HEY, HE DON NOTHIN’ WRONG
Prez in clear on collusion Not enough for obstruction
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s hotly anticipated report was released Thursday, and it produced no evidence that either President Trump or anyone on his team colluded with Russia during its meddling in the 2016 election.
The redacted, 448-page document also detailed how Mueller’s team struggled with the question of whether Trump obstructed justice.
“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment,” said the report, based on hundreds of witness interviews and thousands of documents handed over by the White House and the Trump campaign.
While Mueller’s team was unable to conclude whether the president was guilty of obstruction, Attorney General William Barr flatly declared at a press conference before the report was released that Trump and his team had neither colluded with Russia nor criminally obstructed justice.
Democrats argued the report was damning while Republicans claimed it vindicated the president, demonstrating that the fierce partisan divide over the Mueller probe — and Trump’s presidency itself — remained firmly in place. Mueller also reported that:
Russia massively interfered with the 2016 president election in favor of Trump, through hacking Democrats’ e-mails and spreading divisive propaganda on social media.
A number of Trump campaign staffers and associates met with Russians, including the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, but Mueller concluded the meetings didn’t amount to a crime.
Trump erupted in fury when he learned that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself, telling Sessions that he had failed to protect him from the special counsel’s probe.
The president declared, “I’m f--ked,” referring to his ability to fully perform the duties of his office, after learning that Mueller had been appointed to investigate Russian election meddling.
The White House and spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders misled the public about why Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
Trump tried to force White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller fired — but the lawyer refused, saying that the president wanted him to do “crazy sh-t.”
Explaining his decision not to charge Trump with obstruction, Mueller said he was guided by the Justice Department’s longstanding opinion that a sitting president couldn’t be indicted and suggested it would be unfair to accuse him of a crime because it would undermine the president’s capacity to carry out the duties of his office.
The special counsel’s report detailed the Trump Tower sitdown that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then-campaign chair Paul Manafort had with Kremlinconnected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, promising to deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton.
But Mueller said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime and there was no criminal intent.
“While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges,” the report said.
Mueller also asserted that Trump had tried to conceal the meeting and helped edit a misleading statement from Donald Jr. about the meeting, contradicting repeated White House denials that the president was involved.
“Before the emails became public, the president edited a press statement for Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was with ‘an individual who [Trump Jr.] was told might have information helpful to the campaign’ and instead said only the meeting was about adoptions of Russian children,” the report continued.
“When the press asked questions about the president’s involvement in Trump Jr.’s statement, the president’s personal lawyer repeatedly denied the president had played any role.”
Trump tried to interfere in the Mueller investigation but failed — because his staff wouldn’t do what he wanted, according to the report.
The report also said that Sessions told investigators that Trump pulled him aside in March 2017 and said he should “unrecuse” himself from the probe.
Sessions said he had the impression Trump feared the investigation “could spiral out of control.”
After Sessions informed him that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had appointed Mueller, Trump lashed out at his at his AG, a frequent target.
“How could you let this happen Jeff. You were supposed to protect me,” Trump declared, adding that the AG had “let him down.”
Trump also said that his presidency was over as far as implementing his agenda was concerned after learning of Muel
ler’s appointment.
“Oh, my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f--ked,” the commander in chief said in the Oval Office, slumping back in his chair as he spoke, according to Mueller’s findings.
“This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
He complained bitterly about Mueller’s appointment.
“Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It can take years and years and I won’t be able to do anything,” the president said.
The special counsel’s report states that Trump grilled McGahn about the relationships between other presidents and their attorneys general after McGahn refused to fire Mueller.
“You’re telling me that Bobby and Jack [Kennedy] didn’t talk about investigations? Or Obama didn’t tell Eric Holder who to investigate?” Trump said.
The report also said that Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, admitted to investigators that she misled the media about why Trump canned Comey.
“The president’s draft termination letter . . . . stated that morale in the FBI was at an all-time low and Sanders told the press after Comey’s termination that the White House had heard from ‘countless’ FBI agents who had lost confidence in Comey,” the report said.
“But the evidence does not support those claims. The president told Comey at their January 27 dinner that ‘the people of the FBI really like [Comey],’ ” Mueller’s report continued.
“No evidence suggests that the president heard otherwise before deciding to terminate Comey, and Sanders acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything.”
Trump pressured Comey to drop the investigation into then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom Trump ordered to find Hillary Clinton’s deleted e-mails in the summer of 2016, the report said.
The president submitted written answers to Mueller’s questions, in which he repeatedly said he did not recall or remember certain events.
These included whether anyone on his staff had communicated with anyone from WikiLeaks, whether he spoke with anyone but his lawyer, Michael Cohen, about building a Trump Tower in Moscow and whether he had conversations with Manafort about Russia.
Mueller termed Trump’s answers “inadequate,” but said he didn’t push for a personal interview because it would delay the process.
Barr said earlier that the “limited nature of the redactions” in the report would allow Americans to get a clear picture of the results.
There were about 865 redactions, according to an analysis by Fox News. Barr removed information he deemed inappropriate or harmful to a person’s character, as well as classified information, grand-jury and other closed-door testimony.
Trump tweeted moments after Barr concluded his press conference with an image inspired by the HBO show “Game of Thrones,” showing the president walking toward a wall of fog.
“No Collusion. No Obstruction. For the haters and the Radical Left Democrats, GAME OVER,” the tweet read.
“This should never happen to another president again. This hoax, this should never happen to another president again,” he said later.
This hoax, this should never happen to another president again. President Trump