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WASHINGTON – Robert S. Mueller III revealed a frantic effort of several months led by President Trump to thwart the investigation into Russia's interference in 2016, citing Trump's attempt to 39, to escape an investigation putting his presidency at risk from the beginning.
This much anticipated report indicated how a team of prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller, the special advocate, was trying to determine whether the actions of the president constituted a criminal act of obstruction of justice for a sitting president. They finally decided not to accuse Mr. Trump, citing numerous legal and factual constraints, but categorically refused to exonerate him.
"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation into the facts that the president clearly did not obstruct the justice, we would say," wrote the investigators Mr. Mueller. "However, on the basis of the facts and the applicable legal standards, we can not pronounce ourselves."
Twenty-three months ago, Mr. Mueller inherited an extensive investigation asking him if Mr. Trump or one of his collaborators had coordinated with the Russian government's campaign to sabotage the 39, presidential election. The report revealed numerous contacts between Trump's campaign advisers and the Russians in the months leading up to and following the elections (meetings with the aim of concluding trade agreements, political initiatives and political dirt over the past few months). Hillary Clinton), while stating that there was "no sufficient evidence" to establish that there had been a criminal conspiracy.
Although the report does not reveal that the president or his campaign collaborators committed crimes during their contacts with the Russians, it clearly shows how Mr. Trump was elected with the help of a foreign power. . When a federal inquiry was opened to investigate Russian efforts, he took many steps to try to undermine them.
The special advocate concluded that Mr. Trump had the power to make many of his most controversial decisions, including the removal of James B. Comey as F.B.I. Director, by virtue of the powers conferred upon him by the Constitution. At the same time, his behavior is far more damning than that presented last month in a four-page letter issued by Attorney General William P. Barr.
"Incidents often occurred in individual meetings during which the president sought to use his official power outside the usual channels," according to the report. "These actions were efforts to dismiss the special advocate and reverse the effect of the Attorney General's challenge; the attempt to use official power to limit the scope of the investigation; establish direct and indirect contact with witnesses who may influence their testimony. Seeing the acts collectively can help clarify their meaning. "
In his letter, Mr. Barr announced that, although Mr. Mueller had not judged whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice, he had decided that the President had not done so.
Barr defended the decision at a press conference on Thursday morning and said some of the president's actions were understandable given the "context" of his situation.
"There is ample evidence that the president was frustrated and angered by the sincere belief that the investigation undermined his presidency, under the impetus of his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks," he said. .
The report is a sometimes gripping account of a presidency consumed by a vast inquiry and of a paranoid presiding president as to what he might discover.
Immediately after learning that a special council had been appointed to conduct the investigation into Russia, the report stated that Mr. Trump had become clueless and slumped in his chair.
"Oh my God, it's terrible," he said, "it's the end of my presidency, I'm screwed up."
The release of Mr. Mueller's key findings last month appeared to dampen any momentum at Capitol Hill to initiate an impeachment proceeding against Mr. Trump, and it seemed unlikely that much more accounting would be done. detailed work of the Special Council would change this dynamic.
But on Thursday, the top Democratic legislators relied on the findings of the report and suggested that the impeachment issue was not resolved. At the very least, Mr. Mueller's report seems certain to give Democratic legislators – and the many Democratic presidential candidates – a sufficient political fodder to attack the president until November 2020, when Mr. Trump will stand for re-election.
This publication is the culmination of an investigation that lasted almost two years in the national political conversation and was driven by the exaggerated expectations of Mr. Trump's most fervent critics.
Mr. Mueller has gained cult status among some Americans obsessed with the possibility of submitting a report endangering Trump's presidency – an image fueled by his general refusal to give public signals on the direction of his investigation. Mr. Mueller and his associates seemed monstrous and enigmatic, choosing to speak only in court and to charge Russian intelligence agents or some of the president's advisers in detail.
Some Americans have invested so much hope in the Mueller case that they planned to hold rallies in predetermined locations if Mr. Trump had dismissed the special advocate and ended the investigation.
He never did. Instead, Mr. Mueller and his team were able to complete an investigation that gathered information from thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of search warrants, and evidence from more than 1,000 people. 39, a dozen foreign governments.
The Mueller investigation began in May 2017, but its origins date back nearly a year ago. The F.B.I. opened the first investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia in July 2016, as the world knows that Moscow has made a concerted effort to sabotage the presidential elections.
That summer, WikiLeaks released thousands of hacked emails aimed at paralyzing Clinton's candidacy, and US intelligence and law enforcement officials saw other worrying signs of Russian attempts to subvert the election.
Determining the scope of the interference campaign in Russia has been a central element of the Mueller Inquiry and will most likely be one of its lingering legacies. His report leaves no doubt that it was the Russian government that orchestrated this effort and that many of Mr Trump's staff welcomed him – even though they did not actively coordinate with Moscow.
At the very least, in the face of Russia's repeated efforts to contact Mr Trump's advisers, none of them thought of contacting the F.B.I.
When Mr. Mueller began his work, there were still prominent voices at both ends of the political spectrum openly debating whether hacking and e-mail leakage – and the false news that was spreading like wildfire on the media in the months leading up to the elections – were: the work of Russia, China, stateless hackers or, as Mr. Trump used to say, "a person sitting on his bed weighing 400 pounds".
Most of these dubious voices fell silent after the Special Advocate's team issued two indictments for a total of 25 indictments military intelligence officers and experts in social media manipulation. The indictments gave exquisite details about the whole Russian operation: how did the Russians pay the unsuspecting Americans to organize pro-Trump rallies in battlefield states? , how Russian hackers have entered the personal email account of Mrs. Clinton's campaign chairman and how a pair of Russian women a reconnaissance trip to the United States two years before the elections to gather information about the assault projected.
Mr. Mueller and his team took over the F.B.I. a few days after Mr. Trump's dismissal of Mr. Comey and after senior law enforcement officials began a parallel investigation to determine whether the President had obstructed justice in his actions that appeared to be aimed at to derail the investigation of Russia.
Mr. Trump has long denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt" of a political nature. However, since the start of the investigation, half a dozen former Trump advisers have been indicted or convicted of crimes, most of them for lying to Congress or to the United States. federal investigators.
Mr. Trump declared victory last month when Mr. Barr sent the four-page letter to Congress outlining the main findings of the investigation. Mr. Barr wrote that the special advocate had not found sufficient evidence to conclude that Mr. Trump or any of his advisers had participated in a criminal plot with the Russia.
"After three years of lies, slander and slander, the Russian hoax is finally dead," Trump told thousands of his supporters at a rally in Michigan a few days after the publication of the letter. Mr. Barr. "Robert Mueller was a god for the Democrats. He was a god until he said, "No collusion. They do not like it that much anymore. "
Even in this case, the revelations in Mr. Barr's letter did not have a noticeable effect on Trump's approval rating, and the polls conducted in the weeks following Mr. M's letter. Barr showed that many Americans reserved their judgment until they had a more complete picture Mueller's conclusions.
Other Americans have made their decision long ago, and it is unclear what will be the effect of publishing hundreds of pages of investigation findings by a team of seasoned prosecutors. Those who are already convinced that the investigation is a witch hunt and those who are convinced that Mr Trump conspired with Russia to win the presidency are unlikely to be moved by the conclusions of Mr Mueller and his team. .
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