Washington, May 29 (IANS): In a statement that may spell trouble for US President Donald Trump, Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday said that if his probe had found that Trump had not committed a crime, his report would have clearly said so, media reported.

Mueller, a former FBI chief who led a probe into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential polls, collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and obstruction of justice, also said that charging the President was not an option for his investigation, reported CNN.

"If we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," Mueller said in his first-ever public comments on the investigation since he was appointed two years back.

"We did not however make a determination as to whether the President did commit a crime."

Mueller also noted that Justice Department guidelines did not allow him to charge a sitting President, and as a result his office did not determine whether the President had committed obstruction of justice.

He also announced that he was closing the special counsel's office and resigning from the Justice Department.