Trump-Mueller report: Explosive document reveals '11 instances of possible obstruction' as Democrats attack 'partisan' handling
The president is claiming victory. Democrats say not so fast.
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Your support makes all the difference.The explosive, and much-anticipated, release of the Mueller report has come.
Just after attorney general William Barr stood behind a podium and largely seemed to defend Donald Trump, the damaging report was released, showing that Mr Trump attempted to fire Robert Mueller multiple times and that he said he thought his presidency was "f****d" after the special counsel was appointed.
Mr Barr has declined to prosecute Mr Trump for obstruction, a decision he announced last year. But, the special counsel investigation highlights an incredible amount of damaging nuance to that decision.
And, Democrats were quick to challenge the assumption that Mr Trump did not commit a crime, or that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Instead, the 400 page document detailed dozens of interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian officials seeking to flip members of the Trump team.
In addition, the report detailed a shocking propensity for White House officials to disregard the president when it comes to the Russia investigation — and that willingness to ignore the president could be a saving grace for Mr Trump.
According to the report, Mr Trump attempted repeatedly to get his staff to force Mr Mueller's firing. Those staff members just ignored him, though.
There's a lot to unpack — and we've done most of that work for you below.
Please read along for the updates we posted throughout the day — from Mr Barr's press conference, to the shocking revelations of the report, to the reaction as Washington transitioned into its next phase of the Trump presidency:
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Here are some key takeaways from Mr Barr's discussion on obstruction:
- Mr Barr said that the Mueller report examined "ten episodes" of potential obstruction of justice by Donald Trump.
- "The report recounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense," Mr Barr said.
It's hard not to read into this that Mr Barr isn't going out of his way to be generous to the president — and he notably refused to answer a question about this during the press conference.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Mr Barr's press conference are that Donald Trump's attorney general just delivered gift wrapped good news for the president.
For the president, this whole thing has amounted to a PR game for nearly two years, with him repeatedly lashing out on Twitter to call the special counsel investigation a "witch hunt" and claim "no collusion" even before we had any idea what would be in the Mueller report.
And, when Mr Barr was asked at the end of his press conference if it was improper for him to pre-spin the report before its release, an aide announced that it'd be the last question. Mr Barr simply said "no." Rod Rosenstein smirked.
Mr Barr even went out of his way to argue that Mr Trump's conduct should be judged by "bearing in mind" the "unprecedented" challenges facing the president, including "relentless speculation in the news media about the President's personal culpability."
Even Fox News is expressing some skepticism of Mr Barr following his press conference, and wondering why he would go out of his way to seemingly attempt to protect the president before the Mueller report is even released.
"You got into this very curious area where the Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the president, rather than the Attorney General," said Fox host Chris Wallace after the press conference.
Here's House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, following Mr Barr's press conference.
The president's adult son Eric Trump has weighed in following the press conference wit Mr Barr:
Here's Nancy Pelosi responding to the William Barr press conference:
As we await the actual release of the report, here's another observation from Mr Barr's press conference.
While the president has questioned whether Russia even attempted to interfere int he 2016 election, Mr Barr made it explicit that they did.
"The report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails," Mr Barr said.
He continued: "Obtaining such unauthorized access into computers is a federal crime. Following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities."
We'll be live-reading the Mueller report once it comes out, right here.
Here is a link to the report, on the Justice Department's website: https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf
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