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By Dareh Gregorian
The lengthy report of special advocate Robert Mueller released Thursday has reviewed President Donald Trump's attempts to scramble the investigation, including trying to manipulate witnesses, but has decided not to accuse the president. of obstruction because there was no underlying crime and many attempts had been conducted unobstructed view.
But Mueller said the decision not to accuse Trump was a difficult decision and that it was unclear that he was innocent of obstructing justice. If the special attorney's office had been certain that Trump had not committed any crimes, Mueller would have said, this would have been said in the report.
Trump, reveals the 448-page report, was panicked when he first learned about Mueller's appointment, saying, "Oh my God, it's terrible." the end of my presidency I'm screwed up ", citing the testimony of the lawyer of the time. Chief of Staff to General Jeff Sessions.
"How did you let that happen, Jeff?" Trump continued, telling Sessions something like, "You were supposed to protect me … it's the worst thing that happened to me."
Mueller's office said that he was laying charges of obstructing Trump, but partly because "we have acknowledged that a federal criminal charge against a sitting president would impose a hefty burden on his ability to govern and potentially pre-empt a constitutional process to remedy presidential misconduct ".
The investigators had examined Trump's response to information about Russia's support for his campaign, his dismissal of FBI director James Comey, his behavior in the face of charges against former campaign president Paul Manafort and his former adviser. on national security, Michael Flynn, and his efforts to get rid of Mueller. himself.
This included Trump's ordering White House lawyer Don McGahn to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that "Mueller must leave".
"McGahn has spoken twice with the president and understood the directive in the same way, thus making it unlikely that he misinterpreted or misinterpreted the president's request." In response to this request, McGahn has decided to resign, "says the report. "He called his lawyer, went to the White House, packed his office, ready to submit a letter of resignation to his chief of staff, (and) told Preibus (then chief of staff). White House staff, Reince) that the president had asked him to "shit," the report said.
"McGahn has not finally resigned and the President has not acted on his request for withdrawal from the special council."
Prosecutors also consulted an opinion from the office of the legal adviser of the Ministry of Justice, according to which a president-in-office can not be indicted, "and accepted the legal conclusion of the OLC," says the report.
With respect to the question of whether Trump could have been involved in the falsification of witnesses, the special advocate cited a legal precedent according to which acting in a "corrupt" manner would require proof of 39, a "deliberate wrongdoing".
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the publication of the Mueller Report
The report also states that Mueller did not think he had to question Trump because his state of mind was obvious.
"The evidence we have obtained about the actions and the intention of the president pose difficult problems that would have to be solved if we made a traditional judgment of the prosecutor," says the partially redacted report.
"At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts about the fact that the president had clearly not obstructed the justice, we would have stated. D & # 39; After the facts and the applicable legal standards, we could not rule on this act, so although this report does not conclude that the president has committed a crime, he does not exonerate him either. "
According to the report, the Russian government "is ingested in the 2016 presidential election systematically and systematically," noting that the Internet Research Agency, a Russian piracy and influence company, , had started targeting the United States in early 2014.
"The investigation highlighted two different forms of relationship between the IRA and the members of the Trump campaign … First, on many occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump campaign were promoted – usually through links, retweets or similar methods of republishing – pro-Trump or anti-Clinton content published by the IRA via IRA-controlled social media accounts. In addition, in a few cases, IRA employees introduced themselves as Americans to communicate with members of the Trump campaign to seek assistance and coordination at IRA-organized political gatherings in the United States. United, "says the report.
Among those who cited or retweeted accounts controlled by the IRA were two of the president's sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the report said.
The report also refers to a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016, attended by Trump Jr., Manafort and a Russian lawyer who proposed to "dirty" the Hillary Clinton campaign with the permission of the Russian government. Trump Jr. said the dirt never materialized. Although there has been speculation that Trump Jr. has spoken of this meeting to his father, the report says that they have found no evidence of his assertion. Trump told Mueller's investigators in a written statement that he had "no independent memories" of that period.
A subsequent attempt to turn the meeting into a discussion of Russian adoptions appears to have been motivated for public relations reasons, the report says.
The report says Trump has also downplayed talks on a possible Trump tower in Moscow, which were ongoing during the campaign. Trump admitted to talking about his project to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, but said he was "not thrilled for that".
Although the investigation revealed many links between Trump, his people and Russia, "the evidence was not sufficient to accuse a member of the Trump campaign of conspiring or coordinating with representatives of the Russian government to intervene in the elections of 2016 ".
Trump's legal team posted a statement online a few minutes after the release of the report, calling the report a "total victory for the president." The report highlights what we have defended from the beginning – there has been no collusion – there was no obstruction. "
Speaking at an event at the White House about the same time as the publication, Trump said it was "a good day."
"This should never happen again to another president, and this hoax should never happen again to another president," he said.
The nearly two-year investigation into Russian interference and potential obstruction of justice contains redactions made by Attorney General William Barr.
The Attorney General has removed grand jury documents, information that may reveal sources of information, disclosures that may affect other ongoing investigations, and potentially life-threatening information. deprived of those who were involved only peripherally in the investigation. But some Democrats still want to see the full report unwritten.
At a press conference prior to the release of the report, Barr stated that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had determined that the President had not impeded justice, in part because the report revealed "evidence of irreproachable motivation".
As "the Special Council's report acknowledges, there is ample evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by the sincere belief that the investigation undermined his presidency, at the urging of his political opponents and fueled by Illegal leaks, "said Barr.
The developments came as the Democrats were striving for the full report of the special council on the Trump campaign and the interference of Russia in the 2016 election to be complete.
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