Special counsel Robert Mueller could not find hard evidence that President Trump’s core advisers knew of any key instance of Russian government intermediaries offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
The question arises from conversations involving George Papadopoulos, the London-based foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about an April 26, 2016 meeting in which he was told that Russia had obtained “dirt on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails.’” But Mueller couldn’t establish that he told anyone else on the campaign about the explosive information.
“No documentary evidence, and nothing in the email accounts or other communications facilities reviewed by the Office, shows that Papadopoulos shared this information with the Campaign,” said Mueller’s final report, which was released in redacted form on Thursday.
It’s a key moment in the Trump-Russia controversy, because Papadopoulos told someone who worked for another foreign government “that the Trump campaign had received indications from the Russian government” that Moscow intended to leak documents that would embarrass Clinton.
“That information prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities,” Mueller noted.
Papadopoulos was in touch with senior officials on the campaign. He attended a high-profile meeting with the eventual president at Trump Tower on March 31, where he suggested that Trump try to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the election season. He corresponded about that idea, for instance, with senior adviser Stephen Miller and campaign co-chair Sam Clovis. All of those individuals told Mueller’s team they “could not recall” whether they had any conversations about the “dirt” purportedly held by the Russians.
“Papadopoulos and the Campaign officials who interacted with him told the Office that they could not recall Papadopoulos’s sharing the information that Russia had obtained ‘dirt’ on candidate Clinton in the form of emails or that Russia could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information about Clinton,” the report said.
Papadopoulos was told Russia had the emails only “after the GRU spearphished Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta and stole his emails, and the GRU hacked into the DCCC and DNC,” the report emphasized. Those cyberattacks took place in March and April, according to Mueller.
“Papadopoulos stated that he could not clearly recall having told anyone on the campaign and wavered about whether he accurately remembered an incident in which Clovis had been upset after hearing Papadopoulos tell Clovis that Papadopoulos thought ‘they have her emails,’” the report added. “The Campaign officials who interacted or corresponded with Papadopoulos have similarly stated, with varying degrees of certainty, that he did not tell them.”
