Tag: Trump campaign

Rudy Giuliani goes off script and reveals on CNN that the Mueller report hardly vindicates Trump

Since Attorney General Bill Barr released his summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, President Donald Trump and his supporters have been screaming from the rooftops that the investigation has completely exonerated the president — despite the fact that Barr’s summary does nothing of the sort.

And yet one of Trump’s most prominent supporters doesn’t seem to have gotten the talking points.

On Tuesday evening, the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to discuss the developments. He celebrated the completion of the report, saying that the country should move on and that the story of Trump-Russia collusion has been disproven.

View the complete March 26 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Mueller report doesn’t say what GOP says it does

Mueller’s primary mission was to see if he could establish an actionable case, and Barr’s letter said he couldn’t

ANALYSIS — The way GOP lawmakers reacted to Attorney General William Barr’s letter to Congress on Sunday outlining the key findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s final Russia investigation report, you would think special counsel prosecutors went out of their way to prove Trump’s innocence on collusion and obstruction allegations.

But statements from Republican leaders in both the House and Senate — and in the White House — do not accurately reflect the direct quotes from Mueller’s report that Barr included in his letter.

“The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller wrote in his report, according to Barr.

View the complete March 24 article by Griffin Connolly on The Roll Call website here.

Mueller’s conclusion raises new questions

Attorney General William Barr has notified Congress that special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence during his inquiry that President Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.

The bombshell disclosure appeared to resolve a core question of the Mueller investigation. It sent shock waves through Washington, with Trump and his allies claiming total vindication of the president after the investigation dogged the White House for just shy of two years.

However, Barr’s four-page letter sent Sunday has raised new questions, and the full contents of Mueller’s final, confidential report to the Justice Department remain shrouded in mystery.

View the complete March 24 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Barr: Mueller ‘did not establish’ Trump-Russia collusion, but obstruction questions remain

White House says AG’s summary of special counsel report exonerates president

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III “did not establish” that members of Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 election, but left it up to Attorney General William Barr to determine whether the president obstructed justice to stymie the investigation, the AG wrote in a letter to Congress on Sunday.

Barr has declined to pursue the obstruction thread, he wrote to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees in a four-page letter summarizing the key findings from Mueller’s report.

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the day-to-day operation of the special counsel, “concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,” the AG wrote in his letter.

View the complete March 24 article by Griffin Connolly and Chris Cioffi on The Roll Call website here.

Mueller’s end shifts focus to New York prosecutors

The end of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is shifting the spotlight to federal prosecutors in President Trump‘s hometown.

While all eyes this weekend are on the Department of Justice and Mueller’s conclusions, the completion of the special counsel’s report won’t finish all the investigations into Trump.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) is reportedly already carrying out a series of probes related to the president, including efforts focused on Trump’s inaugural committee.

View the complete March 24 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

At the center of Mueller’s inquiry, a campaign that appeared to welcome Russia’s help

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has concluded his investigation without charging any Americans with conspiring with Russia to interfere in the 2016 campaign and help elect Donald Trump.

But hundreds of pages of legal filings and independent reporting since Mueller was appointed nearly two years ago have painted a striking portrayal of a presidential campaign that appeared untroubled by a foreign adversary’s attack on the U.S. political system — and eager to accept the help.

When Trump’s eldest son was offered dirt about Hillary Clinton that he was told was part of a Russian government effort to help his father, he responded, “I love it.”

View the complete March 23 article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger on The Washington Post website here.

These 6 ongoing legal threats continued to loom over Trump — regardless of what the Mueller report says

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and President Donald Trump’s potential involvement in it, has reached its conclusion. While there are a few loose ends to tie up, including the sentencing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the trial of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, Mueller is finished issuing indictments, and his report has been delivered to Attorney General William Barr, who will soon be briefing Congress on the key findings.

While no one yet knows exactly what the report contains, the mere fact that Trump was never indicted is being sung from on high by the president’s supporters as proof that he has been exonerated. But that isn’t the case — there was never that big a chance Trump himself was going to be slapped in cuffs and hauled before a judge, and the finer points of the investigation could be damning for him politically even if Mueller lacked the authority or standard of evidence to prosecute him.

But just as important: Trump’s problems do not end with Mueller’s investigation. There are a number of other legal dangers for the president, in the form of federal, state, and congressional investigations that have not yet concluded —many of which have potential to criminally implicate the president, financially harm him, or imperil his re-election prospects.

View the complete March 23 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet website here.

‘If you took it all in in one day, it would kill you’: What Mueller’s investigation has already revealed

He pulled back the curtain on a sophisticated Kremlin hacking operation — identifying by name the 12 Russian military officers who he said sought to sway a U.S. election.

He exposed a Russian online influence campaign — bringing criminal charges against the 13 members of a Russian troll farm now accused of trying to manipulate U.S. voters and sow division through fake social media personae.

And he revealed how those closest to President Trump defrauded banks, cheated on their taxes and, time and time again, lied to deflect inquiries into their ties with Russia.

View the complete March 22 article by Matt Zapotosky and Rosalind S. Helderman on The Washignton Post website here.

Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign has already funneled $1.3 million into his businesses

President Trump’s re-election campaign has paid $1.3 million in donor money to his businesses since he took office, according to an analysis by Forbes.

According to the report, Trump’s companies have charged his campaign $1.3 million for rent, lodging, food and other expenses. While Trump self-funded part of his campaign in 2016, none of the more than $50 million in contributions to his re-election campaign have come out of his own pocket.

The campaign has paid more than $800,000 to Trump Tower Commercial LLC, a holding company through which the president owns his stake in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The Republican National Committee has paid an additional $225,000 to the holding company for rent.

View the complete March 23 article by Igor Derysh on the AlterNet website here.

Do Americans think Mueller’s probe is a witch hunt? Depends on how you ask.

Dissecting why a new poll finds more skepticism about the probe than others

On Monday, President Trump tweeted about a new survey finding released earlier in the day. He said that a poll found that “50% of Americans AGREE that Robert Mueller’s investigation is a Witch Hunt.” That claim is in line with the USA Today report. But a close look at the survey and other recent polling suggests it may overstate the public’s skepticism of the Mueller probe.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Wow! A Suffolk/USA Today Poll, just out, states, “50% of Americans AGREE that Robert Mueller’s investigation is a Witch Hunt.” @MSNBC Very few think it is legit! We will soon find out?

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Here’s how the question was asked: “President Trump has called the Special Counsel’s investigation a ‘witch hunt’ and said he’s been subjected to more investigations than previous presidents because of politics. Do you agree?”

There are a lot of ways to ask a question such as this, and it’s useful to measure whether Americans share Trump’s skepticism of the Mueller investigation. But this question and its interpretation skirt a couple of best practices for opinion-poll question wording, as highlighted by Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray in several tweets.

View the complete March 18 article by Emily Guskin and Scott Clement on The Washington Post website here.