The Mueller Report: A Detailed Account of Trump’s Lies
and Misconduct
David
Corn
April
18, 2019
Mother
Jones
The
long-awaited report by special counsel Robert Mueller confirms what we already
knew: that Donald Trump and his campaign privately interacted with Russia while
Putin’s regime was preparing—and then carrying out—an attack on the 2016 US
presidential election; that Russia’s goal (as early as the start of 2016) was
to help Trump become president; that Trump and his campaign had good reason to
believe Putin’s regime was behind the ongoing assault (but kept insisting
Moscow was doing nothing); and that Trump and folks in his orbit have lied
about much of this.
Lies,
lies, and more lies. They lace this report.
The
basics of the Trump-Russia scandal were well established long
before Mueller concluded his investigation, because so much of it had taken
place in public view—Trump repeatedly echoing Russia’s false claims of
innocence, for example. Other elements had been exposed by media
reports—including Trump’s pursuit of a secret Moscow project while he was
running for president, as well as the June 2016 Trump tower meeting, during
which top Trump aides gathered to participate in what they were told was a
Moscow plot to help Trump get elected. Numerous lies had already been exposed,
including Trump saying he had nothing to do with Russia, and he and Donald
Trump Jr. claiming that the Trump tower meeting had only been about adoption
policy.
Yet
the Mueller report—while, as expected, not revealing any further criminality
beyond the indictments already brought during the investigation—reinforces the
case that much wrongdoing occurred on the part of Trump and his crew.
Here
is just one overview Mueller provides in the report:
During
the 2016 campaign, the media raised questions about a possible connection
between the Trump Campaign and Russia. The questions intensified after WikiLeaks
released politically damaging Democratic Party emails that were reported to
have been hacked by Russia. Trump responded to questions about possible
connections to Russia by denying any business involvement in Russia—even though
the Trump Organization had pursued a business project in Russia as late as June
2016. Trump also expressed skepticism that Russia had hacked the emails at the
same time as he and other Campaign advisors privately sought information
[redacted] about any further WikiLeaks releases.
Lying
and subterfuge—not crimes, but that’s what Mueller accuses Trump of engaging
in. And given that this particular redaction probably refers to longtime Trump
adviser Roger Stone, whose lying-to-Congress case is still pending, this
portion suggests that Trump himself ordered Stone to be in contact with
WikiLeaks, while Julian Assange’s outfit was being used by the Russians as part
of their covert operation to help Trump. Pause for a moment: A presidential
candidate apparently directed a henchman to make contact with—perhaps
collaborate with—an ongoing attack on American democracy.
Another
page of the report that is full of redactions shows that after WikiLeaks
released emails swiped from the Democratic National Committee, Trump was keen
on getting information about future WikiLeaks dumps—even as, as Mueller points
out, Trump and the campaign were publicly dismissing the notion Moscow was
intervening in the election. Trump, at the time, called “this whole thing with
Russia” a “total deflection” and said that it was “farfetched” and
“ridiculous.”
Trump
also proclaimed at that point, “I have nothing to do with Russia.” Yet,
according to the report, when his then-fixer Michael Cohen questioned this
denial, Trump told him that the potential Moscow tower project had not yet been
finalized: “Why mention it if it is not a deal?” Trump said, despite the fact
that a letter of intent had already been signed. In other words, Trump was
willing to lie about a substantial conflict of interest.
The
report also details how Trump helped fashion a public statement—to be issued in
the name of Donald Trump Jr.—that falsely described the June 2016 Trump Tower
meeting as nothing more than a discussion of adoption policy. Another section
of the report describes how Trump tried to force his own White House counsel,
Don McGahn, to lie and say that Trump never ordered to him to fire Mueller.
(Trump had.) McGahn refused to do so.
Lies,
lies, and more lies. They lace this report. And as Mueller notes:
[A]lthough
the evidence of contacts between Campaign officials and Russia-affiliated
individuals may not have been sufficient to establish or sustain criminal
charges, several US persons connected to the Campaign made false statements
about those contacts and took other steps to obstruct the Office’s
investigation and those of Congress. This office has therefore charged some of
those individuals with making false statements and obstructing justice.
But
read that carefully. George Papadopoulos, Stone, Cohen, and former National
Security Adviser Michael Flynn were each charged with lying. But Mueller is
saying that he did not charge all the persons who lied, just “some” of them.
(Trump and Trump Jr. refused to be interviewed by the Mueller team.)
The
report is full of more information about the curious actions of Trump’s people.
Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort—who publicly denied the campaign or he had
any Russian connections—is shown colluding with a former business partner who
was (according to the FBI) tied to Russian intelligence, discussing a supposed
peace plan for Ukraine that would benefit Russia. Manafort was also passing
internal campaign information to Oleg Deripaska, a Putin-friendly oligarch,
while running Trump’s campaign.
Mueller
has demonstrated that the president is a liar.
And
it turns out that on May 16, 2016—months before the Russians pushed the button
on their election attack—Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy adviser, told
Australian diplomat Alexander Downer that he had been informed by a Russian
cut-out that Moscow could assist the Trump campaign by anonymously releasing
information damaging to Clinton. His memory, though, was hazy on whether he
shared this news with anyone inside the campaign. (He would tell an Aussie
diplomat but none of his colleagues?)
In
the summer of that year, Papadopoulos and other Trump campaign aides discussed
setting up a meeting in September that would occur with representatives of the
“office of Putin.” That is, they considered this outreach to Putin while Putin
was attacking the United States. The meeting never occurred. Papadopoulos
declined to assist Mueller’s investigators in deciphering his handwritten notes
about this potential get-together. He said he could not read his own
handwriting. Moreover, Mueller notes that he never was able to get a full
explanation of what Carter Page, another Trump foreign policy adviser, was up
to when he visited Moscow in July 2016.
Then
there’s obstruction. The report is full of details about actions Mueller
investigated when trying to ascertain if Trump obstructed justice—and legal
experts and commentators will chew over all the details and legal
interpretations. But in a concise, one-paragraph conclusion, Mueller notes that
“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.”
There is no such stating.
Trump
defenders and Russiagate skeptics on the left will certainly point to this
report and wave the
Trump-did-not-conspire-directly-with-the-Russian-government-hack-and-dump-and-social-media-attack
flag. But Mueller has demonstrated that the president is a liar. He has shown
that Trump and his campaign made it easier for Moscow to pull off its attack on
American democracy by asserting there was no attack. He has raised troubling
questions about Trump’s adherence (or lack thereof) to the rule of law. He has
added details to the known narrative of puzzling interactions between the Trump
camp and Russia. He has reminded the public that an election was attacked by a
foreign adversary (to help Trump) and that the president has not fully
acknowledged that.
Mueller
has demonstrated that the Trump-Russia scandal is neither a hoax nor a
conspiracy theory. He has not exonerated Trump. He has shown that even if Trump
has not committed crimes, the president of the United States is guilty of many
serious misdeeds and transgressions.
David
Corn is Mother Jones' Washington bureau chief and an on-air analyst for
MSNBC. He is the co-author (with Michael Isikoff) of Russian Roulette: The
Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. He is
the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Showdown,
Hubris (with Isikoff), and The Lies of George W. Bush, as well as the
e-book, 47 Percent: Uncovering the Romney Video that Rocked the 2012 Election.
For more of his stories, click here. He's also
on Twitter and Facebook.
Source URL: https://portside.org/2019-04-18/mueller-report-detailed-account-trumps-lies-and-misconduct
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