The findings reveal White House culture of frustration and chaos
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump met with advisers in the Oval Office in May 2017 to discuss replacements for the FBI director he had just fired, Attorney General Jeff Sessions slipped out of the room to take a call.
When he came back, he gave Trump bad news: Robert Mueller had just been appointed as a special counsel to take over the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and any actions by the president to impede it.
Trump slumped in his chair. “Oh, my God,” he said. “This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency.”
It has not been the end of his presidency, but it has come to consume it. Although the resulting two-year investigation ended without charges against Trump, Mueller’s report painted a portrait of a White House dominated by a president desperate to thwart the inquiry only to be restrained by aides equally desperate
to thwart his orders.
At one point, Reince Priebus, then the White House chief of staff, said the president’s attacks on his own attorney general meant that he had “DOJ by the throat.” At another, the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, complained to Priebus that the president was trying to get him to “do crazy” things. Trump was equally unhappy with McGahn, calling him a “lying” person.
‘We’ll take care of you’
From its first days, Trump’s presidency struggled to contain the threat stemming from Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and suspicions about his team’s contacts with Moscow.
Just weeks after taking office, Trump pushed out his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador.
But Trump hugged Flynn, telling him: “We’ll give you a good recommendation. You’re a good guy. We’ll take care of you.”
Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, mistakenly assumed that getting rid of Flynn would derail the investigation then being led by James Comey, the FBI director.
Trump was worried about Comey, too. He asked Chris Christie, then the governor of New Jersey, to call Comey, a friend. “Tell him he’s part of the team,” Trump instructed.
Christie thought the president’s request was “nonsensical” and never followed through.
Other advisers feared Trump was not telling the truth to the public. After a news conference at which he denied any business dealings in Russia, Michael Cohen, then the president’s personal lawyer who had been trying to arrange a Trump Tower in Moscow, expressed concern.
Trump said that the project had not yet been finalized. “Why mention it if it is not a deal?” he said.
‘Left me on an island’
With the investigation bearing down on him, Trump wanted to make sure Sessions remained in charge at the Justice Department, and he asked McGahn to tell the attorney general not to recuse himself because of his work on the Trump campaign. McGahn tried to head off a recusal by calling the attorney general three times, but Sessions announced his recusal that afternoon.
Trump was furious. Summoning McGahn to the Oval Office the next day, he said, “I don’t have a lawyer,” and added that he wished Roy Cohn, the famed bare-knuckled attorney who once worked for him in New York, was still his lawyer. Trump said that Robert F. Kennedy protected John F. Kennedy, and Eric Holder protected Barack Obama.
Trump screamed at McGahn about how weak Sessions was, and Stephen Bannon, then the president’s chief strategist, thought he was as mad as he had ever seen him.
Trump increasingly focused his ire on Comey, who during testimony on Capitol Hill on May 3, 2017, refused to answer questions about whether the president himself was under investigation.
Angry, Trump wheeled on Sessions. “This is terrible, Jeff,” he said. “It’s all because you recused.” He added: “You left me on an island. I can’t do anything.”
Sessions said he had no choice, but said that a new start at the FBI would be appropriate and that the president should consider replacing Comey.
Bannon told Trump that he could not fire Comey because “that ship has sailed” and that it would not stop the investigation.
‘Protect me’
Trump ignored the advice and fired Comey on May 9, justifying it on criticism of his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email the year before. Overruling objections by McGahn and Priebus, Trump insisted that the letter firing the FBI director state that Comey told him three times the president was not under investigation.
Comey’s dismissal led the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, to appoint Mueller, a former FBI director, to take over the investigation. Fearing it would mean the end of his presidency, Trump lashed out again at Sessions.
“How could you let this happen, Jeff ?” he demanded. He told Sessions, “You were supposed to protect me,” or words to that effect.
Trump demanded that his attorney general resign. Sessions said he would, and he returned to the Oval Office with a resignation letter he handed to Trump.
The president put the letter in his pocket and repeatedly asked Sessions whether he wanted to continue serving as attorney general. When Sessions finally said he did, the president said he wanted him to stay. The two shook hands, but Trump kept the letter.
When Bannon and Priebus learned about the letter, Priebus worried it would serve as a “shock collar” keeping Sessions on a leash.
Pushback on firing
If the attorney general would not rein in the special counsel, Trump resolved to find someone who would. On June 17, Trump called McGahn from Camp David and told him to have Rosenstein fire Mueller because of conflicts of interest.
McGahn decided he would resign, determined not to repeat the experience of Robert Bork, who complied with President Richard Nixon’s order to fire the Watergate prosecutor during the Saturday Night Massacre.
When McGahn told Priebus and Bannon, they urged him not to resign, and he backed off.
Taking notes
In January 2018, The Times reported about the president’s June 2017 effort to have Mueller fired. A livid Trump pressed McGahn to publicly rebut the story, but he would not because the article accurately reported the president’s desires.
John F. Kelly, who replaced Priebus as chief of staff, then arranged a meeting between Trump and McGahn.
“I never said to fire Mueller,” Trump said. “I never said ‘fire.’ This story doesn’t look good. You need to correct this. You’re the White House counsel.
“Did I say the word ‘fire’?” he asked.
“What you said is, ‘Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the special counsel,’ ” McGahn replied.
He refused the president’s request that he “do a correction.”
Trump then complained about McGahn writing things down. “Why do you take notes? Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes.”
McGahn maintained he took notes because he was a “real lawyer,” and they create a record.
“I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn,” Trump said. “He did not take notes.”
But McGahn did. And so did plenty of others.