MUELLER REPORT: WASHINGTON – In his report, Mueller invites Congress to investigate Trump obstruction
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Special counsel Robert Mueller wrote in his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign that although he lacked sufficient evidence to clear or charge President Trump on possible obstruction of justice, Congress could take up the issue.
“We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a president’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” Mueller wrote in his 381-page report, a redacted version of which was released by the Justice Department Thursday.
Mueller made clear in his report that he did not believe his investigation cleared the president of much.
“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller wrote.
Still, Mueller wrote that Trump was, for the most part, unsuccessful in influencing the outcome of the investigation.
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“The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.”
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The release of the report was the first chance for the public to hear directly from the special counsel himself. Days after Mueller submitted his findings to William Barr, the attorney general wrote a four-page summary of them, and portrayed the conclusions in a favorable light for Trump.
While the president concluded Barr’s summary proved his complete and total exoneration, Mueller’s report itself was far less definitive.
The special counsel wrote that “collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law.”
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After describing the rationale on whether to charge the president with a crime, Mueller laid out a damning series of events detailing the contacts between the Trump campaign, the president’s family members ad former lawyer Michael Cohen and the Russian government.
“In approximately Sept 2015, Cohen obtained approval to negotiate with [Russian real estate company] from candidate Trump… Cohen also discussed the Trump Tower Moscow project with Ivanka… and Donald J. Trump Jr.”
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Mueller was also resolute on the role the Russian government played in helping elect Trump.
“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” the report states.
Specifically, Mueller found clear evidence that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency.
“The investigation identified two different forms of connections between the IRA and members of the Trump Campaign. (The investigation identified no similar connections between the IRA and the Clinton Campaign.) First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign promoted—typically by linking, retweeting, or similar methods of reposting—pro-Trump or anti-Clinton content published by the IRA or through IRA-controlled social media accounts. Additionally, in a few instances, IRA employees represented themselves as U.S. persons to communicate with members of the Trump Campaign in an effort to seek assistance and coordination on IRA-organized political rallies inside the United States,” the report stated.
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On the question of obstruction, Trump, Mueller wrote, “engaged in efforts to curtail the Special Counsel’s investigation and prevent the disclosure of evidence to it, including through public and private contacts with potential witnesses.”
That contradicts Barr’s assertion Thursday that the president “fully cooperated” with the investigation.
The president realized the appointment of the special counsel spelled trouble for his presidency. According to notes contained in the report, “when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m f**ked.'”
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