The special counsel considered Trump’s written answers “inadequate” but knew a subpoena would impose a “substantial delay,” the newly released report says.
By Devlin Barrett and Devlin Barrett Reporter focusing on national security and law enforcement Email Bio Follow Matt Zapotosky Matt Zapotosky National security reporter covering the Justice Department Email Bio Follow April 18 at 12:14 PM A detailed report from special counsel Robert S.
Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy by his own staffers, who refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or legally dangerous. Mueller’s team wrote that though their investigation “did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” that assertion was informed by the fact that coordination requires more than two parties “taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other’s actions or interests.”
For example, Mueller’s team asserted that in August 2016, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI has assessed as having ties to Russian intelligence, met with Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, “to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel’s Office was a ‘backdoor’ way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine.”
Barr addressed the media before releasing the nearly 400-page report, saying that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein “disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law” but that they accepted the special counsel’s “legal framework” as they analyzed the case. It was the first official acknowledgment of differing views inside the Justice Department about how to investigate the president.
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