‘Sweeping, systematic’ Russian interference

Trump’s aides stopped short of conspiracy line

Report portrays a Trump campaign that welcomed Moscow’s help.

WASHINGTON — The Russian government undertook a “sweeping and systematic” campaign to help Donald Trump win the White House in 2016, believing it would benefit from his presidency, and found campaign aides eager to benefit from its help, special counsel Robert Mueller concluded in a report released Thursday.

The investigation did not find that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia to win the election, but the special counsel’s report says the campaign was receptive to Russia’s efforts and eager to benefit from them and did not appear to appreciate the foreign intelligence operation behind those activities.

“The investigation established multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government,” according to the report, which runs more than 400 pages.

Those links included Trump’s business interests in Moscow, communications between Russia-affiliated individuals and Trump advisers and aides and offers of assistance to the campaign. In some instances, the campaign welcomed the offers; in others, it shied away. Ultimately, the evidence the special counsel’s office amassed over two years of investigation “did not establish” a conspiracy, the report says.

The report details several instances in which Trump associates and surrogates teetered toward conspiracy but did not cross the line into committing a crime. The earliest contacts happened in 2015, when Trump, then a candidate, signed a letter of intent for a potentially lucrative Trump Tower project in Moscow. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, handled negotiations that stretched well into 2016, even as Trump publicly denied having any business interests in Russia.

In November 2015, Felix Sater, a New York real estate developer who had explored the possibility of a Trump Tower in Moscow, told Cohen in an email that the project could help Trump win the presidency and that Sater would get Russian President Vladimir Putin’s team to “buy in” on it.

“Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. ... Michael, Putin gets on stage with Donald for a ribbon cutting for Trump Moscow, and Donald owns the republican nomination,” Sater wrote, according to the report. “That the game changer.”

The project did not come to fruition. Cohen said that he did not consider the political consequences of a Trump Moscow and that he did not recall Trump or members of his campaign discussing the subject, the report says.

Other encounters between Trump’s team and people tied to Russia were more closely related to the election.

Trump aides, including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., met with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Mueller’s team looked into whether that meeting violated federal election laws barring contributions from foreign nations. Prosecutors decided they could not meet the high burden of proof because of questions about whether Trump’s associates acted “willfully.” Prosecutors concluded it would be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the promised information about Clinton exceeded the threshold for a criminal violation.

The campaign showed interest in WikiLeaks’ release of damaging documents and emails stolen from Clinton and the Democratic Party. Prosecutors said the anti-secrecy group obtained the stolen emails from Russia’s military intelligence service, which hacked Democratic political organizations.

On July 27, 2016, Trump publicly implored Russia to find 30,000 emails that had been deleted from a private server Clinton used while she was secretary of state. Within five hours of that request, the report says, Russian hackers sought to break into several email accounts, including one belonging to a Clinton aide. After he became president, Trump repeatedly directed national security adviser Michael Flynn to find the missing emails, and Flynn contacted multiple people who spent months trying to do that — to no avail, the report says.

One of these people drafted multiple emails claiming he was in contact with Russian hackers, but the special counsel’s investigation did not find evidence that contacts or meetings with Russian hackers occurred, the report says.

Investigators wrote that Russia leaked stolen emails to WikiLeaks because it knew the organization opposed a Clinton presidency. “We are ready to support you. We have some sensitive information too, in particular, her financial documents. Let’s do it together,” according to a message the Russians sent to WikiLeaks in June 2016.

The report tells of communication between WikiLeaks and Trump Jr. weeks before the presidential election and around the same time the website published troves of damaging campaign emails from the Clinton camp.

On Oct. 3, 2016, WikiLeaks sent a message to Trump Jr. asking for help to disseminate a link alleging Clinton had advocated using a drone to target Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ founder. “Had done so,” Trump Jr. responded. On Oct. 12, 2016, after WikiLeaks released the Clinton emails, it wrote to Trump Jr. again.

“Great to see you and your dad talking about our publications. Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us,” WikiLeaks wrote, including a link it said would help in “digging through” the leaked emails.

The special counsel investigation did not find evidence that these contacts were part of a coordinated effort between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the election.

Matthew Jacobs, a former federal prosecutor who worked for Mueller when he was U.S. attorney in San Francisco, said the decision to not charge anyone with conspiracy stems from a “very narrow” interpretation of the law.

“They’re the ones who are benefiting,” Jacobs, a defense attorney, said of the Trump campaign. “If you and I get together and we talk about robbing a bank and I say, it would be really great if you rob a bank, and you rob a bank and you share the proceeds with me, then I’ve participated in the conspiracy.”

Trump Jr. took to Twitter on Thursday to claim vindication: “TOLD YA!!!”

Kristine Phillips USA TODAY