Robert Mueller Russia Report overview - follow the evidence
The Mueller report seems to be coming soon. Maybe.
David Leonhardt says he wants to review what Robert Mueller's investigation (and others) have already uncovered.
The brief version: So far, there is no clear evidence that the Trump campaign and Russian officials worked together to coordinate campaign strategy. Trump and his defenders have tried to conflate this with innocence.
Repeatedly, like an orange parrot, Donald Trump's mantra is “No collusion.”
But that’s both wrong and a brazen lowering of the bar for presidential behavior.
Even without any further findings, the Mueller investigation shows that Trump has repeatedly violated his oath of office by lying to the American people, breaking the law, putting his personal interests above the country’s and secretly working with a hostile foreign country. The details:
Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Russian officials hacked the emails of Democratic officials and created a social media campaign designed to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
Trump campaign officials knew of these foreign efforts and encouraged them. The president’s son did so. As did George Papadopoulos, a campaign adviser. And Trump himself publicly urged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails — on the same day Russian hackers tried to breach her private server for the first time.
Trump campaign officials attempted to conceal contacts they had with Russians and other foreign officials. Trump and his associates repeatedly lied to the public and to investigators about their more than 100 contacts — including meetings, phone calls and emails — with Russians during the campaign. Among the examples: Michael Flynn, a campaign aide who became Trump’s national security adviser, lied about phone calls he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Campaign officials knew in advance about the WikiLeaks email dumps. Before WikiLeaks released stolen Democratic emails, Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate, told campaign officials it would happen.
Trump was secretly pursuing a business venture in Russia and lied about it. During most of the 2016 campaign, Trump associates worked to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, while publicly denying any such business relationship. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, lied to Congress about the talks and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Trump directed a subordinate to break the law. During the campaign, Trump directed Cohen to pay hush money to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. The secret payments violated campaign finance laws.
Trump’s campaign was run by criminals. The Mueller investigation has also uncovered separate financial crimes committed by top campaign officials. Both Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, and Rick Gates, a Manafort protégé, have been indicted on conspiracy and fraud. Others tied to the campaign, including Papadopoulos, have also received prison sentences.
For more:
In a Times Op-Ed, James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, writes that he hopes the Mueller report shows that Trump did not hinder the investigation.
Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Russian officials hacked the emails of Democratic officials and created a social media campaign designed to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
Trump campaign officials knew of these foreign efforts and encouraged them. The president’s son did so. As did George Papadopoulos, a campaign adviser. And Trump himself publicly urged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails — on the same day Russian hackers tried to breach her private server for the first time.
Trump campaign officials attempted to conceal contacts they had with Russians and other foreign officials. Trump and his associates repeatedly lied to the public and to investigators about their more than 100 contacts — including meetings, phone calls and emails — with Russians during the campaign. Among the examples: Michael Flynn, a campaign aide who became Trump’s national security adviser, lied about phone calls he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Campaign officials knew in advance about the WikiLeaks email dumps. Before WikiLeaks released stolen Democratic emails, Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate, told campaign officials it would happen.
Trump was secretly pursuing a business venture in Russia and lied about it. During most of the 2016 campaign, Trump associates worked to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, while publicly denying any such business relationship. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, lied to Congress about the talks and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Trump directed a subordinate to break the law. During the campaign, Trump directed Cohen to pay hush money to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. The secret payments violated campaign finance laws.
Trump’s campaign was run by criminals. The Mueller investigation has also uncovered separate financial crimes committed by top campaign officials. Both Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, and Rick Gates, a Manafort protégé, have been indicted on conspiracy and fraud. Others tied to the campaign, including Papadopoulos, have also received prison sentences.
For more:
In a Times Op-Ed, James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, writes that he hopes the Mueller report shows that Trump did not hinder the investigation.
My newsroom colleagues Larry Buchanan and Karen Yourish have put together a helpful guide to the people implicated in the investigation. FiveThirtyEight’s Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Perry Bacon Jr. note that Mueller’s court filings so far amount to a kind of public report.
Neal Katyal, a legal expert, has also put together a helpful Twitter thread on the subject. “Don’t focus on the one-line spin. Focus on the facts, judgments, and limitations in the Mueller Report,” he writes.
The legal scholar Joyce White Vance notes that the end of the Mueller investigation doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Trump’s legal issues. “Mueller appears to have stayed carefully within his lane, sending cases that strayed from his core mission to US attorneys & DOJ divisions,” she tweeted. “These career prosecutors will work their investigations to a conclusion, even after Mueller closes shop.”
And Aaron Blake of The Washington Post outlines what could happen to Mueller’s report once the attorney general has it.
Labels: David Leonhardt, George Papadopoulos, hush money
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 9:10 AM
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