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By Dareh Gregorian
Nearly two years later, a drafted report of special advocate Robert Mueller on the Trump campaign and Russia's interference in the 2016 elections is expected to be released Thursday morning.
Mueller's team, consisting of 19 lawyers and 40 investigators, interviewed approximately 500 witnesses, issued 2,800 subpoenas, contacted 13 foreign governments and executed nearly 500 search warrants in the investigation opened since then. May 2017.
Many of the interviewees included high-profile figures from the White House, including former chiefs of staff John Kelly and Reince Preibus, as well as former White House lawyer Don McGahn. The investigation led to 35 people and three criminal companies, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign director, Paul Manafort and the personal attorney. long time President Michael Cohen.
The nearly 400-page report should shed light on the Russian government's attempts to strengthen Trump, as well as on possible interactions of Moscow agents with his campaign, including information on a meeting of the Trump Tower in which Manafort would participate, Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian. lawyer who promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The report also indicates whether President Donald Trump later attempted to prevent Mueller's investigation.
What is being canceled?
A number of categories of information are being removed from the public version of the report, including information about the grand jury, anything that, according to the intelligence community, would reveal sources and methods, information that would to interfere with ongoing lawsuits and details that violate privacy or reputation. the interests of peripheral players where there is a decision not to accuse them, "said Attorney General William Barr.
WHO DOES THE EDITION?
Barr said that he and members of Mueller's team were working together to draft the redactions since he had received the report on March 22. The Attorney General stated that the redactions would be coded with four colors indicating the four categories of deletions so that readers know why edited from particular sections, even if they are not confidential.
HOW WILL THE REPORT BE PUBLISHED?
The Department of Justice said it would submit the redacted report to Congress and the public on Thursday morning. NBC News will publish a copy of the document on nbcnews.com as soon as it is available.
WILL NEW CRIMINAL EXPENSES BE REVEALED?
According to a four-page summary of the investigation released by Barr on March 24, Mueller "has not established that members of the Trump campaign had conspired or coordinated the government's electoral interference activities. Russian". On the question of obstruction of justice, Barr stated that even though this report did not conclude that the President had committed a crime, he did not exonerate him either. Barr stated that this left him the decision and that the evidence was "insufficient" to establish a charge of obstructing justice.
THEN WHAT SHOWS?
Although Trump maintained that Mueller's report is a "total and total exemption", it should include politically damaging disclosures. A senior law enforcement official who spoke with the Mueller team told NBC News earlier this month that the report contained detailed reports of the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia. described the team as easily manipulable.
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the publication of the Mueller Report
Although Barr's summary indicates that "most" of Trump's actions in the obstruction investigation have been publicly reported, this suggests that some of them did not maybe not been. An official who spoke to members of the Mueller team said he believed the evidence that Trump had tried to interfere with the investigation was stronger than Barr had suggested in his letter from last month.
And NBC News reported Tuesday that some of the more than a dozen current and former White House officials who had cooperated with Mueller at the request of Trump's legal team are fearing now to be exposed to detrimental information about the president to the investigators. is released. "They have been asked questions and told the truth, and now they are worried about the anger coming on," said a former White House official.
IS IT THE END?
Not even close. Congressional Democrats said they believed Barr was protecting Trump and demanding a full copy of the report. Mr. Barr, who suggested trying to work with lawmakers in search of additional information to what he made public, should testify about the findings of the report in May, and the Democrats have suggested that they also call Mueller to testify. The Judiciary Committee of the House voted to authorize a subpoena for the full report earlier this month if Barr does not deliver it.
"The Constitution accuses Congress of holding the president accountable for his alleged wrongdoing," said the president of the judiciary, Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Before the vote. "This work requires that we evaluate the evidence for ourselves – not the Attorney General's summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence."
The Trump legal team, meanwhile, plans to issue a "counter-report" Thursday refuting Mueller's findings, according to which President Rudy Giuliani's lawyer told Politico that he would count "34 or 35" pages. "The more it is concise, the better it is – 400 pages, it's a novel," he said.
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