The multi-year campaign of Inside Trump to block the investigation on Russia

In the summer of 2016, shortly after WikiLeaks started to publish harmful material hacked by the Russian government on the servers of the Democratic National Committee, candidate Donald Trump went to an airport with the help of Rick Gates, his campaign assistant. Trump received a phone call and told Gates that more documents would arrive.

As Trump had predicted, more material came to damage his rival Hillary Clinton and possibly help him win the White House. Then, more than two years later, the new president tried to put pressure on the law enforcement officials, dismiss witnesses and deter any investigation of his relations with Russia.

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Trump has never concealed his hostility to what he calls a "witch hunt" by venal and venal prosecutors. But many of the president's efforts to retaliate were made public for the first time on Thursday, and all apparently aimed to appease the press control and federal investigations related to Russia.

The following account is based on about 140 pages of the report of the special advocate, Robert Mueller, detailing the evidence of 10 episodes of possible obstruction of justice by the president. Ultimately, Mueller chose not to determine whether Trump was obstructing justice, citing rules from the Department of Justice protecting the oval office occupier from criminal prosecution. But he has reconstructed the overwhelming portrait of a frustrated and often furious president, determined to stop or at least block his inquisitors.

Time and time again, Trump has urged subordinates to convey messages to those who could damage them and to influence investigations, often without success. At one point, in July 2017, Trump instructed his former campaign manager, a private individual directing a lobbying firm, to fire him from his attorney general. These instructions have been ignored.

Trump – who was freed from interference by his new Attorney General, William Barr – was more successful in getting his lieutenants to cheat the press, but only to a certain extent.

In summary, the report portrays a president who, if he did not comply with the legal obstacle to obstruction of justice after years of fighting against Russia-related investigations, has largely the stubbornness of his own advisers.

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First, Trump sought to deter investigations by denying any connection with Moscow.
At the end of July 2016, at the time of the Trump-Gates conversation, the candidate held a press conference to encourage Russia to divulge Clinton's e-mails and repeatedly say, "I did not nothing to do with Russia. "

After the event, Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer and general counsel, reminded his boss that he had spent several months trying to get a contract for the construction of a Trump tower in Moscow. As stated in Mueller's report, Trump replied that no agreement had been finalized and that there was therefore no reason to publicly disclose it. "Why talk about it if it's not an agreement?" Trump said.

Three months later, in October, WikiLeaks released hacked emails from Hillary Clinton campaign president John Podesta.

A few hours later, dispatches were exchanging e-mails after media reported a multi-year-old Trump tape making derogatory comments about women. And he came as the US intelligence agencies have released an extraordinary Statement of 7 October blame Russia for hacking the DNC.

In November, Trump won the presidency following a staggering election, ensuring that his treatment of issues related to Russia would remain under the microscope.

After the elections, Barack Obama's administration imposed sanctions on Russia for its electoral interference and, in late December, Trump's adviser, Michael Flynn, asked the Russian ambassador to encourage him not to exercise retaliation.

In early January, FBI director James Comey informed Trump of unverified allegations that his team had plotted with Russian agents to overthrow the election and that the Kremlin had a compromising video showing the elected president mumbling with prostitutes in Moscow.

A few days before the inauguration of Trump, Flynn had received news of the appeal with the Russian ambassador and Flynn, the new adviser on national security, had informed his deputy, K.T. McFarland, to deny the story to the Washington Post, what she did, even though she knew that her denial was false.

As soon as Trump was inaugurated, questions about Russia began to occupy his nascent administration.

Less than a week after taking office, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates went to the White House to inform the White House Council, Don McGahn, that Flynn's public denials of sanctions with Kislyak were false and that the FBI had questioned Flynn about it.

The next day, Trump summoned Comey to a private dinner at the White House and told him, "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty." Comey promised his "honest loyalty" to the president.

Then, in mid-February, as the FBI investigated whether Flynn had lied to his agents, Trump sent his national security adviser back.

The next day, Trump, Valentine's Day, had lunch with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at the White House.

"Now that we have fired Flynn, the situation in Russia is over," said Trump, causing the laughter of the former US attorney. Christie told the President of the Republic that Russia would have always suspended Valentine's Day 2018 and that Flynn would remain a problem "like a chewing gum at the bottom of your shoe".

At lunch, Trump repeatedly implored Christie to contact Comey and inform the FBI director that he really liked her a lot. "Tell him he's part of the team," Trump said. Christie ignored the request.

Later in the day, after a larger meeting in the Oval Office, Trump insisted on talking with Comey alone. "I hope you will see clearly how you let this go, let Flynn go," Trump told his FBI director. "It's a good guy. I hope you can let it go.

Comey did not accept the request.

A week after Flynn's dismissal, White House aides Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon told McFarland that the president wanted his resignation, but they hinted that she might have a job. ambassador to Singapore after. The next day, Trump asked Priebus to return to McFarland. Before leaving the White House, Trump wanted McFarland to state in writing that he had never asked Flynn to call the Russian ambassador about the sanctions. McFarland, who did not know if this was true, hesitated.

Concerns were expressed that the request appeared to be a counterpart for the ambassador's post, and the case was closed. But Trump soon had another request: the president wanted Priebus, his chief of staff, to tell Flynn – who had been fired and was facing an investigation by the FBI – that the president was still worried about him. Priebus called the former national security advisor to register. Trump would also continue to ask McFarland to convey to Flynn that Trump still had tender feelings for him, though it was unclear if she complied with them.

Flynn was not the only problem of Trump. The FBI had already begun to investigate Russia's interference in the elections and its possible links to the Trump campaign.

In early March, it appeared that Jeff Sessions had failed, during his confirmation hearings, to meet in mid-campaign with the Russian ambassador to become Trump's attorney general. The news of this omission has suggested that the sessions should recuse themselves from the investigations conducted by Russia.

This triggered an avalanche of phone calls. At Trump's request, Don McGahn, a White House lawyer, called Sessions, the Attorney General's and Majority Leader's aides in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, hoping to prevent a challenge. Other White House aides have called Sessions to deter him. Sessions, informed by Justice Department lawyers that he had little choice under the rules of the department, still did it.

The next day, an angry Trump called McGahn to the office. "I do not have a lawyer," complained Trump. The president wanted out loud that the late Roy Cohn – a Pitbull lawyer who worked for Senator Joe McCarthy, several criminals and Trump – is still there to represent him.

That weekend, in Mar-a-Lago, Trump made his first of many unsuccessful attempts to have Sessions "recuse himself" – this time in an individual exchange with the Attorney General himself. For a year and a half, Trump would comment publicly and privately on the challenge of Sessions, demand and reject his resignation, and ultimately reject it.

At the same time, Trump turned his attention to another goal: to get the national security officials to clarify his name by publicly announcing that he was innocent or at least not being the object of the war. ;investigation.

On more than one occasion, while intelligence officials were preparing to give the president his daily briefing, Trump wanted aloud that statements could be made to the press stating that there had been no of collusion.

At the end of March, Trump called Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, and asked him to publicly challenge the information received about Trump's Russian entanglements. The call was the strangest thing Rogers MP Richard Ledgett saw in his decades of intelligence work.

The president also expressed his wishes in conversations with Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and with Comey. "I was very loyal, very loyal, we had this thing, you know," Trump told Comey in April, apparently referring to their loyalty speech at the table. Comey never made a public statement to clear Trump.

By the first weekend of May, Trump had decided to fire Comey. Bedridden in his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, he and his advisor Stephen Miller wrote a letter to that effect. The following Monday morning, in the Oval Office, Trump informed the other staff of the decision, which was final.

The next day, Trump received a letter from Sessions and a note from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, describing their own cases of Comey's dismissal. The White House quickly announced the dismissal of Comey, falsely claiming that the decision had been made on the basis of the advice of the Department of Justice.

That evening, the press secretary of the time, Sean Spicer, gave an impromptu briefing on the White House grounds. Standing in the dark between two hurdles, insisting that he not be filmed, Spicer repeated the false assertion that the White House was not behind the shot. Spicer MP Sarah Sanders would also award the dismissal decision to Rosenstein the next day.

The following day, too, Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went to Trump in the Oval Office, where the new president assured them: "I have just fired the FBI leader. He was crazy, a real job. I have faced great pressure because of Russia. It's taken off. "

The remarks were quickly leaked to the press, but when communications advisor Hope Hicks informed Trump that they had triggered a fire storm, Trump was not worried. "He is crazy, Trump shrugged.

A day after that, Trump contradicted his administration's position regarding Comey's shooting on national television, informing Lester Holt of the NBC channel that this decision belonged to him and that he was thinking about the investigation of Russia.

A week later, on May 17, Sessions came out of an oval office meeting with Trump to respond to an urgent appeal from Rosenstein: the Deputy Attorney General had just appointed a special council to conduct the investigation. on Russian electoral interference and possible collusion in the Trump campaign. .

The sessions are returned to the Oval Office to relay the news to Trump. "Oh my God, this is terrible," Trump cunningly said as he sat in his chair, "it's the end of my presidency, I'm screwed up."

"How could you let that happen?", He asked Sessions, adding, "You were supposed to protect me."

Trump told the sessions that he should resign, and the sessions agreed to do it. Hicks had not seen Trump so angry since the day the video told him that he boasted of having seized the genitals of the women throughout the presidential campaign – the very day that Podesta's emails had been disclosed.

Sessions returned the next day to deliver a short letter of resignation. Trump pocketed the letter, but left the work status of Sessions as an open question. The next day, Trump flew away for a weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe. In the middle of the trip, aboard Air Force One, Trump took the letter out of his pocket and asked his associates how to handle it. But during the same trip, when Priebus – concerned about the legal implications of keeping the president on such a letter – asked after the letter, Trump told his chief of staff that he had left it in the east wing of the White House.

Back in Washington, Trump temporarily shelved his dismissal sessions and instead focused on the need to get rid of Mueller. The President began to make false claims that Mueller had conflicts of interest – for example, a request by Mueller for reimbursement of membership fees for a golf club owned by Trump, Virginia – but his collaborators continued to demolish them.

On a Tuesday in mid-June, Trump's personal attorney spoke directly about the alleged conflicts with Mueller's office. The following day, the Washington Post announced that Mueller was investigating Trump for obstructing justice.

This weekend, Trump called McGahn from Camp David and ordered him to fire Mueller. Rather than obeying, McGahn began telling White House counselors that he was preparing to resign. Trump seemed to drop the problem.

***

Meanwhile, at the end of June, the pressure on Trump increased.

At about the same time, the restricted circle of presidents worried that the journalists were investigating an undisclosed meeting between Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and several Russians at Trump Tower in June 2016, when that Trump was preparing to accept the candidacy of the Republican.

There were emails showing that the intermediary who had organized the meetings – a British publicist – had promised the Russians to offer dirt to Clinton.

His chief of staff, Priebus, had for the first time heard about the issue by Fox News host Sean Hannity, which indicated that the Trump team was not aware of information about the meeting.

But Trump, believing that these emails would never see the light of day, urged his team to present a misleading account of the meeting, claiming that it was a forum to discuss adoption policy. Trump Jr. soon published the emails, which compromised his initial public statements about the meeting.

While Trump continued his efforts to contain the investigations, the president turned his attention to his attorney general. Also in June, he summoned Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, and told him to send a message to the sessions: Rather than investigate what happened during the elections of 2016, the Ministry of Justice should only investigate the interference of Russia in the upcoming elections.

On July 19, Trump again summoned Lewandowski – who had created a lobbying company after the elections – and the agent assured his former boss that he would soon be getting the message to Sessions. Then Trump announced that he had another message for the sessions.

While Lewandowski strove to note Trump's words, the president dictated the contents of a speech that he wanted the sessions to say:

"I know I abstained from certain things in specific areas. But our POTUS … is treated very unfairly. He should not have a special attorney / lawyer because he has done nothing wrong. I was campaigning with him for nine months, no Russian was involved with him. I know it because I was there. He did nothing wrong except that he led the biggest campaign in American history. … Now, a group of people wants to subvert the US Constitution. I will meet with the special prosecutor to explain to him that it is very unfair and let the special prosecutor conduct an investigation into the electoral interference in future elections, so that nothing can happen during the election. future elections. "

Trump told Lewandowski that if the sessions did not meet him, he had to send them back.

Not wanting to send a message to the phone or the Department of Justice, Lewandowski asked Sessions to meet him at his office. But the sessions have been canceled. Meanwhile, Lewandowski left the city, keeping his notes in a personal safe.

Along the way, Lewandowski also asked Rick Dearborn, a former White House Sessions assistant, to contact the Attorney General on his behalf. Dearborn told Lewandowski at one point that he had responded to the request, although this was not the case.

Trump was running out of patience. On July 22, a Saturday, he asked Priebus to guarantee the resignation of Sessions. Priebus told Trump that he would do it, even if he did not intend to follow. Later in the day, Priebus convinced Trump to delay shooting so the news dominated him on Sunday morning.

At that time, Trump had been in the habit of publicly poking the sessions. During the rest of the year, Sessions had a resignation letter in his pocket whenever he went to the White House, just in case. Trump continued to meditate privately on the replacement of the sessions. At some point in the fall, he asked Sessions to investigate Clinton.

***

At the end of January 2018, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported on Trump's attempt to burn McGahn Mueller.

Irritated by the news – which McGahn refused to challenge publicly – Trump told staff secretary Rob Porter that the White House council was a "liar bastard". He asked Porter to ask McGahn to write a written statement saying that Trump had never ordered him to fire Mueller, suggesting that he would fire McGahn when he refused.

But when Porter sent the message to McGahn, the White House lawyer refused.

The next day, Trump summoned McGahn to the Oval Office, where they quarreled over the semantics of Trump's request last June and whether McGahn would ask for a correction. McGahn believed that Trump wanted to determine if he could convince McGahn to accept Trump's version of events.

Then Trump began to question McGahn indignantly. "And those notes?" He asked. "Why are you taking notes? Lawyers do not take notes. I have never had a lawyer taking notes. The White House lawyer assured Trump that it was normal for a lawyer to take notes.

"I've had a lot of excellent lawyers, like Roy Cohn," Trump replied. "He did not take notes."

While he was trying to thwart and distract investigators, Trump also had potential witnesses to fear.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2017, a Trump lawyer left a voice message to Flynn's lawyer. If, he says, "information involves the president, then we have a national security problem." . . So you know,. . . we need some kind of heads-up. Uh, just to protect all our interests if we can. "

Flynn's problem is less important than that of Cohen, who has been entangled for years in the difficult and personal affairs of Trump.

Last April, FBI agents raided Cohen's office and a hotel room where the lawyer lived.

Shortly after, Trump called Cohen, telling him to "stay put" and "stay strong". Messages from common knowledge poured in, assuring Cohen: "The boss loves you."

But Cohen decided to cooperate with the investigators. He went on to say that he had pursued an agreement with Trump Tower in Moscow until in the primaries, that the Trump organization hoped to conclude the deal as late as the transition and that it had discussed it directly with the Russian government. Cohen had gone so far as to tell his boss at one point that he wanted the Trump organization to have assistants as proficient as the Kremlin to whom he had talked about the agreement. .

When Cohen turned around, Trump quickly changed his tone, calling him a criminal and a "rat". On the other hand, he continues to praise Paul Manafort, hinting at the possibility of a pardon for his imprisoned campaign president, whom prosecutors said they did not respect. by a cooperation agreement.

In November, in the aftermath of the midterms, Trump finally dismissed sessions. Later in the month, Trump submitted written answers to Mueller's questions, which did not fully answer the Trump Tower Moscow special council's questions. Trump's team refused to provide additional answers on the missing details.

As of Thursday, Trump remained in power and was not charged. He welcomed the publication of Mueller's report as a final justification. "No collusion," Trump repeated once more. "No obstruction."