The long awaited Mueller Report into Trump’s campaign was released today and to no one’s surprise, it came with a heaping load of controversy. For starters, there are entire pages redacted by Attorney General Bill Barr. With the report being over 400 pages long and you being the busy person you are, here are some takeaways we had from the report.
Take 1: Trump upon hearing Robert Mueller was heading the investigation: “This is the end of my Presidency. I’m f***ed.”
This is probably the quote you’ll see everywhere in the immediate future, and it’s definitely one of most incendiary of the entire report. It’s obvious Trump wasn’t happy about Mueller’s appointment post Comey’s firing. Although just how much Mueller concerned Trump could only be inferred from the President’s numerous tweets criticizing the investigation. Turns out, Trump thought it was the end of the world.
Take 2: Barr down played the reports findings in Trump’s favor.
The Attorney General was awful quick write off the report and exonerate the President of any wrong doings. Sure, no evidence was found regarding colluding with the Russians to help win the 2016 election. However, there is a lot activity in the report that traditionally would not be considered befitting of a president. This includes lying to investigators, intimidating witnesses – both public (twitter) and private, and dangling pardons in exchange for loyalty to Trump. Some of the redactions in the report are due to ongoing investigations.
Take 3: Trump’s comments spurred different groups to obtain Clinton’s emails.
One of the most referred to quotes during Trump’s campaign that critics would use to allude to possible collusion, did in fact invoke a effort to find Hilary Clinton’s deleted email from her private server. Russian Intelligence acted upon the president’s request and according to the report, within 5 hours sent harmful links to emails associated with Clinton’s campaign. However the Russians weren’t the only ones that went digging for emails. Trump repeated asked Michael Flynn to attempt to obtain emails and Trump appointed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, helped finance this effort.
Take 4: The investigation looked into the rumored Dossier tapes.
Relegated to a footnote on the report, attention was given to the rumored Dossier tapes that took the Internet by storm (the tapes that supposedly had Trump with prostitutes, peeing on a hotel bed). The note details how Michael Cohen received a text from Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze saying “Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know…”
Rtskhiladze later told investigators that the tapes were faked, and the report appears to treat them as such.
More information is still coming out and ongoing investigations are still to be determined. What stood out to you in the Mueller report? Let us know in the comment section.
