Mueller Report: Donald Trump thought he was ‘f***ed’ over Russia probe
Australia’s role in sparking the US-Russia probe has been revealed in Robert Mueller’s report as Donald Trump thought it would be “the end of his presidency”.
Mueller says ‘no collusion’
Trump not cleared on obstruction
Don Jr, Kushner may have acted illegally
Mueller points to Australia’s role
Robert Mueller’s damning report released today has revealed how Donald Trump’s lawyers and advisers repeatedly rebuffed attempts by the US president to halt the investigation.
Trump was also so concerned by Mr Mueller’s appointment, he thought his presidency was over.
“Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f***ed,” Mr Trump reportedly said when he heard of Mr Mueller’s appointment.
He then reportedly tore into former Attorney-General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation, reportedly stating “you were supposed to protect me”.
“Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
Mr Mueller’s 448-page report found that while there was no conspiracy between Mr Trump’s 2016 election campaign and the Kremlin, it contained some unfavourable observations regarding potential obstruction of justice.
It noted a string of incidents which could potentially have led to obstruction of justice charges, saying some fell short because Trump staffers refused to follow his orders.
WHY TRUMP FIRED COMEY
Mueller also found that as a newly-installed president, Mr Trump had likely fired FBI chief James Comey because he would not publicly support him.
“Substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst for the president’s decision to fire Comey was Comey’s unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation, despite the president’s repeated requests that Comey make such an announcement,” the report states.
Mr Mueller also found that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders made false statements to the press on Mr Comey’s firing.
“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 448-page 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 WANTED ROSENSTEIN TO FIRE MUELLER
One of these questionable moments came when Mr Trump called the home of his White House counsel, Don McGahn, to ask him to pressure deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller.
“On June 17, 2017 the president called McGahn at home and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say that the special counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed,” the report stated.
“McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre.
(This was a reference to an infamous scandal in former President Richard Nixon’s administration during Watergate where both his attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than follow Nixon’s orders).
McGahn called then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Mr Trump strategist Steve Bannon to tell them he would not intervene.
“Priebus recalled that McGahn said that the President had asked him to ‘do crazy s**t,’ but he thought McGahn did not tell him the specifics of the President’s request because McGahn was trying to protect Priebus from what he did not need to know,” the report said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, deputy national security Adviser KT McFarland and deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn also declined to act on Trump’s orders, Mueller reports.
MUELLER POINTS TO AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN PROBE
Mr Mueller details Australia’s role in sparking the FBI’s 2016 investigation.
The report does not specifically name Australia but refers to “a foreign government”, a move underlying the sensitive nature of Australia’s involvement.
Mr Mueller’s report also does not name Alexander Downer, who was Australia’s high commissioner to the UK in May 2016 when he met with Trump campaign foreign relations adviser George Papadopoulos at a London wine bar.
The report refers to “a representative of that foreign government”.
Mr Downer said he had not read the Mueller report.
“Haven’t seen it and don’t follow those issues,” he told AAP.
Mr Mueller devotes 14 pages of his 448-page report to Mr Papadopoulos.
Mr Downer acknowledged in an interview with The Australian newspaper last year he met with Mr Papadopoulos at a London bar and said Mr Papadopoulos told him Russia had damaging material on Mr Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
TRUMP NOT CLEARED OF OBSTRUCTION
Mr Mueller concluded in the report that he could not clear Mr Trump of obstruction.
“The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment,” the report stated. “At the same time, 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.”
“Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” it said.
Trump’s reported reaction when he was told Mueller was appointed: “This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.†pic.twitter.com/J1AN9SGM7O
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) April 18, 2019
The report found that Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take any assistance.
“Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or co-ordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mr Mueller’s team wrote.
DON JR, KUSHNER MAY HAVE ACTED ILLEGALLY
Mr Mueller said of the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian Natalia Veselnitskaya that unlawful activity did take place, but those at the meeting, including Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner, were unaware of their illegal actions.
“On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful,” reads the report. “The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context.”
“Even assuming that the promised “documents and information that would incriminate Hillary” constitute a “thing of value” under campaign-finance law, the government would encounter other challenges in seeking to obtain and sustain a conviction,” the report said.
Mr Trump’s responses to Mr Mueller were released without redactions and comprised 12 pages.
Mr Trump told Mr Mueller he had no recollection of several key events in Mr Mueller’s probe, including a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top aides and a Russian lawyer offering aid to his campaign.
Mr Trump also told Mr Mueller he had no recollection that he was told that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to aid his campaign or hurt Hillary Clinton’s 2016 effort, or that any foreign leader wanted to help his candidacy.
BARR SAYS MUELLER FOUND NO COLLUSION
Earlier, US Attorney-General William Barr pushed the point that Mr Mueller did not find that Mr Trump or members of his campaign worked with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
“The Special Counsel’s report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or co-ordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations,” Mr Barr said. “In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign “collusion” with the Russian government’s hacking.
Mr Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Mr Trump was “frustrated and angry” about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an “obstruction-of-justice offence.”
Mr Barr said Mr Mueller’s report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Mr Trump and obstruction.
Mr Barr said he and Mr Rosenstein, who appointed Mr Mueller as special counsel in May 2017, “disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law”.
Mr Barr said the president did not exert executive privilege to withhold anything in the report. And he said the president’s personal lawyer had requested and gotten a chance to review the report before its public release.
Barr said most of the redactions made to Mr Mueller’s report ahead of its release were made to prevent harm to ongoing legal matters.
He said no redactions were made due to executive privilege, a legal doctrine that allows the president to withhold information from other government branches.
BARR ACCUSED OF BEING TRUMP SPIN DOCTOR
2020 Democrat candidates and many left-leaning celebrities were quick to call out Mr Barr, calling him out for “spinning” the report to favour the president.
AG Barr’s press conference was a farce and an embarrassing display of propaganda on behalf of President Trump. Barr works for the people, not the president. They deserve to know Mueller’s full findings because nobody—especially not the president—is immune from accountability.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) April 18, 2019
The AG is supposed to serve as the country’s top law enforcement officer – someone who stands up for the rule of law & defends the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 18, 2019
William Barr is standing up for only one person: the President of the United States.
#BarrCoverUp https://t.co/ccLI4R0r9K
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) April 18, 2019
I wish a reporter would have asked Barr if Mueller finished with his investigation unimpeded or if he was asked by anyone to conclude it or if funding was stopped in any way.
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) April 18, 2019
what a charade #BarrRedaction #ImpeachTheMF https://t.co/aybJtrR9mZ
— ROSIE (@Rosie) April 18, 2019
Mr Trump responded to the Attorney-General’s press conference by sharing a Game of Thrones-style image which said “No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats — Game over”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019
Mr Trump joked that he was going to be in office for the next 10 to 14 years following the report’s release.
The president was hosting participants of the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride in the East Room and was given a trophy as a token of appreciation.
“This will find a permanent place, at least for six years, in the Oval Office,” Trump said. “I was going to say for at least 10 to 14 years. But we would cause bedlam, so we’ll say six.”
NADLER WANTS MUELLER TO TESTIFY
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wants Mr Mueller to testify before his panel as soon as possible about his report.
Chairman Jerrold Nadler released a three-sentence letter to Mr Mueller requesting his appearance, minutes after Mr Barr ended a news conference in which he described the special counsel’s report.
The New York Democrat tweeted that Congress and the public need to hear directly from Mr Mueller to “better understand his findings.”
Mr Nadler wrote in his letter that he wants Mr Mueller to testify by May 23 and asked for his “prompt attention” to the request.
Mr Barr said at his news conference that he did not object to Mr Mueller testifying.
Read the redacted report here
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