Mueller investigation

The Mueller investigations describes the investigation led by , a registered Republican and former FBI director. The investigation had two primary purposes: to investigate and indict those involved in the interference of the 2016 US Presidential Election by Russian intelligence, and also to investigate those members of or affiliated with the Trump Administration to hinder said investigation. In total the investigation led to thirty-seven people being indicted, six of whom pleaded guilty to crimes ranging from lying to the FBI, failing to register as a Foreign Agent, identity theft and fraud. Two cases were brought to trial, that of Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for the Trump campaign in 2016 and Roger Stone both led to convictions in 2019. Trump pardoned both on his way out of office in 2020. Trump was perpetually enraged by the investigation and made multiple attempts to interfere with, stop it, keep the results confidential and other predictable Trump shenanigans, i.e. obstruction of justice (which is crime to attempt to subvert the rule of law). Despite the investigation alleging Presidential interference in the investigation, Trump has claimed the report is an absolute triumph that exonerates him of any scummy dirty devious malicious behavior (the document has explicitly stated that he and his administration are not exonerated) by quoting the statements of no evidence of coordination or collusion despite the very clear caveats of definitions of "coordination" and "collusion" outlined in the document.
==2016 election==
The 2016 presidential campaign for President of the United States featured Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R). Each had captured their party's nomination fairly easily, Clinton dispatching four others with relative ease, Trump defeated sixteen others, becoming all but inevitable by May 2016. Clinton was a frequent target during the Republican Primary, regarding her involvement with Benghazi and perceived conflicts of interest while she was Secretary of State during the Obama administration.
===Russian hacking===
Sometime in 2016, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton Campaign were the victims of a cyber attack, likely via a phishing email by Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army (GRU).FBI report, section 3, pdf page 44FBI report, section 3, pdf page 46 The information that was stolen was intended to be used by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian-based organization designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States. Using social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the IRA created content targeted to harm Clinton but favor Trump. The GRU also disseminated materials stolen from the DNC and Clinton campaign via fictitious online personas and through WikiLeaks.
===Trump campaign and Russia===
The Trump campaign showed interest in the release of this material, particularly via Wikileaks (whom candidate Trump mentioned frequently with affection on the campaign trailhttps://www.msnbc.com/stephanie-ruhle/watch/trump-says-wikileaks-141-times-in-month-before-election-1096403523611). Knowing they would benefit from the release of future information, some people in the campaign or affiliated with the candidate began making overtures to Russian business contacts. The earliest connection was by Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen, who was working on a project that would create a Trump Tower in Moscow with government press secretary . The Russian government also made overtures to the campaign, including to foreign policy advisor . Papadopoulos was contacted by , a London based Maltese professor largely believed to be a Russian intelligence cut-out. Misfud shared that the Russian government had several thousand emails of Clinton's. Papadopulos shared this information with the campaign and recommended arraigning a meeting with the Trump campaign, which he worked on for several months with Mr. Misfud and two other Russian nationals, though the meeting never occurred.
====Trump Tower meeting====
thumb|right|300px|Trump Tower in New York.
The campaign was contactedhttps://www.npr.org/2018/09/25/651240209/rob-goldstone-on-his-infamous-russia-email-i-had-no-idea-what-i-was-talking-abou, via the candidates son Donald Trump Jr, by Rob Goldstone, a British music promoter who had become acquainted with President Trump during the , which was financed by Russian billionaire whose son, , Mr. Goldstone represented (Emin had also featured Trump in a 2013 music video)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuZUNjFsgS8. The email sent by Goldstone described "official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary" and were offered as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump". This email seems to state explicitly, the Russian government sought to support candidate Trump. Jr. responded to this email with "If it's what you say, I love it, especially in the Summer" and sought to arrange a meeting with Goldstone as well as representatives from the Russian government and the campaign. On June 9th, Jr. joined by Jared Kushner (the Son-In-Law of candidate Trump) and Paul Manafort (the campaign manager at the time) met with Goldstone joined by , a Russian lawyer with suspected connections to Putin, Ike Kaveladze (who actually supported Hillary Clinton), Rinat Akhmetshin, who acted as Ms. Veselnitskaya's translator and has connections to Russian intelligence (an apparently a very fashion forward style sense)https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/thousands-of-pages-of-congressional-testimony-shed-light-on-2016-trump-tower-meeting/2018/05/16/316192fc-58b4-11e8-8836-a4a123c359ab_story.html?utm_term=.6386d81ca569. The meeting was short, providing no substantial information of use to the campaign, and it seemed was more focused on the , a US law that imposed financial and travel sanctions on Russian officials named for a Russian tax specialist who died in Russian custody. The Russian governments responded to the sanctions by making it more difficult for Americans to adopt Russian children, who often are neglected because they have developmental disabilities or severe medical conditions.
====Kicking it with Kilimnik====
Manafort met with , a former business associate with connections to Russian intelligence (and Putin directly, there is evidence of several meetings between the two). Kilimnik asked for the meeting to propose a peace plan for Ukraine that was a backdoor way for Russia to control eastern Ukraine. It could be implemented only if candidate Trump was elected President, however. During this meeting Manafort also shared with Kilimnik the campaign's strategy to win votes from Democratic voters in Midwestern states. Manafort had previously shared internal polling information with Kilimnik.
===="Grab her by the pussy"====
Before the second Presidential debate, NBC news released previously unreleased video and audio from Access Hollywood, a program that featured Trump in 2006https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html. The audio features Mr. Trump describing women in a demeaning fashion and seems to brag about sexually assaulting women because "When you're famous, they let you do it". The release was extremely damaging to the campaign, and multiple Republican representatives rescinded their endorsement of candidate Trump. Reince Preibus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, reportedly asked the candidate to drop out of the race and Mike Pence, the former Governor of Indiana and Vice-Presidential candidate, was concerned his spouse would not approvehttps://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/10/american-carnage-excerpt-access-hollywood-tape-227269. Within hours of the release, WikiLeaks released a trove of documents stolen by the GRU from email of John Podesta, the campaign manager of the Clinton campaign. The media focus pivoted almost entirely to covering the emails, even though they contained virtually no valuable information except for the most conspiratorial.
====Time to cash in====
Immediately following the November 8 election which candidate Trump won, the Russian embassy attempted to arrange a call with the President-elect and Russian government officials encouraged prominent Russian businessmen to begin making contact with those connected to the incoming administration. made contact with Erik Prince, Blackwater CEO (and brother of future Trump Secretary of Education), as well as Steve Bannon, CEO of the Trump campaign and future special adviser to the President. Dmitriev also met with a friend of Kushner, and the two worked on a US-Russian reconciliation plan which was later introduced to Kushner, with the approval of Putin. This plan made its way into the hands of Bannon as well as incoming Secretary of State, . 
In response to the interference, President Obama put several sanctions on Russian government officials, dismissed 35 Russian diplomats (i.e. spies) and seized Russian diplomatic holdings in Seattle and Maryland.https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/29/statement-president-actions-response-russian-malicious-cyber-activity The Russian government was furious about the actions and was prepared to respond, until incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn spoke to the Russian Ambassador to the US (and likely Russian spymaster) , to hold off on a response, promising the new administration would deal with these actions. The Russian government did not respond, which received praise from the President-elect via Twitterhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snBNXCN-IQY.
==FBI Investigates==
The FBI first became aware of the Russian governments overtures to the Trump campaign in the first week of May 2016. Mr. Papadopoulos while in London got very intoxicatedhttps://www.vox.com/2017/12/30/16833954/george-papadopoulos-trump-times and bragged to an Australian diplomatic official that the Russian government had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html This official reported this to Australian authorities who informed the FBI in July.https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/papadopoulos-brag-australian-diplomat-was-key-factor-fbi-s-russia-n833691 In June the DNC, along with the firm they had hired to investigate the hacking effort, , announced that the Russian government hackers had infiltrated the DNC and obtained access to opposition research on then candidate Trump (which weirdly has not leaked)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/us/politics/russian-hackers-dnc-trump.html. On July 31, 2016 the FBI opened an investigation into the potential coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.
By October 7th, a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated they were confident that the Russian government was behind releasing information via WikiLeaks was intended to interfere with the US election processhttps://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-department-homeland-security-and-office-director-national.
Before the inauguration, members of the intelligence community, including then FBI Director , briefed the President-elect on a joint statement which concluded with high confidence the Russian government had intervened in the election through a variety of means to assist Trump's candidacy and harm Clinton's. This meeting was also among the first which Mr. Comey would recall with a memo after feeling uncomfortable with the conversation with the President-elect.https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4443042/James-Comey-s-memos-on-his-meetings-with-Trump.pdf
It wasn't until March 2017 that Mr. Comey revealed publicly that the FBI had opened an investigation into "the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts"https://www.c-span.org/video/?425087-1/fbi-director-investigating-links-trump-campaign-russia.
==Special Counsel==
The FBI continued its investigation, much to the annoyance of President Trump. The President met frequently with Director Comey, and had become frustrated that Director Comey would not say publicly that Trump was not the target of the investigation. When Mr. Flynn became the target of an FBI investigation stemming contacts with the Russian Ambassador during the transition, President Trump requested a meeting with Director Comey, where he asked "If you could see your way letting him [Flynn] go"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-20/comey-memos-offer-account-of-private-conversations-with-trump. Things were complicated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised to recuse himself completely from the Russian investigation https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/top-gop-lawmaker-calls-on-sessions-to-recuse-himself-from-russia-investigation/2017/03/02/148c07ac-ff46-11e6-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html after misrepresenting his contacts with the Russian ambassador during his confirmation hearing. This left the investigation to be handled by Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a registered Republican confirmed by the Senate in 2017. Director Comey continued the investigation until May 9, 2017, when President Trump fired Director Comey. The stated reason for his termination was the handling of the Clinton email investigation (which is rich considering Director Comey took the highly unusual step of announcing the conclusion of the investigationhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?412231-1/fbi-director-james-comey-criminal-prosecution-not-appropriate-hillary-clinton-email-case and then the even more unusual step of alerting Congress that they had reopened the investigation https://www.lawfareblog.com/memo-press-what-comeys-letter-does-and-doesnt-mean 10 days before the election, which may have swung the election to Trumphttps://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/), though the President admitted later on national television that it was about "The Russia thing"https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/11/president_trumps_full_interview_with_lester_holt.html The administration had asked the Justice Department to provide a rationale to fire Director Comey, which was written by Mr. Rosensteinhttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39866767. This didn't sit well with Mr. Rosensteinhttps://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/05/23/what-rod-rosenstein-knew-when-he-helped-trump-fire-comey/, who announced eight days later the appointment of a Special Counsel under this guidancehttps://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download:
Acting Attorney General Rosenstein clarified this order twice; August 7, 2017 stating the investigation was permitted to public release, and that the investigation was permitted to look at criminal allegations against Carter Page, Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos for coordinating with the Russian government, Mr. Manafort additionally for financial crimes, Mr. Papodopoulos additionally for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Israeli government, and other allegations involving Michael Flynn and also on October 20, 2017 adding Michael Cohen, Richard Gates and Roger Stone as well as two others which have been redacted (But it is strongly believed to be Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner), allowing further investigation into payments received by Mr. Cohen via Essential Consultants LLC (The same LLC he used to pay-off Stormy Daniels by the way), more investigations into Mr. Manafort and confirmed the investigation was looking into possible false statements made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions (it would eventually clear Mr. Sessions of criminal wrong doing).
The Office of the Special Counsel was led by Mr. Mueller until March 2019, when he submitted a report to Attorney General William Barr.
==Muller Report==
The Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Electionhttps://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf or more commonly referred to as the Mueller report, is a 448 page document split into two sections. Volume I of the report is specifically about the efforts of Russian government to interfere into the 2016 election. The report that was released to the public (and to most of Congress) is heavily redacted, to protect sources and methods, avoid harming ongoing investigations and litigation, as well as to protect the privacy of those not indicted in the course of the investigation. It tends to focus specifically on the actions of individuals in the US who wittingly or unwittingly acted on behalf of the Russian government. Volume II of the report specifically focuses on the Trump administrations attempts to interfere with the investigation, including interfering with the Special Counsel. This section features many Trump administration officials speaking on the record about what they observed in ten specific instances the report identifies that may meet the definition of obstruction of justice.
===Volume I===
The introduction makes it very clear from the jump:
To be clear, President Trump currently is in denial about this only because he doesn't like it. This is the assessment of the DHS and the DNI, organizations that are actually tasked with intelligence. The report continues:
Again, these are statement of facts that the President of the United States denies simply because he doesn't like what it says.
The report also tries to squash a common canard from Republicans, most notably Trump's lawyer and mouthpiece Rudy Giulianihttps://www.newsweek.com/trumps-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-claims-collusion-not-crime-it-was-over-time-1260963, about what a crime is:
"No collusion" is meaningless without a strict legal definition, and the investigation relied on the conspiracy framework. Nevertheless, it is clear that Russia and the Trump campaign stand to benefit and have benefited from each other's actions without needing direct coordination, showing a picture of corruption and foreign influence of elections, a Very Real Problem, with the complacency of Trump and his administration allowing themselves to benefit from election interference. While the complacency should be the issue, Trump and his administration take great pains to focus on legal pedantry (or ignorance) ad nauseam, betting on people to take their words for it or to quibble over words.
The investigation determined that the two primary interference operations, the social media misinformation attack and the stealing of documents, violated US criminal law, and charged the Internet Research Agency and Russian intelligence officers separately. Additionally: 
This statement acknowledges communication and attempts to coordinate, but nothing sufficient to proceed with criminal charges. Prosecutors have an incredibly high bar for pursuing charges, because they tend not to indict people they don't think that they can convict in court or flip to get information about someone else. This in no way excuses the behavior of the campaign. The investigation also identified several people who had lied to Congress and the FBI, which materially impaired the investigation:
====Active measures====
The report describes the nature of the attack:
The report notes these efforts likely began an early as 2014, describing some assets travelling to the US to obtain information and photographs for social media use. It described the actions:
As well as the scope:
Large portions describing the Internet Research Agency have been redacted for "Harm to an Ongoing Matter" or "Investigative Technique", likely because the IRA and IRA assets have been indicted, and the indictment is sealed until they have their day in court (i.e. never) and the investigation also does not want the Russian government to know how they identified some of these assets because they may change their behavior or it may threaten the security of a source in the Russian government. The report identifies how the mission seemed to shift from accounts posing as US persons to posing as political and grassroots organizations
The report refers to a document directed to the IRA (the source is redacted) in February 2016, featuring the statement "Main idea: Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them)". The IRA stepped up its efforts by purchasing advertisements and creating rally events in the US. The report identifies multiple times when people close to Trump responded positively to IRA controlled Twitter accounts. The IRA began targeting and recruiting US persons and paid conservative social media groups to promote IRA-generated content. There are then multiple instances of campaign officials (including Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, Michael T. Flynn, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump) interacting with IRA controlled Twitter accounts, then the IRA tried to coordinate with campaign officials via Twitter:
To be crystal clear here again. The Russian government, using measures designed to influence the election, posed as US persons and political organizations, and attempted to contact campaign officials to coordinate. And the President of the United States disputes this.
====Hacking and dumping====
The second prong of the attack was carried out by two military units in the GRU. Military Unit 26165 is a cyber unit dedicated to targeting military, political, governmental and non-governmental organizations outside of Russia. Military Unit 26165 also has a dedicated Bitcoin mining operation, which it used to purchase computer infrastructure used in hacking operations. Military Unit 74455 has less clear definitive goals, but it assisted in disseminating information stolen by MU26165 and separately was responsible for hacking several election infrastructure targets in the US. The report describes the spearfishing attacks:
 
MU 26165 gained access to numerous email accounts, including , Clinton Campaign chairman. They stole tens of thousands of emails. The GRU then moved its attention from the campaign to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:
MU 26165 was then responsible for implanting customized malware named "X-Agent" and "X-Tunnel" (which seem more like really shitty PSN Usernames), which stored information on a leased computer somewhere in Arizona, with evidence the GRU leased a network of computer all over the world. The report goes into detail about the actual theft of information:
When it came time to release the information to the public, the GRU utilized three primary methods: DCLeaks, Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks. DCLeaks, a website which remained active until March 2017, started releasing information from personal email accounts starting in June 2016 who included a Clinton Campaign advisors, an employee, four volunteers and a former DNC employee. DCLeaks also operated a Facebook account, Twitter account and Gmail account, using them to contact reporters and provide early access to information. Guccifer 2.0, an online moniker adopted by the GRU, claimed to be a single Romanian based hacker that released information via a WordPress blog. At first these documents tended to be opposition research, internal policy documents, and fundraising documents. Guccifer 2.0 also reached out to individuals, providing passwords and links to exclusive content on DCLeaks. Guccifer 2.0 is also responsible for sending documents to a US Congress candidate about their opponent, sending 2.5 gigs of Florida-related data to a US blogger covering US politics, sending documents to a US reporter pertaining to the Black Lives Matter movement. Guccifer 2.0 also made contact with a former Trump campaign member, Roger Stone, but this section is redacted under "Harm to Ongoing Matter". Guccifer 2.0 contacted this person twice through Twitter.
WikiLeaks was the primary method the GRU spread its stolen content:
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange had privately expressed opposition to candidate Clinton. WikiLeaks had previously released emails it had obtained via a FOIA request and designed an archive for candidate Clinton because:
DCLeaks reached out to WikiLeaks via Twitter in early June, and Wikileaks reached out to Guccifer 2.0 once and mid June and again in early July. When Guccifer 2.0 responded, WikiLeaks revealed its goal in trying to acquire Hillary related content "we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary… so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting." The GRU, using a Guccifer 2.0 email account, sent WikiLeaks 20,000 emails and other stolen documents, three days before the Democratic National Convention. This release featured some unflattering assessments of Bernie Sanders and his supporters by DNC staff and Congress person , who resigned her post as DNC chair.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/24/here-are-the-latest-most-damaging-things-in-the-dncs-leaked-emails/ DCLeaks would later get a hold of WikiLeaks and share the emails stolen from Podesta. WikiLeaks proceeded to release 50,000 documents stolen from Podesta's email account following the Access Hollywood release. Though the GRU was dumping information, it was still seeking additional information throughout the summer. July 26, it targeted Clinton's personal office, after candidate Trump suggested Russia seek out "30,000 emails that are missing".https://twitter.com/cspan/status/758320094619381760 MU 26165 target fifteen email accounts related to candidate Clinton's office, five hours after Trumps comments.
The report then dives into a section titled Trump Campaign and the Dissemination of Hacked Material. Large portions of the section are redacted for "Harm to Ongoing Matter", because it involves Roger Stone. This includes the first reference to Rick Gates, a Manafort associate, named RNC Treasurer, who pleaded guilty to multiple counts. Gates recalled that candidate Trump was frustrated that the Clinton emails had not been found. Also featured in this portion is Michael Cohen, who was around candidate Trump when he was contacted about hacked information as well as Jerome Corsi, resident crank of WorldNetDaily and InfoWars. Corsi was apparently a go-between for Assange and Roger Stone.
====Trump Tower Moscow project====
This section goes over the project from the connections made during previous project attempts to the signing of an intent letter by candidate Trump. The important thing here is that Trump lied about this project. It also features a particularly damning email from Felix Sater, a New York-based real estate advisor who represented a Russian real estate development corporation, working with Michael Cohen on the Moscow Tower:
This section also features multiple attempts by campaign officials to arrange a meeting with Trump and Putin, as well as efforts to establish contact with the Russian Government, specifically by George Papodopoulos and Carter Page. There is a whole host of other BS contacts between Russian government connected businessmen and campaign/administration officials which if you want more information, you should follow the advice of Bob Mueller.
==Volume II==
Volume II starts by making the contents very clear:
Then the report explains the document that has been at the center of this entire investigation, an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo which states:
If that isn't clear enough for some of the imbeciles out there: "You can't indict a sitting President". But that doesn't preclude investigating a sitting President of criminal behavior, because a President doesn't have immunity when they leave office. But when it comes to prosecution, it would not be prudent to come to a judgement about whether the President committed a crime, because doing so would require an indictment and you can't indict a sitting President. These two paragraphs have a lot a legal-ease, but essentially to make a criminal determination, would be unfair to someone that can't defend themselves in a court of law. The last section however speaks for itself:
This a slam dunk, grand slam, bicycle-kick, whatever spectacular sports term you want to use. The first sentence, states that the President committed obstruction of justice. It's right fucking there, there is no way anyone could possibly interpret that sentence in any other way unless one is knowingly being dishonest. The last sentence is just icing on the cake. Taken all together this introduction makes it quite clear:
#A sitting president cannot be charged with a crime while in office.
#The Justice Department has the right to investigate criminal behavior of a President.
#The Justice Department cannot make a determination on whether behavior would be criminal, because it would not allow the President to defend themselves in court.
#The investigation cannot say the President did not commit a crime.
Honestly this should be enough but because Mueller is very thorough, he documents ten instances that may qualify as obstruction of justice. The rest of this volume is divided into four parts.
===Part I: Define Obstruction of Justice===
The report details the three elements necessary for obstruction of justice:
#An obstructive act 
#A nexus between the obstructive act and an official proceeding
#A corrupt intent
Now if you're reading that thinking, "Well shit this sounds like Trump!" you're not alone.
The report goes on to specifically define witness tampering as well as attempts and endeavors The report then identifies six pieces of evidence it planned to investigate in the obstruction of the FBI investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. These included:
These were determined to be sufficient factual and legal basis to further investigate. They sought relevant documents and interviews from relevant White House personnel, including a voluntary interview with the President, which he declined, but agreed to answer questions about Russia related topics, but not on obstruction or the transition. The report make a critical point here:
This is where the first criticism of this report and investigation is necessary. The President made various remarks about sitting down to an interview, first saying he would love tohttps://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/24/trump_on_mueller_interview_i_would_do_it_under_oath.htmlhttps://www.nbcnews.com/video/trump-on-sitting-for-mueller-interview-nobody-wants-to-speak-more-than-me-1225695811887https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/397756-trump-on-possible-sit-down-with-mueller-ive-always-wanted-to-do-an, then saying he wouldn'thttp://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-suggests-he-wont-accept-interview-request-mueller, finally settling on taking the legal advice of his attorneys to not sit for an interviewhttps://twitter.com/foxnews/status/1027419201206513664?lang=enhttps://www.wktv.com/content/national/490379291.html. Trump has a history in the court of law, and has sometimes been compelled to tell the truth under oath. There are examples of then Mr. Trump removing the braggadocios facade and being honest about a number of things,I've Watched Trump Testify Under Oath. It Isn't Pretty. In a 2007 deposition in my libel case (which he lost), he was underprepared and overconfident. by Timothy L. O'Brien (January 25, 2018, 6:24 AM PST) Bloomberg. including his statements about his net-worthhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/trump-lies/, which he admitted was inflated based on how he felt day to day. President Trump also said repeatedly he had nothing to hide, but feared he would be caught in a perjury trap. Now that probably seems odd, because if you're telling the truth, you can't perjure yourself. So as the Special Counsel, you have a President who can't decide whether he'll sit for an interview, a known history that this President is a pathological liar in publicPresident Trump has made 10,796 false or misleading claims over 869 days by Glenn Kessler (June 10, 2019) The Washington Post. but that he admitted to his lies under oath during a trial. But because negotiating an interview would be time consuming (likely from various legal wrangling) and the evidence of other public statements seemed to complete the picture, they didn't pursue getting the interview. A controlled interview would likely not only have helped the investigation understand more, but it would likely have been the only time the American people could be reasonably certain that Trump was telling the truth matters pertaining to the investigation.
===Part II: "The Very Best People"===
This portion begins with a summary of the 2016 election and Russian support for Trump. It also illustrates the first time that candidate Trump publicly lied about his interactions with Russia, citing the July 27 press conference, where he said five times,"I have nothing to do with Russia", even though at that time he and Cohen were exploring the Trump Tower in Moscow. It also gives examples of transition officials possibly lying about their contact with Russian officials (The Russians sure thought they were talking to the Trump campaign) This section also first mentions the Steele Dossier, a series of unverified allegations against Trump. To be clear to the idiots that believe this dossier was important to the investigation, it wasn't and it didn't start the investigation either. At this point the report begins to rely heavily upon several people who were interviewed during the course of the investigation. They include:
* — Former Staff Secretary, serial abuser of women,https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/07/politics/rob-porter-ex-wives-white-house/index.html and jilted lover
* — The first White House communications director
*Rick Gates — former Manafort acolyte, turned witness for the Special Counsel
*Michael Cohen — Former Trump lawyer/fixer, turned witness for the Special Counsel and Southern District of New York
* — Former RNC chair, first Chief-of-Staff to the President
*Steve Bannon — aforementioned Prince of Darkness
* — Former DHS Secretary, Second Chief-of-Staff to the President
* — Former CIA director, current Secretary of State
* — Second WH communications director, master of the smokey eye
* — Former assistant to the President, who definitely perjured herselfhttp://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/what-hope-hicks-learned-in-washington.htmlhttps://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/hope-hicks-west-wing-alum-begins-her-second-act
*Michael Flynn — aforementioned National Security Advisor, admitted Turkish foreign agent
* — Deputy National Security Advisor
* — First Trump campaign manager, general sleezeballhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/video-shows-trump-campaign-manager-corey-lewandowski-grabbing-michelle-fields/2016/03/29/8b53c8a4-f5c2-11e5-958d-d038dac6e718_video.html
* — White House Counsel
* — McGahn's Chief of Staff (and a prolific note taker)
* — Former Congressperson from Indiana, Director of National Intelligence
*Jeff Sessions — Former Alabama Senator, first Attorney General for the Trump Administration
===Part II.I: Flynn Fucks Up===
This section documents the first instance of obstruction of justice. The story of Michael Flynn is an amusing one, but for this section a couple things are important:
#Flynn was a member of President-elect Trump's transition team, tasked with coordinating policy.
#In response to the Obama administration sanctions and seizures on December 29, 2016, Flynn decided to communicate with Russian Ambassador Kislyak.
#Flynn asked Kislyak not to escalate the situation.
#Russia decides not to escalate, and several days later Kislyak tells Flynn his message reached the highest levels of the Russian government.
If you think it's wrong for the incoming administration to be communicating policy with a foreign government, while another administration is in office, congratulations, you've identified a crime. The Washington Post got a wiff of this story on January 12, 2017, which infuriated President-elect Trump who directed Priebus to ask Flynn to kill the story. Flynn directed McFarland to deny the allegations, even though she knew it was a lie. Flynn then went on to lie to Priebus and Vice-President-elect Mike Pence about his actions, who both made media appearances repeating the lie. Following Trump's inauguration, Sean Spicer acknowledged the communication, but repeated Flynn's lie about the content.
Something that is very important to understand, is that the FBI spies on people in the United States. Among the groups of people that definitely get spied on, are intelligence assets from hostile governments, like Kislyak. The Department of Justice (DOJ) was aware of the contents of the conversation and became very concerned that Flynn had compromised himself. The FBI decided to interview Flynn on January 24, 2017. It didn't go well:
Pro-tip: Don't lie to the FBI.
The DOJ communicated to McGahn through (then-Assistant Attorney General), their concerns about Flynn. McGahn shared this with President Trump, who was (according to Priebus) unhappy with the situation. McGahn called Yates back to the White House to discuss the possible actions DOJ would take, expressing doubt Flynn could be charged. Around this time Trump, acting on Coats advice, tries to charm Comey by inviting him to a private dinner. Priebus and Bannon were aware of this effort but were not present. Comey was concerned about being alone with the President, who used the dinner to float the FBI job and go full mob boss with, "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty." Comey documented this exchange in a memo he wrote that night, as well as telling several FBI officials. Flynn had a meeting with the President, where Trump may have tried to correct Flynn's recollection of events (re: Witness Tampering). WaPo dropped another story on February 9, 2017 after which Pence became aware of the FBI investigation and asked to see the underlying evidence. Flynn began to flounder, lying to Priebus and Eisenberg about the investigation. By February 13, the situation had become untenable and Priebus told Flynn he had to resign. Before leaving he met with Trump in the oval office.
Trump was under the impression that by removing Flynn, he had freed himself of the "Russia Thing". Former campaign whipping boy as well as former-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie explained to Trump the following day that firing Flynn would not end the investigation, further that investigations cannot be shortened, but they can be extended. This appears to have shook Trump who asked Christie to reach out to Comey, with whom he was acquainted, and tell him "…he's part of the team." Christie had no intention of doing so, seeing the request as nonsensical and didn't wish to make Comey uncomfortable. That same day, Comey was at the oval office with other Homeland Security and DOJ officials to brief the President. At the end of the briefing, Trump dismissed everyone except Comey, whom he wished to speak to alone. Kushner and Sessions lingered (probably because they were uneasy about Trump meeting alone with the Director of the FBI). Comey highlighted the contents of the meeting:
This is very, very bad. Though the President is the head of the Executive branch and the DOJ (and therefore the FBI) is in the Executive branch, the President cannot put a thumb on the scale of an active investigation. Comey wrote a memo about the incident, and discussed with other FBI staff, who elected not to tell the investigators pursuing Flynn. K. T. McFarland was a Flynn ally, and with Flynn gone, Priebus and Bannon asked her to resign from the NSC with the intention to nominate her to be Ambassador to Singapore. This in itself isn't too extraordinary, but the additional request was: Trump wanted McFarland to draft an internal email to the effect that Trump had not directed Flynn to speak to Kislyak. Recall that McFarland already had misrepresented the facts of this situation (above). McFarland was uncomfortable with the request (fearing it would appear as a quid pro quo) and after consulting with White House Counsel, opted not write the statement. Again, this is very very, very bad. The President can't float ambassadorships to people based on them lying for him. The report also documents two attempts by Trump to reach out to Flynn, once via Priebus and later via McFarland, after Flynn had agreed to testify to the FBI.
====Mueller analysis====
The report identifies the obstructive act in this case to be the February 14 meeting where Trump asked Comey to "[let] Flynn go", which when the content of the meeting became public, the President denied. The report identifies three pieces of corroboration through Comey's account: The memo he wrote and shared with the FBI, his testimony before Congress, and the circumstances that created the meeting in the first place (kicking everyone out, even though Sessions and Kushner seemed to know it was a bad idea). The report then identifies the nexus to a proceeding which in its own words: Here the report is clear that Trump (as well as to the FBI and others in the administration) believed Flynn had lied to the FBI and was under investigation. Finally the report examines the intent, primarily whether the President had a personal interest in the eventual outcome of the investigation. The evidence was inconclusive about Trump directing Flynn to communicate with Kislyak, and there is no record of Trump being told about the content of the communication (Although he approved of it). Flynn did not possess any personal information on the President either, that he may have wished to remain secret. However, Trump clearly believed that Flynn and the Russia investigation were connected and by removing Flynn, the investigation would end. Trump believed that the investigation challenged the legitimacy of his election. Trump also felt a degree of sympathy for Flynn, and even though he had fired him, he still had the desire to keep Flynn from saying negative things about him. Trump also seemed to reach out to Director Comey after relevant events, when the investigation was revealed and after Flynn's firing, both times asking for things that would seriously threaten the appearance of an impartial investigation, which Trump seemed to recognize leading to his current posture of denying that he called for the first meeting or that he cleared the room for the second. The investigation seems to be squishy on the McFarland request, because although it was highly irregular, they can't be sure he was asking her to lie.
To summarize:
*Obstructive Act: Asking Comey to let Flynn go
*Nexus to Proceeding: Flynn lied to the FBI and Trump was aware that Flynn could be charged.
*Intent: Trump was sympathetic to Flynn and believed Flynn was connected to the Russia investigation which threatened Trump's presidency.
This is probably obstruction of justice, it would likely be the weakest obstruction of justice charge. There are too many unknowns.
===Part II.II: Sessions Recuses===
Jeff Sessions, appointed Attorney General, said during his confirmation hearings that he had no conversations with Russians. The DOJ had determined by February 2017 this was not accurate, and made recommendations that AG Sessions recuse himself from the Russia investigation. President Trump contacted FBI Director Comey by phone on March 1, after media reports confirmed Sessions had not disclosed his two meetings with Kislyak before the election. The call seemed to be a check-in and mostly friendly. However it is worth noting again, Trump has met twice with Comey alone at this point and called him on his phone, while Obama had only met with Comey once, with several others present. Sessions officially recused himself from all Russia related investigations the following day.
The President was not happy about this, who through McGahn, asked Session to not recuse himself. In response Sessions stated he intended to follow the rules on recusal, though McGahn continued to try to change his mind, speaking to Sessions personal counsel, his chief of staff and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as calling Sessions personally twice more. Sessions public statement laid out the facts:
Needless to say, Trump was not happy about this. He made his displeasure known on March 3 in an Oval Office meeting featuring Priebus, Bannon and McGahn. According to McGahn, Trump opened the conversation with "I don't have a lawyer." and discussed Roy Cohn, wishing he was his lawyer, a perceived slight to McGahn. McGahn attempted to make it clear that the DOJ had made the decision about Sessions' recusal, Trump then brought up and Robert F. Kennedy, suggesting that they protected their Presidents (Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy, respectively). The Attorney General however, is not the President's lawyer, they are the Country's lawyer, tasked with prosecuting people who commit Federal crimes. Trump also apparently said "…Obama didn't tell Eric Holder who to investigate?" This is incredibly problematic (and according to Holder, false) because it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding that Trump has about the Executive Branch. Though the President appoints people, and has permission to dismiss them, the President is not supposed to direct any investigations, that is the responsibility of the AG. That weekend Trump met with Sessions alone and asked him not to recuse himself, giving Sessions the impression Trump feared the investigation would disrupt his ability to govern.
Comey confirmed to the Gang of Eight that the FBI was investigating Russian influence into the 2016 Presidential Election on March 9, then publicly to the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee on March 20. Comey had been directed not to comment to any individuals being investigated, including the President. Comey's testimony made the President furious, and proceeded to accuse the Director of leaking to the media and acting like his own branch of government. At this point, the White House Counsel became so concerned that Trump would fire Comey, and they began drafting a memo about whether the President needed a cause to do so. Trump sought to talk with the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the investigation, and ask him to intervene in the investigation, which McGahn recommended against doing.
Trump then began searching for other ways to deal with the investigation and Comey, taking Dan Coats and Michael Pompeo aside to ask them to publicly state the investigation had nothing to do with the President. Coats and Pompeo both declined (considering neither was responsible for investigations as the respective heads of National Intelligence and the CIA), and according to Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) aides, Trump had personally asked Coats to speak to Comey. On March 25 Trump called Coats to complain about the investigation, then on March 26 Trump called NSA Director Admiral . Rogers' Deputy, Richard Ledgett, testified it was the most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service. Both Director Coats and Director Rogers each testified to Congress, neither felt they had been directed to interfere in the investigation.
On March 30, Trump again called Director Comey, asking him what was necessary to lift the "cloud" of the investigation. Comey stated the investigation needed to run its course, and let Trump know that Congressional leaders knew the FBI was not investigating the President personally. This was a big fucking mistake: the primary reason being that just because the investigation was not looking at the President at that time, it could later (for obstruction of justice). It did however provide cover for future Trump bullshit statements about the investigation not targeting him. During the call that Trump pounced on this, directing Comey to find someway to get that out to the public. Trump called Comey again on April 11, asking about the status of his request, which Comey directed the President to speak to Assistant AG Boente. This conversation featured another mob boss statement from Trump, "Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal, we had that thing, you know." Trump met with McGahn, revealing that he had communicated with Comey, and stated that the DOJ could issue a statement about the investigation clearing the President. When McGahn followed up with Boente, he told McGahn that although it was not improper for Trump to call Comey, it had made the FBI director uncomfortable, and DOJ would not release a statement to that effect.
====Mueller analysis====
The report identifies several obstructive acts that occurred after Director Comey's March 20 testimony. These include the requests from the President to CIA Director Pompeo, DNI Director Coats and NSA Director Rogers. The report notes that Rogers and his deputy thought the call from the President was so significant, they chose to write a memo about the call and sign it. Though no grand jury proceedings had begun at this point in the investigation, the report identifies the nexus to proceeding as the announcement of a counterintelligence investigation by Director Comey, which the outreaches began immediately afterward. The report then identifies the intent:
It continued:
*Obstructive Act: Trump asking heads of intelligence to speak directly with Comey about the investigation.
*Nexus to Proceeding: Comey publicly announced a counterintelligence investigation into criminal wrongdoing in the 2016 election.
*Intent: Trump felt that the investigation threatened his administration and its ability to conduct business with the Russian government.
Reading through this, and seeing that Pompeo, Coats and Rogers testified that they never believed the President directed them to interfere, it doesn't take a genius to hear what they are saying and conclude this was exactly what Trump wanted, and they refused to do it.
===Part II.III: Firing Comey===
President Trump really goes off the rails here. On May 3, Comey was scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to McGahn, Trump considered Comey's testimony to be the last straw if he did not publicly state that he was not the subject of an investigation. Comey did not answer any questions regarding the investigations progress or any targets of the investigationhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?427708-1/fbi-director-defends-decision-reveal-clinton-email-probe-election. He also testified that his decision to announce the reopening of the Clinton email investigation was a difficult one, and made him "mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election", but he did not regret his handling of the investigation.
When Trump heard about Comey's testimony, he lashed out in a meeting with McGahn, Sessions and Sessions Chief of Staff Jody Hunt. Hunt's notes paint a picture to Trumps feelings:
Bannon told investigators that Trump mentioned Comey to him eight times on May 3 and 4, repeating the same refrain: Bannon confided in Trump that firing Comey would not end the investigation.
May 5 at a dinner with senior advisers including Kushner and Stephen Miller, Trump decided to terminate FBI Director Comey. He dictated a termination letter to Miller, who created a memo and worked with the President for several edits. Trump very specifically wanted the letter to include that he was not under investigation. The final memo began:
The final document totaled four pages and included critiques about Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. On May 8 Trump presented the letter and his thinking to senior staff and to Session and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Both seemed to agree that replacing Comey was a good idea, and their was a suggestion to allow Comey to resign, but Trump was adamant he be fired. Trump also directed Rosenstein to write a memo providing justification for Comey's firing, that included the President was not under investigation. Rosenstein said the investigation had nothing to do with him supporting Comey's removal, but Trump insisted he include it anyway. Rosenstein would later tell DOJ officials that Trump had decided to fire Comey, but his reasons were not the President's reasons.
The following day the White House received a memo from the DOJ titled, "Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI". With this new reasoning, senior advisers recommended abandoning the previous termination letter. Miller was tasked with rewriting the letter, which Trump insisted include that he was not under investigation, over the objections of many senior advisers. It was announced later that day, while Comey was on a trip to California on official business. Trump apparently angry at how the media was covering the firing, and later in the evening told the WH communication team to go out and defend him. Christie suggested the President use Rosentein since he had written the memo used to justify Comey's removal. The WH contacted the DOJ, asking them to put out a statement to that effect. Rosenstein did not want to participate in what he characterized as "a false story". Trump called Rosenstein personally after watching a segment on Fox News, and wanted him to do a press conference. Rosenstein told the President he didn't think that was a good idea, because if asked he would tell the media it was not his idea. Rosenstein expressed frustration to Sessions that his memo was being used as the reason for Comey's firing. The WH communication team however continued with the line that no one in the White House had been involved in the termination process.https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/5428019499001/
Now you would think that Trump would shut up, and let the communication team spin this, and keep his head down. But this being Trump, on May 10 he met with Russian Foreign Minister and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office, where he said this:
Though Trump would later dispute this characterization, the White House would not, and Trump told McGahn it was good to fire Comey because it took pressure off the administration.
Trump called Andrew McCabe, Deputy FBI Director (though at this point he was the acting FBI Director), where he said he had received hundreds of messages from FBI employees supporting his decision, and when McCabe came to the Oval Office later that day, the President estimate 80% if the FBI had voted for him, as well as asking McCabe who he had voted for. Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that the rank and file of the FBI supported the President's decision and she had heard from "countless" FBI officials that they did not support Comey. When interviewed by the Special Counsel, Sanders admitted that statement was not founded on anything (She's a fucking liar, and the FBI just proved it). Rosenstein continued to express discomfort that his memo was being characterized as the only reason that Comey had been terminated, which the White House Counsel agreed with and would work to correct the record.
Now, Trump's slip up on May 10 was bad, but because no national media had been allowed in (only Russian media, nice right?), he could probably defend himself and spin it still. Keep his head low, and just roll with it right? Wrong. On May 11, Trump participated in a live interview with Lester Holt, where he said this:
====Mueller analysis====
The report identifies the firing of Director Comey as an obstructive act. Not only did President Trump know that there was an investigation being led in part by Director Comey, but Trump was under the impression that by removing Comey, the investigation would end, or failing that, Trump could replace Comey with someone else he could influence to end the investigation. The nexus to proceeding is identified by the general acknowledgement that the investigation would eventually have a grand jury or some criminal prosecution (For example Flynn agreeing to testify to the FBI after receiving some form of immunity). The report fairly clearly identifies intent: 
*Obstructive Act: Firing the FBI Director
*Nexus to Proceeding: FBI investigation was ongoing, had a collaborating witness (Flynn), with further criminal prosecution imminent
*Intent: Removing the FBI Director might delay or otherwise disrupt the investigation, and replacing the Director with a loyalist a possibility
This is without question the most obvious example of obstruction of justice because Trump did it on national television.
===Part II.IV: Trump Tries to Fire the Special Counsel===
This section features the funniest part of the report. The Special Counsel was appointed on May 17, 2017https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download. The President's reaction was captured by Sessions Chief of Staff:
Trump then asked Sessions to resign, which Sessions agreed to do, bringing his resignation letter to the White House the next day. Trump pocketed the resignation, and asked Sessions if he would like to stay. Sessions said he would like to stay and the President agreed. But Trump kept the resignation letter. Priebus and Bannon became concerned that Trump had kept the resignation letter, as it effectively held the DOJ hostage, and possibly influence it. The letter would not be returned to Session until 12 days later, with a notation saying "Not accepted".
The report then documents the Trump's brilliant plan to remove Mueller, saying that he had conflicts of interest. Here are the President's examples:
#Mueller resigned from Trump National Golf Course and asked for a refund.
#Mueller had been interviewed to be the new FBI director.
#Mueller worked for a law firm that represented Trump associates.https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/17/mueller-clients-special-prosecutor-238532
Priebus, McGahn and Bannon all thought these reasons were petty and not real conflicts.
Trump later reached out to McGahn to ask him to talk to Rosenstein about the conflicts. McGahn declined, as it was a personal matter to the President, not a White House issue, and that doing so would look like meddling in the investigation. In a later June meeting, Trump, Bannon and Priebus met with a longtime friend of the President Christopher Ruddy. During this meeting they discussed firing the Special Counsel, which Ruddy then publicly stated in two television interviews.https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/06/12/trump_confidant_chris_ruddy_president_considering_firing_special_investigator_mueller_i_advise_not_to.html This created a lot of noise in the media, and when the White House communications team asked for how to respond, Trump dictated, "While the President has every right to [fire the special counsel] he has no intention to do so."
Trump decided to calmly wait for the investigation to run its course tweeted a bunch of incoherent bullshit on June 15https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/875441788110110727?lang=enhttps://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/875321478849363968?lang=enhttps://www.vox.com/2017/6/15/15812852/trump-tweets-clinton-obstruction and June 16https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/875701471999864833?lang=enhttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/16/15816284/trump-under-investigation-tweet, giving him the confidence to call McGahn on June 17 and direct him to remove the Special Counsel. The first call was more general, suggesting that McGahn call Rod Rosenstein and say the Mueller had conflicts that precluded him from serving as Special Counsel. McGahn did not call Rosenstein, seeing it as a conflict for the White House Counsel and believing the asserted conflicts to be silly. Trump followed up with McGahn later that day:
McGahn, unwilling to do what the President directed him to do, decided to resign. He told his Chief of Staff of his intentions, and she also decided to resign. McGahn went to the White House to collect his things, afterwards calling Priebus and Bannon, telling them of his intentions, without sharing too many details besides the President had asked him to "do crazy shit". They convinced McGahn not to resign, and when McGahn showed up to work the following Monday, the President did not follow up.
====Mueller Analysis====
The report identifies Trump as directing McGahn to contact Rosenstein and insist the Special Counsel be removed as the obstructive act. McGahn's recollection and actions make this clear the Trump wanted the Special Counsel removed. The nexus to an official proceeding is clearly identified as the Special Counsel calling a grand jury for the investigation into Michael Flynn and the perceived exposure of Trump attempting to communicate with Flynn and influence Comey. The intent was crystal clear:
*Obstructive Act: Trump directed McGahn to have the Special Counsel removed.
*Nexus to an official proceeding: The Special Counsel's Office (SCO) had convened a grand jury and had interviewed Michael Flynn.
*Intent: Trump perceived that interactions he had with Comey regarding Flynn were being investigated by the SCO and were a threat to his presidency.
This should be it. This is so obvious, even McGahn compared it to Watergate and the 
===Part II.V: If You Can't Fire SCO, Limit the Scope===
Since McGahn didn't fire Mueller, Trump instead tried to limit the scope of the investigation. On June 19, Trump met with Corey Lewandowski one-on-one. In the meeting Trump asked Lewandowski to deliver a message to AG Sessions, after complaining about his recusal and the Russian investigation in general. Trump dictated:
Lewandowski planned to deliver this message, but wanted to meet Sessions in person, not at the Department of Justice. They arranged a meeting but Sessions cancelled at the last minute and Lewandowski returned home, storing the message in his safe. Lewandowski decided to pass the message to Sessions through Rick Dearborn, a senior White House official, who agreed without knowing the contents of the message. Lewandowski returned to DC July 19 and met with Trump again in the Oval Office, who asked if the message had been delivered. Lewandowski assured him the message would be delivered soon, and Trump said that if Sessions wouldn't meet with him, Lewandowski should tell Sessions he was fired. After the meeting Lewandowski provided a typewritten copy of the note to Dearborn to pass to Sessions. Upon reading the note, Dearborn became uncomfortable being the messenger, and would later tell Lewdandowski he had handled the situation. Dearborn chose not to deliver said message, and presumably destroyed or discarded the note.
Things got worse for Sessions when The Washington Post dropped another story about Sessions meeting with Kislyak during the campaign.https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-discussed-trump-campaign-related-matters-with-russian-ambassador-us-intelligence-intercepts-show/2017/07/21/3e704692-6e44-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html Priebus discussed with Sessions COS Hunt about what to do, wherein Hunt made it clear Sessions would not resign. Trump began the next morning with some rage tweets, then while aboard Marine One, Trump told Priebus to remove Sessions, insisting that he have a letter of resignation immediately. Priebus discussed this with McGahn, and shared that he believed Trump wanted to remove Sessions so as to replace Sessions with someone to oversee the SCO. McGahn recommended Priebus not follow the order, discuss the issue with private counsel and they both discussed the possibility of resigning rather than carry out the order. Trump followed up that day, and Priebus strung the President along, with no intention of following through. By the weekend Priebus managed to convince Trump not to fire Sessions, but that didn't stop Trump from rage tweeting about Sessions all weekend.
====Mueller Analysis====
The report identifies the obstructive act as the attempt to send a message to Sessions through Lewandowski to limit the investigation. At this point a grand jury had been called by the SCO, and it was public knowledge that it had been taking testimony from witnesses. This section features two sentences that are redacted, that in context, seem to relate to recent reporting about the aformentioned Trump Tower meeting and a statement that Trump had dictated to Trump Jr. about the meeting. Mueller again clearly identifies intent:
*Obstructive Act: Directing Lewandowski to relay a message to Sessions to limit the scope of the investigation
*Nexus to an Official Proceeding: It was public knowledge the SCO had a grand jury, that was already calling witnesses, including possibly Donald Trump Jr.
*Inten: The President wanted to have the investigation limited because it was now directly investigating him, and if Sessions wouldn't do it, a replacement would.
Again, this is crystal fucking clear. If any of these people had actually followed through, it would have been a scandal.
===Part II.VI: Trump and Trump Jr. try to hide meeting with Russians===
Around the same time Trump asked Lewandowski to contact Sessions, he became aware of emails that had been exchanged eventually culminating into the aforementioned Trump Tower meeting. The SCO had obtained these emails through attorney's working on behalf of the Trump family. This particular incident features Hope Hicks rather prominently, as she was involved in meetings that included Kushner and the President. On one occasion, Kushner attempted to let the President know the contents of what had been discovered, but the President shut the conversation down without hearing or seeing any details. Hicks had a chance to review the emails herself, and was shocked by the content. Hicks brought her concerns to the President, especially considering that they would soon be in the hands of Congress. Trump seemed more concerned about the information leaking. That same day on June 28, Trump met with Hicks, Kushner and Ivanka Trump (The President's daughter and Kushner's wife), where the content of the meeting was discussed, but not the reason it was called. Hicks wanted to be proactive to get ahead of the story, but the President insisted on complying with requests and staying quiet.
While at the G20, the Administration became aware of an impending New York Times story about the meeting. When asked for a comment, Trump chose not to give one, which Hicks thought was strange. Later Trump and Hicks discussed the story again, settling on what Hicks had been told, that the meeting was about Russian adoption. Upon obtaining a draft statement that Trump Jr. planned to release what was generally accurate, Trump dictated a new statement to Hicks that she texted to Trump Jr.:
If you look back at the details of the meeting discussed earlier in this article, you can see how this was very clearly a lie. Jr. was rightly concerned that this statement was a bit too inaccurate and released this instead:
The word "primarily" was added because Hillary Clinton was discussed, but it was quickly discarded for a conversation about the Magnitsky Act. Hicks became aware that the President was aware of an effort to discredit the reporting with statements from his personal attorney and an article in Circa News. The NYT story dropped while Trump was still in the airborne returning from the G20 meeting.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner-manafort.html. The story featured the Trump Jr. statement and a lie from a representative from Trump's legal team. Circa News also released a story with further lies,https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-dictated-sons-misleading-statement-on-meeting-with-russian-lawyer/2017/07/31/04c94f96-73ae-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html with the intent to mislead people, which Hicks found upsetting. The next day when confronted about the comment and the Circa News article by Hicks and Trump, Mark Corallo (a spokesperson on Trump's legal team) stated that the statement had been authorized and a "document" existed that would contradict the statement provided by Trump Jr. Corallo at this point was unaware of emails, but was under the impression few people had access, and they were unlikely to become public knowledge.
That lasted all of two days because on July 11, Trump Jr. released the redacted images of the email that set up the meeting.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/11/donald-trump-jr-email-chain-russia-hillary-clinton Later media outlets began reporting that the President had been involved in the initial statement released to the NYT. Trump's personal lawyers would deny the President's involvement, even lying to the SCO about the accuracy of the statement. Trump eventually admitted to his involvement in the misleading statement saying, "It's a statement to the New York Times … That's not a statement to a high tribunal of judges."https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-press-conference-north-lawn-white-house-june-15-2018 Lewandowski upon meeting with the President on July 19 attributed this statement to the President:
====Mueller Analysis====
The report here seems to find that this was not obstruction of justice. Though on three occasions the President sought to limit public knowledge about the meeting, there was no attempt to stop it from being reported to Congress or it appearing before a grand jury (nexus to an official proceeding). It was instead a press strategy which isn't against the law.
*Obstructive Act: Limiting knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting (But not to Congress or the SCO)
*Nexus to an official proceeding: Though it would interfere with public knowledge, it was still expected this would appear before SCO or Congress.
*Intent: Limiting exposure for those involved in the meeting
Though this isn't obstruction of justice, this is really not a good look for the President. On multiple occasions, he mislead the public about the meeting, and generally seemed OK with it happening. He also very clearly showed a contempt for media's attempt to keep him honest.
===Part II.VII: What if there was no Sessions?===
While the previously examples document events happening over a short period of time, this section of the report documents a few examples over several months of the President openly discussing removing Sessions. It begins with two instances in the Summer of 2017, the first where Trump discussed an Assistant Attorney General (Rachel Bland) with then Staff Secretary Rob Porter. Porter and Bland were acquainted and Trump asked if Bland would be interested in overseeing the SCO or being Attorney General. Trump on this occasion and several others asked Porter to keep in touch with Bland, which Porter didn't do because he understood the purpose of this communication was to find someone who would end the Russia investigation or fire the Special Counsel, which Porter had no interest in being a part of. The second instance included McGahn meeting with Trump, where they discussed of the situation would change with a new AG, which McGahn assumed there would not be any changes.
In October Trump straight up broke the wall between the DOJ and the Executive branch, when in a meeting with Sessions, attended by Porter, Trump said the DOJ was not investigating individuals the President thought they should be investigating (i.e., Hillary Clinton). Trump followed this up with a series of unhinged conspiracy tweetshttps://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/920595564064100352?lang=enhttps://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/920604520572424193?lang=enhttps://www.cnn.com/2018/08/25/politics/trump-sessions-twitter-timeline/index.html to try to publicly influence Sessions to investigate the Clinton email investigation. Later in December 2017, Trump met with Sessions in the Oval Office again, attended by Porter who documented their exchange:
This is another excellent insight into the twisted way the President views investigations and his own role in them. If you are investigating anything related to him, it's "unfair", he also seems to have a misunderstanding of the reason for Sessions' recusal, seemingly believing it to be a magic word he can say and reverse. The report then details a bunch of tweets from 2018, where the President bullies the Attorney General, up to November 7, when he fired Sessions.
====Mueller Analysis====
The report identifies the ongoing attempts by the President to get Sessions to control the Russia investigation as the obstructive act. Trump employed a dual strategy here, with private conversations with Sessions and senior White House officials, as well as the public tweets. The nexus to an official proceeding is clear as the grand jury's work was public knowledge, and the AG would have an impact if he was to become involved. The report really made it quite simple with intent:
*Obstructive Act: Get Sessions to take over the Russia investigation
*Nexus to an Official Proceeding: Influence the ongoing grand jury
*Intent: Change the course of the investigation and protect the President
This is another blatant example of obstruction of justice, again only avoiding a crisis because Sessions ignored the President's request.
===Part II.VIII: Trump vs. McGahn: Notegate===
As mentioned previously, in June 2017 Trump told McGahn to have Rosenstein remove the Special Counsel, and rather than follow the directive from the President, McGahn decided to resign. Priebus and Bannon had convinced McGahn to stay and Trump hadn't pursued the matter. January 2018 the NYT reported the story of this incident,https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html and while Trump denied the report, WaPo followed up confirming the account.https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-moved-to-fire-mueller-in-june-bringing-white-house-counsel-to-the-brink-of-leaving/2018/01/25/9184a49e-0238-11e8-bb03-722769454f82_story.html The articles differed slightly where the NYT article seemed to state McGahn threatened to resign and Trump backed off, while the WaPo article was more accurate in that McGahn intended to resign but did not tell the President.
Through their personal counsel, Trump asked McGahn to put out a statement denying the accuracy of the NYT article, which McGahn refused to do. White House communications staff communicated with McGahn about the story, who stated that there was no reason to respond to the story. Priebus would later make a television appearance where he stated that he was unaware of the June 2017 events (which is technically true), much to Trump's delight. Trump became animated about the February 5 article, which Porter documented:
Go back and read the section about this incident. It's clear here the President's account is inaccurate. It's strange how normal for him that he managed to convince himself that events happened in a way that was more favorable to himself.
This next section is probably the most explosive of the report as it details a confrontation in the Oval Office between McGahn and Trump that in any other administration would lead to mass resignations, and Presidential impeachment. On February 6, McGahn heads into the Oval Office to meet with Trump, before the meeting Trump's personal counsel calls McGahn personal counsel and that McGahn could not resign, no matter what happened in the meeting. The meeting began with Trump telling McGahn to correct the NYT article saying, "I never said to fire Mueller. I never said 'fire'. This story doesn't look good. You need to correct this. You're the White House counsel." Notes from McGahn and Donaldson detail the ensuing back and forth (emphasis added):
Before getting into Mueller's legal opinion, think about this section and wonder, "If President Hillary Clinton had done this to White House Counsel Rahm Emanuel, what would Congressional Republicans have done about it?"
====Mueller Legal Analysis====
The report identifies the multiple attempts by Trump to have McGahn issue a correction about the June 2017 as the obstructive act. First through personal counsel, then through White House Communication staff and finally in person in the Oval Office. At this point the SCO had handed out several indictments, secured guilty pleas from several defendants, and had proposed a list of questions for the President to answer, including related to Obstruction of Justice, to which McGahn would feature prominently (Nexus to an official proceeding). The intent is short:
*Obstructive Act: Directing McGahn to correct his statement about events from June 2017
*Nexus to an Official Proceeding: SCO had already interviewed McGahn, and McGahn was a central witness for the June 2017 events
*Intent: Remove legal liability to obstruction of justice
It's like the inception, it's obstruction of justice, inside obstruction of justice.
===Part II.IX: All the Presidents Men===
This section of the Report is titled, "The President's Conduct Towards Flynn, Manafort, Stone". The Flynn details have been mentioned previously through the report (and this article) but what's important to note here, is that Flynn first entered into a joint defense agreement with Trump, until November 22 2017, when Mr. Flynn began cooperating with the SCO. This meant that they could no longer share confidential information. Trump's personal counsel called Flynn's personal counsel that night leaving this voicemail (My emphasis):
When Flynn's personal counsel responded and told Trump's counsel to kick rocks, Trump's counsel reacted indignantly and interpreted this as a hostility from Flynn towards and President, and promised to make that known to the President. Flynn's attorney understood this to be a threat to reconsider. Flynn would later plead guilty to making false statements, and the President continued to express sympathy to Flynn and float pardon options.
While Flynn turned on Trump, Manafort maintained a joint defense agreement with the President through his own trial. Indictments were filed against Manafort by the SCO and by the Eastern District of Virginia. It's important to note, these indictments were financial crimes as well as failing to register as a foreign agent, so not connected directly with the Russia investigation, however there are some connections. Manafort in January 2018 was under the impression he and Rick Gates were going to be "taken care of" after speaking with the President's counsel. In private, Trump griped about Manfort, while publicly he rage tweeted about Manafort being treated unfairly. After Manafort had his bail revoked in June 2018, Trump's personal attorney, and Batboy of Weekly World News fame Rudy Giuliani, made several media appearances, floating the idea of pardoning Manafort.
The Eastern District of Virginia case began July 31. Trump of course observed the proceedings with the dignity and respect:
By August 16, the jury began deliberating its verdict. In the following five days Guiliani would say the SCO needed to wrap up its investigation in weeks, and Trump would insult the SCO in support of Manafort. On August 21, Manafort was found guilty on eight counts, and to add to the bad news Michael Cohen pled guilty to eight offenses, including a campaign-finance violation that occurred ...in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office. (Re: Individual 1 / Donald J Trump). Trump reacted angrily to the verdict and guilty plea from Cohen, comparing the two and stating Manafort didn't "break". Trump in a Fox News interview would continue to air his grievances against the SCO and question the legality of working with prosecutorshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAwfs6SoNFI. Manafort would later plead guilty to the charges brought the SCO to a avoid a DC trial, though in November that year the SCO would later rescind the plea agreement because they claimed Manafort had been untruthful. Later in an interview the President would again float the idea of a pardon.https://nypost.com/2018/11/28/trump-says-pardon-for-paul-manafort-still-a-possibility/
The next couple of sections are redacted because they relate to Roger Stone.
====Mueller Legal Analysis====
The report identifies the public and private statements and communications from President Trump as the obstructive acts related to these three men. These amount witness tampering because the President was aware that Flynn, Manafort and Stone were connected to pending or anticipated proceedings (nexus to an official proceeding), as well the President was highly critical of any cooperation with the SCO by these men. Describing intent is a little difficult. The report identifies the actions toward Flynn as inconclusive, primarily because they are not party to communications before Flynn began cooperating with the SCO. In regards to Manafort, the report seems to identify intent in regards to keeping Manafort from cooperating with the SCO, especially with multiple statements from attorneys for and from the President regarding pardons. There is less certainty about statements made during the Manafort trial, because although Trump's statements may have had an influence on a jury, he also could have real sympathy for Manafort. All of the Stone section is redacted.
*Obstructive Act:Statements and communications from the President (publicly and privately) discouraging cooperation with the SCO
*Nexus to an Official Proceeding: Flynn, Manafort and Stone all were connected to active, pending or anticipated legal proceedings 
*Intent: To keep Flynn, Manafort and Stone from cooperating with the SCO with promise of a reward
It sucks to draw a conclusion when you can't read a third of the evidence, but with regard to Manafort that sure meets the definition of obstruction of justice. And the behavior by the President towards these men is also highly irregular.
===Part II.X: Michael "I would take a bullet for Mr. Trump" Cohen===
As mentioned previously, Michael "Bullet"Trump lawyer: I'd take a bullet for the president by John Bowden (09/07/17 04:57 PM EDT) The Hill. Cohen was the personal attorney for Trump, but more in the mold of than This meant that Cohen bullied people,https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/politics/michael-cohen-tapes/index.htmlhttps://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-wife-ivana-2015-7http://www.thedp.com/article/2019/02/michael-cohen-testimony-donald-trump-wharton-penn-college-grades and took care of undesirable things, like paying off porn stars whom Trump had fucked.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-cohen-tapes-karen-mcdougal_n_5b52407ae4b0b15aba8ec56fhttps://www.vox.com/2019/3/6/18253467/trump-michael-cohen-checks-legal-stormy-daniels He was also a central figure in the aforementioned Trump Tower Moscow deal. Needless to say Cohen knows where the bodies are buried. Trump supported his attorney… right up until he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and various financial crimes as part of an agreement to cooperate with the SCO.
Starting with the Trump-Moscow Tower, Cohen kept candidate Trump updated on the progress and knew Trump was lying when he said he had no business with Russian businessmen or the Russian government. Cohen himself lied about the project to a reporter from the NYT.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html Lying to the media certainly isn't a crime, but… Cohen agreed to testify to Congress about the Trump-Moscow project after getting permission from Trump's personal counsel as part of a joint-defense agreement (JDA). The draft statement Cohen produced was circulated in the JDA, and contained four specific false statements:
Cohen's initial draft also contained the sentence, "The building project led me to make limited contacts with Russian government officials." This was struck from the final statement. Cohen was under the impression that by falsely representing the facts, it would serve to minimize the links between the project and Trump. Cohen knew he was lying, but justified it believing he was protecting the President because nothing came of the deal. Cohen doubled down on this narrative, serving as a source for a WaPo article,https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/28/timeline-of-trumps-praise-for-putin-while-trump-tower-moscow-was-in-the-works/ published the day before submitting his statement to Congress. Cohen would discuss strategy with the President before his testimony in October, releasing an opening statement that included multiple falsehoods, which the President approved of.
The report then details Cohen's fall from grace, starting in January 2018, when news broke the Cohen had arranged a $130,000 payment to a woman the President had sex with. In statements to the press, Cohen denied any involvement from Trump or the Trump Organization. This was false, and he had said it at the direction of President Trump. Months later the Southern District of New York would execute a search warrant for Cohen's home, hotel room and office. Following this, Trump raged, considering the action "…an attack on our country" and multiple friends close to the President called Cohen to relay the President's support (the names of these individuals have been redacted for "Personal Privacy"). Trump's personal counsel as well as those affiliated with Trump's counsel would also relay the President's support and float the possibility of a pardon. Trump would later do an interview with the NYT where he said:
Turns out Cohen made a different calculation. Media reports came out of a second woman being paid off by Cohen (), and by August 21, Cohen pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to among other things, two campaign violations related to paying off women in the final weeks of the campaign. Trump would go on to rage tweet, praising Manafort and accusing Cohen of lying. The SCO submitted questions to the President about the Trump Moscow Project in September, who submitted answers in November. In the written answers, the President did not answer the specific questions posed by the SCO, only saying this:
This is plainly a lie. Cohen would later plead guilty to making false statements to Congress in part of an agreement with the SCO. Trump continued to lie when he heard about the agreement:
Later in the same remarks Trump would call Cohen "weak" and a liar. Trump also sort of gave the game away with this remark: "Even if [Cohen] was right, it doesn't matter because I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign."
In the weeks following, Trump escalated his attacks on Cohen by implicating Cohen's family in crimes:
After Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, the President tweeted:
Days later he continued:
When it became clear Cohen would agree to testify before Congress again, Trump kept up the bullshit in a Fox News interview with Jeanine Pirro:
And continued attacking six days later:
Cohen would later delay his Congressional testimony citing threats against his family.
While one lawyer was under assault by the President, another lawyer was out confirming Cohen's account of events:
Nothing to see here, just witness intimidation mixed with stupidity.
====Mueller Legal Analysis====
This is so fucking obvious, but for the sake of consistency…
Obstructive Act:
The report is uncertain on the first because although Cohen never spoke with Trump directly about his testimony, he was aware of the submission and statements submitted to Congress because of the joint defense agreement, and showed support to Cohen maintaining a story in line with his own. The second is much more clear, because Trump's behavior changed dramatically in public from support to not cooperate to attacking Cohen's credibility and accusing his family of crimes when he did, as evidenced by his tweets and interview statements.
Nexus to an official proceeding:
Duh.
Intent:
There is a lot of detail here going over the tweets and statements the President made before and after Cohen started to cooperate with investigators. Included in Mueller's inference is that Cohen could assist in a variety of criminal investigations tied to Trump, so Cohen was an explicit threat, not only to the administration, but also to Trump personally. Mueller also analyzed the specific lie Trump told about Cohen's family:
*Obstructive Act: Encouraging Cohen not to cooperate and then insinuating he was not credible and his family committed crimes after Cohen agreed to cooperate
*Nexus to an Official Proceeding: Cohen had agreed to cooperate with investigations by the SCO and the SDNY.
*Intent: To stop Cohen from cooperating and sharing information about multiple investigations directly related to Trump, the Trump Organization and the Trump Administration
===Part II.XI: Overarching Factual Issues===
This section has two parts describing the difficulties that led to choosing not to make a decision about pursuing prosecution. The first part discusses how this fundamentally differs from other Obstruction of Justice investigations:
#It involves the President, and there may be Constitutional conflicts
#The act of Obstruction of Justice usually involves a crime, and that part of the investigation could not determine if there had been a crime (Though it is not necessary for a crime to have been committed)
#The President directed most of his obstructive behavior on Twitter, in full public view
The second part analyzes the power exerted by Trump in his capacity as President, including firing Comey, attempting to fire the SCO, trying to get Sessions to un-recuse, replacing Sessions entirely. As the report notes, most of these things were unsuccessful because those around the President didn't carry out his orders. Additionally Trump had two different postures during the course of the investigation, starting with trying to get the word out that he was not under investigation, then after firing Comey, launching public attacks of the investigation and those cooperating with the investigation, while working in private to limit the scope and encourage others not to cooperate with the investigation.
===Part III: The Nixon Defense===
The Special counsel received four letters from Trump's personal counsel providing statutory and constitutional defenses:
Mueller's response to the statutory argument, "bullshit":
In analyzing the Constitutional arguments, the report acknowledges the DOJ does not have an appropriate resolution. So Mueller chose to examine it through Supreme Court precedent on the separation of powers. Again, Mueller calls bullshit:
====Statuary Defense====
A reminder of the applicable obstruction-of-justice statute:
The report makes it clear there there are multiple cases interpreting the application of this statute to a broad array of obstructive and corrupt acts.
====Constitutional Defense====
Here Mueller makes it clear that there are limits to Article II Powers:
The report first looks at several OLC opinions about the fact that the President is exempted from many statutes, but:
This in plain language, means Congress is the only remedy to deal with criminal behavior from the President, i.e. impeachment. Mueller closes with this:
===Appendix C: "I Don't Recall"===
As noted previously, the President did not sit for an interview with the SCO. He offered to answer questions, but only about Russian contacts, not about the transition or obstruction. This interview format is awful. Mueller didn't think too highly of the President's answers:
Again, this is a major problem with the SCO that they did not compel the President to sit down for an interview.
==Delivery of the Report==
The report was delivered to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019. Barr furnished a letter to Congress,https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/William_Barr_Letter_-_March_22_2019 promising to review the report and release to the public what would be appropriate. Two days following, Barr released a letter "summarizing" its contents.https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-attorney-general-barr-letter-mueller-report This four-page document accurately describes the Russian interference portion of the report, but obstruction of justice?:
Yes you read that right. Looking at the actual report, there is no way to imagine that Barr's assessment of the report is accurate in any way. Mueller seemed to think so, releasing a document voicing his displeasure on March 28:https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-robert-muellers-letter-bill-barr
Barr didn't think much of the letter,https://www.axios.com/attorney-general-barr-testify-before-senate-judiciary-on-may-1-0953a4ef-d1bb-4863-97c6-e7e06acb1160.html but it's hard to argue that Mueller captured exactly what Barr's summary had done.
==The Report is Public==
The report was released to the public on April 18, 2019. An hour or so before the report became available, Barr held a press conference at the DOJ.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ckdnup9G9c Flanked by Rosenstein, Barr set about expectation setting and spinning the results to the media, before anyone had actually read the report. At best this press conference was a misguided attempt to prepare the American public, and at worse it was an attempt by the administration to discredit the report in the eyes of Americans before they even had an opportunity to make up their own minds. The conference was widely panned,https://www.vox.com/2019/4/18/18484817/william-barr-news-conference-mueller-report-walks-away-reillyhttps://thehill.com/homenews/media/439509-twitter-melts-down-over-barr-press-conferencehttps://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/18/democrats-barr-press-conference-1280948https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/these-13-seconds-are-all-that-mattered-from-barrs-press-conference-824007/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/barr-under-fire-for-news-conference-that-was-a-boon-for-trump-and-often-utilized-one-of-his-preferred-terms/2019/04/18/fc349e06-6214-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.htmlhttp://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/what-we-learned-from-william-barrs-press-conference.htmlhttps://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/this-performance-is-a-legal-embarrassment-barr-criticized-for-saying-everything-trump-wanted-to-hear/ though Barr has pushed back that he was holding water for the Trump Administration.https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/05/30/attorney_general_barr_responds_to_criticism_that_he_is_protecting_president_trump.html
==Results of the investigation==
Throughout the course of the investigation, Trump and Republicans liked to complain about the enormous cost of the investigationhttps://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-press-conference-clips-753033/https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1130994855042273280?lang=en, mentioning a price tag of around $40 million. Where Trump got this number no one knows, but the real number is closer to $32 million, mostly coming from personnel costs.https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/mueller-submits-final-tab-for-investigation-nearly-32-million/2019/08/02/b6996124-b561-11e9-8f6c-7828e68cb15f_story.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/politics/mueller-report-cost/index.htmlhttps://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/mar/26/mueller-investigation-cost/ However Mueller also recouped around $16 million, primarily from forfeitures from Manafort, Cohen and various fines.
Overall Mueller's investigation secured the following legal judgement:
*Convicted George Papadopoulos of lying to the FBI, sentenced to 14 days in jail, with 12 months supervised release.https://www.vox.com/2018/9/7/17831408/george-papadopoulos-sentencing-jail
*Guilty plea from Richard Pinedo, stemming from helping Russian entities conceal financial transactions by making them appear to be American citizens.http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2018/images/02/16/5.motion.to.seal.2.8.18.pdf Cooperated with SCO as part of a plea agreement.
*Guilty plea from Alex Van der Zwaan, stemming from lies made to the FBI about communications to Gates and Manafort. Sentenced to 30 days in jail, $20,000 fine and was deported.https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/attorney-alex-van-der-zwaan-pleads-guilty-mueller-probe-trump-russia-collusion/https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/alex-van-der-zwaan-sentencing/index.html
*Guilty plea from Samuel Patten, for failing to register as a foreign agent, serving as a straw purchaser, working with Gates to funnel funds foreign funds to the Trump Inauguration Committee.http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2018/images/08/31/show_temp.pdf
*Guilty plea from Rick Gates, stemming from financial crimes (including stealing money from Manafort) and lying to the FBI. Gates's cooperation with the SCO has included testifying against Manaforthttps://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/22/rick-gates-trial-greg-craig-1471698 and in a Muller adjacent case about Craig's work with Manafort's firm lobbying on behalf of the Ukranian government.https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/politics/rick-gates-testify-greg-craig-trial-robert-mueller/index.htmlGates also has had to forfeit cash.
*Secured an eight count conviction in Virginia for Paul Manafort (sentenced to 47 months)https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/08/politics/donald-trump-paul-manafort-sentencing/index.html as well as a guilty plea in DChttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1qyhmwD5vQDvoaXDwJue7ejyVeBrDC33j/view, though the plea agreement was rescindedhttps://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5737400/Manafort-Breach-20190213.pdf and the government asked for a stiff sentencehttps://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5742072-Manafort-Sentencing-Memo-EDVA.html#document/p1 (sentenced to 36 months) as well as forfeiting cash and his home.
*Guilty plea from Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI.https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4318156/Flynn-Statement-of-Offense.pdf He has yet to be sentenced because part of his plea agreement requires he fully cooperate with the government, and the judge overseeing his case questions if he has done enough.https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/michael-flynn-sentencing-mueller-russia-probe/index.html
*Convictions for Bijan Rafiekianhttps://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/politics/bijan-kian-michael-flynn-verdict/index.html and Kamil Alptekinhttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-convicts-flynn-intel-group-founder-conspiring-act-undisclosed-agent-turkey, who worked with Flynn lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government for the US to extradite a Turkish national living in the US, . Gulen, blamed by the Turkish government for the attempted Turkish coup in 2016, was the target of a kidnapping scheme by Flynn.https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj7ba4/mike-flynn-and-the-insane-alleged-plot-to-kidnap-fethullah-gulen
*Guilty plea from Michael Cohen in New York for campaign finance violationshttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1hmHspZr1ZsR2vwS5xnjIxDUA7HdOvs9o/viewhttps://medium.com/@KeithDB/trump-and-the-national-enquirer-a-new-kind-of-collusion-359841a17ba1 and in DC for lying to Congress.https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5331558-Cohen-Plea-Agreement.html#document/p1https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5331386-Cohen-Information-FINAL.html#document/p1Sentenced to three years in prison, though this was delayed several times while further cooperating with House Congressional investigations.https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/ex-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-gets-prison-surrender-date-delayed-two-months-to-may-6.html
There is also pending litigation against:
*Konstantin Kilimnik, primarily related to his actions working with Manafort
*The Internet Research Agency, two of its shell companies, its primary financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, and twelve employees.https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download
*Twelve GRU agentshttps://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4598933-Gru-Indictment.html#document/p2https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4598933-Gru-Indictment.html#document/p2 
Roger Stone was found guilty on all seven counts.https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5694707-Stone-Indictment-012419.html#document/p1 After a short trial and two days of deliberation, the jury found Stone guilty. The DOJ has asked that Stone be held in federal custody until his sentencing in February, where he is staring down a 20 year sentence for witness intimidation.https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/roger-stone-jury-weighs-evidence-and-a-defense-move-to-make-case-about-mueller/2019/11/15/554fff5a-06ff-11ea-8292-c46ee8cb3dce_story.html The run up to the trial was insane, with Stone threatening violence to the presiding judgehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/18/roger-stone-deletes-photo-judge-presiding-over-his-case-says-he-didnt-mean-threaten-her/, violating the gag order the judge instituted after the incidenthttps://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/20/roger-stone-gag-order-1374590, and then again less than a month laterhttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/roger-stone-avoids-arrest-gag-order-violation-has-social-media-n1030411, as well as suing the SCOhttps://www.thedailybeast.com/roger-stone-associate-jerome-corsi-sues-mueller-for-dollar350m-citing-alleged-blackmail and attempting the get a copy of the fully redacted Mueller reporthttps://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/09/roger-stone-mueller-1313624https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roger-stone-case-judge-says-ex-trump-adviser-can-see-parts-of-unredacted-mueller-report-ahead-of-trial/, which could prove to be a major mistake. Stone's actions were later vindicated, first when Attorney General Barr interfered with the sentencing recommendation,https://www.lawfareblog.com/prosecutors-amend-roger-stone-sentencing-recommendation leading all the prosecutors to resign.https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/politics/roger-stone-sentencing-justice-department/index.html Barr insisted he wasn't influenced by Trump's tweet about the subject,https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/11/president-trump-slams-sentencing-recommendation-roger-stone/4721747002/ but that wasn't enough for Trump, who pardoned Stone in July.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/us/politics/trump-roger-stone-clemency.html
==Congressional Action (or lack there of)==
Public response to the report's release has been muted at best. Few people have read the public version in its entirety, and Congressional representatives, who would be responsible for voting on Impeachment, have admitted they haven't read the report either.http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/striking-number-lawmakers-admit-they-havent-read-the-mueller-reporthttps://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/09/congress-read-mueller-report-1402232 Justin Amash (MI-3) was among the Republicans who did read the report and announced that he supported bringing Articles of Impeachment against the President via Twitter.https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/1129831615952236546?lang=en The move cost Amash his committee assignmentshttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/gop-leader-calls-for-justin-amash-to-be-stripped-of-committee-seat and eventually he left the Republican Party.https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/justin-amash-committee-assignments-1401103 The newly-independent Amash continues to support an Impeachment Inquiry, the only non-Democrat in the House to support it as of August 2019.
With control of the House, Democrats Jerry Nadler (NY-10), Elijah Cummings (MD-7) and Adam Schiff (CA-28), have been spearheading investigations of the Trump Administration. Nadler and Schiff have sought to use the Mueller Report as a tool in their investigations, seeking testimony from Don McGahn about the accuracy of his accounting in the Mueller report. McGahn did not comply with a subpoena sent by Nadler, and Democrats feeling the relevance of the report fading in the public eye sought to bring the report to life by having Mueller testify before Congress. Mueller was less than enthusiastic about doing so,https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/05/29/robert-mueller-press-conference-on-russia-investigation.html stressing that "The report is my testimony." That wasn't good enough for House Democrats, who learned from the Watergate Investigations, the power that television had to illuminate investigations. Mueller reluctantly agreed to appear before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.
===Testimony on the Hill===
Mueller was originally scheduled to appear on July 17, but this was delayed a week. Democrats seemed to want more time to sharpen their approach to Mueller questioning and attempt to negotiate Mueller expanding the scope and length of his testimony. Republicans were in full attack mode, blasting Democrats' gamesmanship, though generally avoiding criticizing Mueller himself. Mueller being the professional he is, agreed only to testify about the report, and stated that he would not read any of the report himself, a major blow to Democrats who really desired to frame the report as Mueller's own words. There was a minor kerfuffle about Mueller having access to a personal aide during his testimony, but he appeared before both committees on July 24.
Morning testimony was before the House Judiciary Committee. Mueller's opening statement made four things clear:https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/07/24/watch-opening-statement-robert-mueller-testimony-house-judiciary-hrng-long-newday-vpx.cnn
#The Russian government interfered in our election in a sweeping and systemic fashion.
#The investigation did not establish members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its interference efforts.
#Investigations into obstruction of justice was critically important.
#In the principle of fairness, the investigation did not make a determination of the behavior of the President amounted to a crime.
He closed with a warning:
During the course of the first two hours, Mueller stuck to his strategy to only testify about the report. Democrats generally read a section of the report in Volume II, and asked it was accurate, and Mueller generally only answered in the affirmative. Republicans attempted to attack the report and its conclusion as well as Democrats for even calling Mueller to testify. Mueller seemed generally confused by the Republican questioning, oftentimes responding that he couldn't answer a specific question because it went beyond the scope he had agreed to. The two morning highlights came from an exchange with Democrat Ted Lieu (CA-33) where Mueller seemed to indicate the OLC memo was the only reason he had chosen not consider indicting the Presidenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K459NBUK_GU (contradicting AG Barr). The other came from an exchange with Republican Greg Steube (FL-17), who attacked the credibility of Mueller's investigators,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYgKrDMPHm8 which Mueller pushed back against.
The afternoon sessions was a bit more meaty, focused on Volume I of the report. With is opening statement, Mueller addressed how this portion of the investigation had an intelligence gathering arm, and referred counter-intelligence information to the FBIhttps://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/24/mueller-hearing-annotated-opening-statement-1430662. Mueller also reiterated that he could not comment on things related to active criminal proceedings, or the Steele Dossier. Democrats tended to focus their questions on the facts of the report; Schiff started by confirming that a number of people lied to the SCO and the investigation was not in the words of Republicans and Trump a "witch hunt", Jim Himes (CT-9) illustrated the social media campaign in favor of Trump, Mike Quigley (IL-5) discussed WikiLeaks, which Mueller referred to as problematic with regard to Trump's praising of WikiLeaks' illegal behavior. Republicans chose again to attack the report and its conclusions. Devin Nunes (CA-22) whipped up wild conspiracies about Joseph Misfud and Konstantin Kilimnikhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNIipT35Eh4 (like our good friend :User:RobSmith), Michael Turner (OH-10) pulled out propshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VijjacEjSkI, questioning whether Mueller even had the authority to exonerate Trump. 
 
All things considered, Mueller's testimony failed to move the needle in any significant way. Democrats were robbed of their opportunity to use Mueller on TV as the voice for impeachment, and Republicans failed to show Mueller to be unreliable and corrupt.
==What's to be done?==
Looking at the totality of events, it's clear that the Russia Investigation and the Mueller Report, have revealed the heightened political tribalism in the Trump era. Democrats and Republicans often made up their minds about the report without understanding or even reading the contents of the report. The mainstream media, which people rely on to summarize the report as it's understandable that it can be tedious to read it, has done a shitty job illustrating the contents, instead focusing on opticshttps://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/07/24/chuck_todd_mueller_hearing_a_disaster_didnt_help_advance_the_cause_for_trump_impeachment.htmlhttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/24/20708503/robert-mueller-testimony-winners-losershttps://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/07/24/chris_wallace_mueller_hearing_has_been_a_disaster_for_democrats_reputation_of_robert_mueller.htmlhttps://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/mueller-summary-jokes-tweets-testimony-questioning-14119127.php and the horse race rather than the relevation of an attack on our election system which we are unprepared to defend against when it happens againhttps://thehill.com/homenews/senate/454742-mcconnell-blocks-two-election-security-billshttps://www.cnet.com/news/moscowmitch-trends-after-mcconnell-blocks-election-security-bills/ and that we have a President whose actions met the definition of obstruction of justice nine times and whose behavior is a threat to the integrity of legal system in the United States.
Meanwhile, as of August 2019 without an impeachment vote in the House, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has declared that a de facto impeachment inquiry is already underway.Nadler: 'This is formal impeachment proceedings by Andrew Desiderio (08/08/2019 09:07 PM EDT) Politico.Did Democrats already start an impeachment inquiry? It’s complicated. Would an impeachment inquiry by any other name smell as sweet? by Andrew Prokop (Aug 22, 2019, 2:30pm EDT) Vox.
===Also for consideration===
Even if there are those convinced of Trump's total innocence of all criminal liability, this investigation has also revealed a sinister underside of political spending that desperately needs to be addressed. The guidelines for registering as a foreign agent must be more transparent and more stringent, to ensure Congress (and the American people) know who is paying lobbyists. There also needs to be a discussion of who can purchase political ads, as the Russian government exploited outdated guidelines to power its influence campaign, which other governments have exploited recentlyhttps://www.rollcall.com/news/iranians-may-used-influence-operations-2018-midterms and will likely continue to exploithttps://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/2020-election-meddling-china-iran-n-korea-likely-administration-officials-warn-64641 without major reforms. This says nothing about the efforts of the rich and powerful to protect their assets by lying on financial documentshttps://www.thedailybeast.com/rick-gates-manafort-told-me-to-falsify-documents-to-secure-loans and hiding millions to avoid taxes.https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2017/10/30/ex-trump-campaign-adviser-paul-manafort-charged-with-tax-fraud-what-does-it-mean/
Instances of fraud from Cohen and Manafort speak to the need to increase the strength and size of the IRS and Treasury Department, to focus financial audits of larger firms and wealthier people and not people of color in the Mississippi River Deltahttps://www.propublica.org/article/earned-income-tax-credit-irs-audit-working-poorhttps://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/3/18292741/irs-tax-audit-eitc-black-belt and provide more tools so that shady foreign entities can't launder money through US entities.http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/deutsche-flagged-trump-kushner-for-money-laundering-report.html
==The Senate Intelligence Committee report==
In August 2020, The Senate Intelligence Committee finally released its final bipartisan report regarding Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election, a report that paralleled the Mueller investigation. The report's issuance was remarkable because it was bipartisan in a highly-partisan Congress, and for the fact that it took so long to be released (only 3 months before the 2020 presidential election). The noteworthy aspects of the report were:The Senate’s ‘grave’ Russia report: What we learned, and what it means by Aaron Blake (August 18, 2020 at 10:34 a.m. PDT) The Washington Post.
*The report refutes the narrative put forth by Trump and Barr that the Russian interference was a hoax and that the Mueller investigation was a 'witch hunt'.
*The report refers to Manafort's contact, Konstantin Kilimnik, specifically as a 'Russian intelligence officer', whereas the Mueller report had only referred to Kilimnik as someone with 'ties to Russian intelligence'. The report states that the regular and increasing contact between Manafort and Kilimnik constituted a grave threat to the United States.New evidence revives an old question: What counts as Trump-Russia collusion? A bipartisan report introduces previously undisclosed links between Russia’s hacking effort and Trump’s senior campaign team. by Philip Bump (August 18, 2020 at 8:54 a.m. PDT) The Washington Post.
*The total extent of Russian contact and coordination with the 2016 Trump campaign will reamin unknown, primarily because Manafort lied so extensively following his plea deal (leading to the revocation of the plea deal).
*Kilimnik was not mentioned at all in the 2018 House of Representatives report on Russian interference, which was put forth by a GOP-controlled House of Represenatatives. The 2020 Senate report on the other hand mentions Kilimnik a total of 819 times.Number of KILIMNIK mentions in Senate Russia report: 819 Number of KILIMNIK mentions in House GOP Russia report: 0 by Kyle Cheney (August 18, 2020) Twitter (archived from August 18, 2020).
===Bob Mueller: American Zero?===
The details of the final Senate report are damning on virtually every level. Mueller's detailed report came right up to the line on "collusion" but the Senate report basically says, "Yes, here is evidence of collusion". It validates the implication that Trump communicated with Stone about WikiLeaks, with admissions and evidence. It clearly indicates that it was more than a coincidence the Podesta email dump happened 32 minutes after the Access Hollywood drop, instead the campaign sought the release explicitly. And it doesn't just indicate Manafort shared some polling data, it details extensive communication between Manafort and a GRU asset (Kilimnik) about campaign strategy. How did Mueller miss this? Why wasn't it top of the report, there were three clear and detailed example of campaign violations that multiple lied about frequently? And what the hell makes people think Trump won't do the same thing in 2020?
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Crime
Category:Law