Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, among other things, reveals how those surrounding President Trump managed to protect him from his own worst instincts by refusing to carry out actions that would have significantly strengthened the obstruction of justice case against him.
In his report, Mueller writes that his office declined to make a traditional judgment on the obstruction question, primarily as a result of the issues raised with bringing charges against a sitting president. The report lays out a number of actions that could be viewed as obstruction, which it says create “difficult issues that would need to be resolved” in any effort to consider charges. For instance, Mueller notes that in this case, prosecutors were unable to establish an underlying crime of illegal coordination with Russia to interfere with the election, and also many of the actions taken by the president (such as firing James Comey) were clearly within his constitutional authority. At the same time, Mueller’s team concluded that they did not have enough confidence that Trump “clearly did not commit obstruction of justice” to exonerate him.
The report breaks down 11 “key issues and events” that formed the backbone of the special counsel office’s factual findings on obstruction. In many cases, they involve Trump directing others to take actions that may have impeded the investigation that they ultimately did not take.
To start, there was the aftermath of the revelation that incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence, as well FBI agents, about a conversation he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition. Trump, Mueller reports, tried to get deputy advisor K.T. McFarland to draft a letter stating that Trump had not asked Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak. “McFarland declined because she did not know whether that was true, and a White House Counsel’s Office attorney thought that the request would look like a quid pro quo for an ambassadorship she had been offered.”
As then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions took office, Trump tried to get him to not recuse himself from the investigation into Russian election interference. But Sessions recused anyway, and held firm even after Trump tried to pressure him to “unrecuse,” both privately, and by berating him publicly.
In June 2017, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to have the Justice Department fire Mueller by saying he had conflicts of interest. “McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre,” the report says.
After Trump struck out with McGahn, he met with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and provided him with a message to take to Sessions. “The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, 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 investigating election meddling for future elections.'”
When Lewandowski did not act, Trump asked him about it a second time a month later. Lewandowski said he’d deliver the message, but decided he didn’t want to do it personally, “so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to delvier it to Sessions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through.”
In early 2018, according to the report, when media revealed that Trump had asked McGahn to have the Justice Department fire Mueller, Trump directed McGahn to lie about it, but he declined to do so.
“The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or acceded to his requests,” Mueller’s report reads.
Trump’s actions, as described by Mueller, were thuggish and improper, even as it remains up for debate whether they were illegal. But the case against him would have been significantly stronger had those surrounding him actually carried out all of his directives.
Had Trump gotten his wishes, Sessions would have not recused himself from the investigation (or would have “unrecused”) himself and would have acted to protect Trump from any investigation. Had Trump’s request to Lewandowski gone as planned, Sessions would have limited the scope of the investigation. Had McGahn listened to Trump, he would have gone ahead with asking the Justice Department to fire Mueller. All of those actions could have successfully impeded the investigation, and the cascade of actions taken in response to the fallout, would have allowed for a significantly stronger case of obstruction.
