as the featured speaker for the county GOP’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner and also spent some time at the home of Bob and Linda Sebo for a private reception prior to the banquet.

“The collusion section was right out of my book. There was never any evidence of collusion,” he said during a brief interview. “The obstruction section of the report was like reading a tabloid gossip column.”

Jarrett said he was surprised at how little of the report was redacted. Attorney General William Barr was following the law when he redacted parts of the report that involved grand jury or other protected information. He also said he wouldn’t call the report junk.

“The message is that this is the dirtiest political trick in modern American history — it’s now been exposed,” he said.

Now he said Barr will investigate the actions of the FBI, intelligence agency and Department of Justice.

Jarrett told the crowd there were never any credible facts when the investigation started, based on a dossier he said was paid for by Hillary Clinton and based on anonymous sources and hearsay. He talked about how the mainstream media and those on the Left kept saying that special counsel Robert Mueller had a mountain of evidence that would drive President Trump from office. But for all the talk about collusion, there was none, and he explained that collusion is not a crime exempt in anti-trust law. Jarrett holds a law degree and he looked and looked, but could not find anything to show collusion as a crime.

He also said it’s not a crime to talk to a Russian or to receive election information from someone from Russia or France or anywhere else.

He said Mueller was doing a hit job when he threw in that the report didn’t exonerate Trump.

County GOP Chairman David Johnson said he was thrilled to have Jarrett speaking on the day of the report’s release. Johnson also surprised Beaver Local sophomore David Spencer with an award as the Columbiana County Republican of the Year, saying the 16-year-old was an impressive young man who was being honored for his contributions to the party as a volunteer and for his enthusiasm.

mgreier@salemnews.net