The Mueller Report: Live Analysis and Extracts



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PUBLISHED AT 11:58

Flight. II, page 3: Shortly after asking for Flynn's resignation and meeting privately with Comey, the president asked for the appointment of Deputy National Security Advisor, KT McFarland writes an internal letter stating that the president has not not asked Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak. McFarland refused because she did not know if this was true and a lawyer from the White House council office felt that the request would look like a counterpart to the ambassador position she had been offered.

Even the president's closest advisers were reluctant to protect Mr. Trump because they could not be sure he was telling the truth.
– Adam Goldman

PUBLISHED AT 11:55

Flight. Me, Page 2: Just like collusion, "coordination" has no established definition in federal criminal law. We understood that the coordination required an agreement – tacit or express – between the Trump campaign and the Russian government on electoral interference. For that to happen, it is not enough for both parties to take action informed by the actions or interests of the other party or to take them into account.

Mr. Trump likes to say that there was no "collusion" and Mr. Barr used the term again at his press conference on Thursday morning. But collusion is not a legal concept. In seeking evidence of a criminal conspiracy, Mr. Mueller stated that he was looking rather for evidence of "coordination" between the Trump campaign and Russia in its activities. of electoral interference. He decided that the evidence was insufficient to meet this standard.

– Charlie Savage

PUBLISHED AT 11:53

Flight. Me, Page 10: The Office has investigated several other events that allegedly involved potential contacts with Russia. For example, the investigation found that exchanges between Russian Ambassador Kislyak and the Trump campaign leaders during the candidate's April 2016 foreign policy speech in Washington during National Convention Week republican, were brief, public and not substantial. And the investigation did not establish that the efforts of a campaign manager to dilute part of the Republican party's platform for assistance to Ukraine had been undertaken at the request of candidate Trump or Russia.

Reporters ran for months around rumors of meetings between members of the Trump campaign, including Senator Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, and elsewhere. Questions also remained about why part of the Republican Party platform about Ukraine had changed in the summer of 2016. The people involved in each of them had publicly denied any inappropriate behavior and Mr. Mueller seems to have confirmed that the meetings were "non-substantial". "His assessment of the platform change is more nuanced, but ultimately" not established "the platform change had been led by Mr. Trump or Russia.
-Nicholas Fandos

PUBLISHED AT 11:52

Flight. II, page 7Several aspects of the conduct that we investigated distinguish it from typical cases of obstruction of justice. First, the investigation concerned the President, and some of his actions, such as the dismissal of the FBI Director, involved apparently legal acts under his authority under Article II, raising constitutional issues discussed below. below. At the same time, the position of the President as head of the executive power has provided him with unique and powerful means of influencing official procedures, junior officers and potential witnesses, all relevant to a potential analysis of the impediment to Justice.

Mr. Mueller said that Mr. Trump's powers as chair were related to acts that could have been an impediment, such as the removal of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director. This made it more difficult to set up a case because Mr. Trump had the power, as chair, to take many of the actions that he scrutinized.
– Michael S. Schmidt

PUBLISHED AT 11:51

Flight. II, page 5: On several occasions, the president has urged employees not to publicly disclose e-mails at the base of the 9 June mail. [2016] meeting, suggesting that e-mails would not flee and that the number of lawyers with access to these e-mails should be limited. Before the emails were made public, the president issued a press release for Trump Jr., deleting a line acknowledging that the meeting was held with "a person who [Trump Jr.] We were told that information could be useful for the campaign "and said that the only theme of the meeting was the adoption of Russian children.When the press asked questions about the involvement of the president in the declaration of Trump Jr., the president's personal attorney has repeatedly denied that the president played any role whatsoever.

This confirms a July 2017 New York Times report revealing that the president helped draft the misleading statement made by his son Donald Trump Jr. and advocated a version that does not reveal the true nature of the meeting. The fact that The Times was aware of the meeting that took place at the time shook the President and played a key role in what was a tumultuous summer for the White House.
– Maggie Haberman

PUBLISHED AT 11:48

Flight. I, pages 6-7The two men said the plan would require the approval of Trump (if elected). They also discussed the status of the Trump campaign and Manafort's strategy to win Democratic votes in the Midwestern states.

This suggests that Russia was trying to influence the Trump campaign to support a plan that would allow it to control part of eastern Ukraine, which would have constituted a huge victory for the Kremlin. Mr Manafort had shared internal data on the campaign surveys with the Russian partner before their meeting on 2 August 2016 – and for a certain period afterwards, the report said.
– Sharon LaFraniere

PUBLISHED AT 11:44

Flight. II, page 5: In early summer 2017, the president called Sessions at home and again asked him to reverse his challenge from the investigation on Russia.

In 2017, the president asked White House lawyer Donald F. McGahn II to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself. The president wanted a public prosecutor who would protect the president. His efforts to hand over Mr Sessions in charge of the investigation into Russia showed that he had actively interfered in Mr. Sessions' challenge as an act of obstruction. possible.
– Adam Goldman

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