The Mueller report is out

By Veronica Rocha, Meg Wagner, Amanda Wills and Brian Ries, CNN

Updated 7:55 PM ET, Thu April 18, 2019
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12:28 p.m. ET, April 18, 2019

Trump on Mueller appointment: "This is the end of my Presidency"

In May 2017, after President Trump learned from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had appointed special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump “slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked.’”

According to the report, "The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, 'Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.'"

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12:24 p.m. ET, April 18, 2019

Trump told his White House lawyer to remove Mueller. He refused.

From CNN's Erica Orden

On June 17, 2017, after media reports indicated that special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating whether President Trump had obstructed justice, Trump called former White House lawyer Don McGahn at home and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say Mueller "had conflicts of interest and must be removed."

McGahn declined to do so, deciding that he would "rather resign than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre."

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11:42 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

Mueller describes previously unknown effort by Trump to get Sessions to curtail investigation

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

Special counsel Robert Mueller described a previously unknown example of the President’s attempts to curtail the investigation involving Trump’s former campaign aide Cory Lewandowski.

Mueller says that on June 19, 2017, Trump met in the Oval Office with Lewandowski and dictated a message intended for then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who at that point had recused himself from matters involving the probe.

In the message, Sessions was told to publicly announce the investigation was “‘very unfair’ to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the special counsel and ‘let [him] move forward with investigation election meddling for future elections.’” Lewandowski told Trump he understood his instructions.

A month later, Trump checked back in with Lewandowski on the status of his message. Lewandowski said the message would be delivered soon.

Ultimately, Lewandowski declined to deliver the message personally, instead asking a senior White House official — Rick Dearborn — to do it instead. Mueller’s report says Dearborn was “uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through.”

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11:40 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

Just to catch you up, here's what we've learned from the Mueller report (so far)

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Department of Justice released a redacted version of the special counsel Robert Mueller's report moments ago.

CNN is still going through the report, but here are the highlights so far:

  • Mueller wasn't able to conclude "no criminal conduct occurred": The investigation was unable to clear the President on obstruction. The report states that the evidence obtained "about the about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred."
  • What the Trump campaign knew: The special counsel's investigation into possible collusion found that members of the Trump campaign knew they would benefit from Russia's illegal actions to influence the election, but didn't take criminal steps to help, Robert Mueller's report said.
  • Why Mueller didn't subpoena Trump: The special counsel believed it had the authority to subpoena President Trump — but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation, according to the report. Prosecutors also believed they already had a substantial amount of evidence.
11:38 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

House Intel Committee has also requested Mueller testify

The House Intel Committee has also requested that Robert Mueller testify before them "at the earliest opportunity," Chairman Adam Schiff tweeted out on Thursday morning.

11:38 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

The printers are buzzing in the Senate Judiciary office on Capitol Hill

From CNN's Lauren Fox

Outside of the Senate Judiciary Committee office, the printers are buzzing.

It’s one of the only sounds on this very quiet day in Dirksen Senate Office Building. Members are on recess and there are some murmurs or staff conversations from down the hall. Otherwise, just the sound of printing as Washington learns what is inside this redacted report.

11:53 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

Mueller referred 14 investigations to other offices

From CNN's Kara Scannell

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team referred 14 investigations to other US attorney's offices, including the prosecution of Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen and Greg Craig, the Skadden Arps attorney who was indicted for lying to DOJ about work he had done for the Ukraine Ministry of Justice.

The other 12 investigations are redacted.

About some of the investigations:

  • Michael Cohen: He was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge. Cohen pleaded guilty to evading taxes from his personal business ventures, violating campaign finance laws at the direction of candidate Donald Trump, and lying to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Russia during the campaign. Most of the charges were brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan after a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller.
  • Greg Craig: A prominent Democratic lawyer and former White House counsel in the Obama administration, Craig was indicted in a case that was referred to other prosecutors by special counsel Robert Mueller. He was charged with lying to the Justice Department and concealing information about work he performed for the Ukrainian government in 2012. Craig’s involvement in the Ukraine project was arranged by Paul Manafort, who later became Donald Trump's campaign chairman. Craig's lawyers called the indictment "unfair and misleading." 

More on the other investigations into Trump's world:

11:24 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

Special counsel declined to subpoena President because it would "delay" the investigation

From CNN's Erica Orden and Laura Jarrett

The special counsel believed it had the authority to subpoena President Trump, but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation, according to the report. The prosecutors also believed they already had a substantial amount of evidence.

"We made the decision in view of the substantial delay that such an investigative step would likely produce at a late stage in our investigation" special counsel wrote in the report. "We had sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony."

The report also says that while the Office of Legal Council opinion concludes that a sitting president may not be prosecuted, "It recognizes that a criminal investigation during a President’s term is permissible."

The OLC opinion "also recognizes that a President does not have immunity after he leaves office," the report says.

11:21 a.m. ET, April 18, 2019

What Mueller considered in the obstruction investigation

From CNN's Kevin Liptak and Laura Jarrett

In his evaluation of whether President Trump obstructed justice, special counsel Robert Mueller looked at a number of issues and areas involving the President and his aides focused on whether they were attempting to curtail the investigation. 

Those areas include: The Trump campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump and conduct involving FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Mueller’s report says that after the election, “the President expressed concerns to advisors that reports of Russia’s election interference might lead the public to question the legitimacy of his election.”

Other areas that Mueller probed: The President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation; the firing of FBI director James Comey; the appointment of the Special Counsel and efforts to remove him; efforts to curtail the special counsel; efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence; further efforts to have attorney general Jeff Sessions take control of investigation; efforts to have White House counsel Don McGahn deny that the President ordered him to have Mueller removed; conduct towards Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort; and conduct toward former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen.