6 key excerpts from the Mueller report
Special counsel Robert Mueller's report of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was released with redactions on Thursday. Here are a half-dozen noteworthy excerpts from it.
Mueller probe ‘did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities’
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"Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," special counsel Robert Mueller's report says.
Page 5, Volume I of the Mueller report
'The President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation. For instance, the President attempted to remove the Special Counsel ...'
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The report says that President Donald Trump launched public attacks on the investigation and people involved in it, and in private "engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation" — including attempting to remove Mueller himself.
Page 158, Volume II of the Mueller report
Trump: 'This is the end of my Presidency'
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The report recounts the dramatic moment when the president learned that a special counsel had been appointed. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed Trump about the appointment on May 17, 2017.
Page 78, Volume II of the Mueller report
'McGahn recalled the President telling him "Mueller has to go" and "Call me back when you do it."'
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On the page before this passage, the report says that Trump twice called White House Counsel Don McGahn "and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed."
Trump told McGahn "Mueller has to go" and "Call me back when you do it," the report says here. Instead, "McGahn decided he had to resign."
But the report says on the following page that two senior staffers then in the White House, Reince Priebus and Stephen Bannon, "both urged McGahn not to quit, and McGahn ultimately returned to work that Monday and remained in his position." (He departed his White House job much later.)
Pages 85-87, Volume II of the Mueller report; Page 86 is seen here
'The evidence does not support those claims'
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The report describes White House claims that "morale in the FBI was at an all-time low" and that "the White House had heard from 'countless' FBI agents who had lost confidence in Comey" — as in James Comey, the FBI director whom Trump fired. "But the evidence does not support those claims," the report says.
Page 76, Volume II of the Mueller report
'While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him'
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In this key section, the report explains how Mueller's team was unable to reach a judgment on whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
Page 182, Volume II of the Mueller report
