Mueller raised possibility Trump lied to him

Special counsel Robert Mueller examined whether President Donald Trump lied to him in written answers during the Russia investigation, a possibility House Democrats have said they continue to look into even after Trump’s impeachment.

That revelation comes from sections of Mueller’s final investigative report largely related to the 2016 election efforts of convicted former Trump adviser Roger Stone that the Justice Department unveiled on Friday.

Mueller documented how Trump responded to him in written questions that he hadn’t remembered discussing WikiLeaks with Stone. He also found that Trump had had conversations with Stone and others about WikiLeaks, the newly unsealed report says.

“(Michael) Cohen recalled a conversation in which Roger Stone told Trump that WikiLeaks planned to release information soon, and Manafort recalled that Trump had asked him to stay in touch with Stone about WikiLeaks,” the report says.

“It is possible that, by the time the President submitted his written answers two years after the relevant events had occurred, he no longer had clear recollections of his discussions with Stone or his knowledge of Stone’s asserted communications with WikiLeaks. But the President’s conduct could also be viewed as reflecting his awareness that Stone could provide evidence that would run counter to the President’s denials and would link the President to Stone’s efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks,” Mueller wrote, analyzing whether Trump had obstructed justice related to Stone.

The public release on Friday spells out what Mueller found regarding the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, and spotlights details about Stone’s efforts and cover-up that hadn’t yet been spelled out in full by Mueller for the public. The Mueller report is one of the most extensive fact-finding documents about the Trump campaign and presidency.

The rerelease of the Mueller report on Friday comes 15 months after Mueller first handed it to the Justice Department.