Donald Trump feared that the investigation into the Russian plot in the 2016 election would end his presidency and tried to dismiss special prosecutor Robert Mueller in charge of these investigations, revealed the report on the case published Thursday in the United States. Shortly after the report of 400 pages that took in embers to the United States was spread, Trump sang victory and said: “today I have a good day”.
“Game Over” (“The game is over”), the president tweeted with an image in which he appears on his back surrounded by fog, imitating the style of the popular series “Game of Thrones”.
The report, which comes to the political scene at a time when the United States is already focused on the 2020 presidential campaign, supported Trump’s claims that there was never any collusion between his campaign team and Russia to influence the 2016 elections. your favor
“As I’ve been saying all this time, THERE WAS NO COLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION”, he celebrated on Twitter.
However, the report on the investigation, which lasted almost two years and included interviews conducted by Mueller’s team with Trump’s circle, did not completely exonerate the US president from accusations of obstruction of justice. Although there were no indications that there were Americans involved in the Russian interference, the report revealed that Trump’s circle was happy with the possibility of taking a little advantage over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“It’s the end of my presidency” –
“My God, this is terrible, it’s the end of my presidency, I’m screwed”, he said when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed him that Mueller, former director of the FBI, had been named to conduct the investigations, according to the report.
Doubts about the obstruction of justice
US Attorney General Bill Barr told a news conference that “the investigation did not establish that members of the campaign conspired or were in coordination with the Russian government in their activities of interference in the elections”. But the report revealed that Trump sought the dismissal of Mueller after the press published that he was under investigation for obstruction of justice.
According to the report, on June 17, 2017 Trump called his adviser Don McGahn and told him to “call the surrogate attorney general and tell him that the special prosecutor had conflicts of interest and that he should be dismissed”. His own lawyers opposed that idea.
Barr said that Trump did not act to frustrate Mueller’s investigation, although “there is substantial evidence that the president was frustrated and angered by the conviction that the investigation was undermining his presidency”. According to the attorney general, the White House “cooperated” fully with the investigation and “did not take any action that would deprive the special prosecutor of documents”.
“Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards”, it can not be concluded that the president has not committed obstruction of justice, the Mueller report said.
“If we had the confidence, after an investigation into the facts, that the president clearly did not obstruct justice, we would affirm that”, he added.
Barr said the US president’s attorneys had access to an edited version of prosecutor Mueller’s report before it was published on Thursday. The White House did not make any changes to the fiscal report nor did it exercise the executive’s privilege to protect information, the attorney general said.
“Disturbing” tests
The publication of the report will certainly not clarify all doubts, because fragments of the report are crossed out to protect intelligence sources or investigations in progress. Lawmaker Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the Justice Committee of the House of Representatives, said that “even with the incomplete publication, the Mueller report shows disturbing evidence that President Trump became involved in obstruction of justice and other failings”.
Therefore, Congress demanded that Barr deliver an unedited version to ensure that his amendments are not intended to protect Trump.
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