It’s been almost two years since Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to lead an investigation into the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and to determine if the Trump campaign colluded in any way with those efforts.
During the course of the investigation, Mueller’s team has brought charges against six Trump associates and 25 Russians for interfering in the election. In late March, Mueller delivered the completed report to Attorney General William Barr, who in turn released a four-page summary to the public. After much back and forth, Barr released the full report, though many parts are still redacted.
Below, some of the highlights from the 448-page report, which you can read in full here.
Mueller could not clear Trump of obstruction of justice.
Despite the president declaring in a series of deranged tweets that there was "no collusion, no obstruction," Mueller wasn’t so sure. The report states, "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019
Trump declared, "I’m fucked" after Mueller was appointed.
After the special counsel had been appointed to investigate Russian interference, Trump "slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked." He then berated then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying, "How could you let this happen, Jeff?"
Ivanka is mentioned nearly a dozen times in the report.
The first daughter and senior adviser to the president is mentioned multiple times in the report in connection to the family’s attempts to build a Trump Tower in Russia. According to the report, "In February 2014, Ivanka Trump met with Emin Agalarov and toured the Crocus City site during a visit to Moscow. From March 2014 through July 2014, the groups discussed ‘design standards’ and other architectural elements."
Donald Trump Jr. told Ivanka and Hope Hicks about possible dirt on Hillary Clinton.
After the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians who claimed to have dirt on candidate Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. told Ivanka, Hope Hicks, Eric Trump, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner about. Additionally, Mueller at one point considering charging Donald Trump Jr. with violating campaign finance laws.
Ivanka’s Russian fashion influencer friend is in the report, too.
Miroslava Duma, along with Sergei Prikhodko, a Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, tried to broker a meeting with Putin for Ivanka and then-candidate Trump.
Hope Hicks didn’t want to "blow off Putin."
On election night, Hope Hicks, Trump’s former communications director and right-hand woman, received a call from a person who "sounded foreign" but was calling from a D.C. area code; all she could make out from the conversation was "Putin call." The next day, she received an email from Sergey Kuznetsov, a Russian Embassy official, congratulating Trump on his win and that he was looking forward to improving Russian-American relations. Hicks forwarded the email to Jared Kushner and asked, "Can you look into this? Don’t want to get duped but don’t want to blow off Putin!"
Russians attempted to hack the Clinton campaign within five hours of Trump asked Russia to find her emails.
According to the report, Russian intelligence emailed the Clinton campaign malicious links, which was part of a broader effort to infiltrate the campaign.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted she lied to the press.
After Comey was fired, Trump’s notoriously combative and fact-bending press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that morale was at an all-time low at the FBI and that "countless" agents told the White House they "lost confidence in Comey." However, there was no evidence to back up those claims and Sanders "acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything."
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Source: Refinery29 – Leah Carroll