Key takeaways from Robert Mueller’s Russia report
Associated PressWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump may not have obstructed justice, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Robert Mueller’s 448-page report takes the American public inside the room with Trump as he expressed fear that the special counsel would end his presidency and made several attempts to get the people around him to curtail the probe into his campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller wrote that on multiple occasions Trump did things that were “capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations.” Some of that was in private, one-on-one encounters that witnesses relayed to the special counsel. But the president’s public acts also raised questions that they could have led witnesses to feel intimidated or alter their testimony, moves that Mueller said were equally threatening to the “justice system’s integrity.” IGNORANCE OF THE LAW WAS A DEFENSE That was the case for Donald Trump Jr. and a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer. The special counsel wrote that it was unlikely the government could prove that Trump, Jr. and others in the meeting “had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful.” MUELLER FELT HE COULDN’T CHARGE TRUMP— EVEN IN SECRET The report reveals some of Mueller’s reasoning behind why he didn’t reach a conclusion on the question of obstruction.