Trump: counsel must go

PUBLIC at last, special counsel Robert Mueller’s report has revealed that Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mr Mueller’s removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the President.

Mr Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Mr Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel’s appointment in May 2017. Those efforts “were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” Mr Mueller wrote.

After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading.

Mr Mueller reported Mr Trump was so agitated at the special counsel’s appointment on May 17, 2017, that he slumped back in his chair and declared: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f---ed.”

With that, Mr Trump set out to save himself.

In June of that year, Mr Mueller wrote, the President directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, and say that Mr Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. Mr McGahn refused.

The report’s bottom line largely tracked the findings revealed in Attorney General William Barr’s four-page memo released a month ago — no collusion with Russia but no clear verdict on obstruction — but it added new layers of detail about Trump’s efforts to thwart the investigation.