4 Disturbing Details You May Have Missed in the Mueller Report

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

4 Disturbing Details You May Have Missed in the Mueller Report

Some troubling-to-outright-damning episodes have been lost in the noise around its release.

By Quinta Jurecic
Ms. Jurecic is the managing editor of Lawfare.

June 7, 2019

After two years of silence, the special counsel Robert Mueller recently made his first public remarks — to complain, it seemed, that no one had read his report. “We chose those words carefully,” Mr. Mueller said, “and the work speaks for itself.”

But at a dense 440-plus pages, if the report speaks for itself, it takes a great deal of time and focus to listen to what it has to say. Mr. Mueller tells a complicated story of “multiple, systematic” efforts at Russian election interference from which the Trump campaign was eager to benefit. And he describes a president eager to shut down an investigation into his own abusive conduct. This is far from, as the president put it, “no collusion, no obstruction.”

The document is packed with even more details, ranging from the troubling to the outright damning. Yet these have been lost in the flurry of discussion around the report’s release.

Even the most attentive reader could have trouble keeping track of the report’s loose ends and dropped subplots. Here are four of the most surprising details that you might have missed — and none of them are favorable to the president.

Coordinating with WikiLeaks?

(VOLUME I, PP. 52-54)

How much did Mr. Trump personally know about Russian efforts to assist his campaign, and when did he know it? Three pages of heavily redacted text provide hints.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/opinion/mueller-report-trump-impeachment.html

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

At a July 27, 2016, campaign rally, Mr. Trump said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” — referring to Clinton emails reportedly stored on a personal server. “Within approximately five hours” of Mr. Trump’s remarks, according to the Mueller report, Russian military intelligence began a cyberattack against “Clinton’s personal office.”

After his July 27 comment, the report states, Mr. Trump “asked individuals affiliated with his campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails” — including Michael Flynn.

Mr. Flynn, in turn, reached out to a Republican Senate staffer and a party operative who worked separately to obtain the emails. The operative raised money to support the project, which he marketed as “coordinated with the Trump campaign,” and told others that he was in communication with Russian hackers who had access to emails he believed were Mrs. Clinton’s. But Mr. Mueller “did not establish” that the operative had actually made contact with any real Russian hackers. And while the staffer obtained emails, an effort funded by a businessman close to the campaign found that they were not really Mrs. Clinton’s either.

“Collusion” has no legal definition. But if the term means working behind the scenes with Russian actors to obtain hacked information damaging to Mrs. Clinton, then this section of the report describes just that — collusion that took place at Mr. Trump’s request. It just wasn’t successful.

[Demon Dem]

6. Seconded

This needs to be seen by as many people as possible.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. Wow!! So, when do impeachment hearings start?!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[trev]

2. "the most important question is whether this conduct should be acceptable"

No, it is not and should not be. The Republicans' denials of the clear evidence in the report demonstrate more criminal behavior--or, at the least, their continued penchant for lying.

Collusion. Conspiracy. Coverup.

[mr_lebowski]

3. IOW, rather than 'No Collusion, No Obstruction', the reality is:

"Tried to Collude ... FAILED, tried to Obstruct ... FAILED ... like a total fucking LOSER!"

[Scurrilous]

4. Thanks!

[emmaverybo]

5. Thanks. I am so glad the House Dems will investigate not only the obvious obstruction, but will

also get into the Russia and Trump campaign ties. This Rusher thing though did not spring up suddenly. I wonder if the American public will ever get to see the full plot.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Mueller's Report did nothing to hold Trump accountable.

Maybe he thinks the fact that he put things in it that could have resulted in a determination of a crime absolves him of his duty. I don't. He did what he did, which was find in a way that let a criminal stay in control of the country. He was the only hope, since his loyalists control the Senate.

It is what it is. Disappointing, to put it mildly.

[Blue_Tires]

9. k+r