Heres What Robert Mueller Has Uncovered So Far in His Own Words
When Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in 2017, he was given several subjects to investigate Russian meddling in the election, any coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign and any other crimes arising from the investigation. So far, he has delivered a lot of detail about the first and the last, but has not said much about any Trump coordination. To Trump and his supporters, that has provided a vindication of sorts. Trump has repeatedly argued that guilty pleas and successful prosecutions from Mueller's team actually show that there was "no collusion." The special counsel's office has regularly declined to comment on its findings, but some of the details provided so far provide hints that there may be more to the story. Still, understanding all of the findings in light of the dizzying array of charges and countercharges can be difficult. So we've pulled all of the most relevant legal findings together in one place. Overall, they sketch a suggestive picture. According to the legal documents, Russia began a massive project to sow political discord in the United States, eventually deciding to support Trump and disparage Clinton in the 2016 election. As part of that project, the documents show, Russian nationals made repeated efforts to reach out to members of the Trump campaign which were met with interest, in part because Trump was pursuing a real estate deal in Moscow until the eve of the Republican convention. On more minor notes, the court filings also show that Trump's longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, worked with the National Enquirer to keep two sex scandals out of the news National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had an interesting discussion with the then-Russian ambassador about sanctions related to election meddling and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort kept in touch with the Trump Administration even as he was being investigated. The legal filings have also revealed a lot of other damning information, including unlawful personal dealings by Cohen, Flynn and Manafort and times in which various individuals under investigation lied to FBI agents or Congress. We have left these out of the story in order to make it easier to follow and focus on what appear to be the more central questions. At this point, who knows where Mueller is ultimately headed. We have replaced some legal terms from the filings, such as "defendants," by people's actual names in brackets for clarity's sake. Several of the filings refer to "Individual-1," who is widely understood to be Trump, so we have replaced it with his name there too. Source Charging documents against Internet Research Agency et al, Feb. 16, 2018, Source Charging documents against Internet Research Agency et al, Feb. 16, 2018, Source Charging documents against Internet Research Agency et al, Feb. 16, 2018, Source Charging documents against Internet Research Agency et al, Feb. 16, 2018, Source Charging documents against Internet Research Agency et al, Feb. 16, 2018, Charging documents against George Papadopoulos, Oct. 5, 2017, Charging documents against George Papadopoulos, Oct. 5, 2017, Charging documents against George Papadopoulos, Oct. 5, 2017, Charging documents against George Papadopoulos, Oct. 5, 2017, Charging documents against George Papadopoulos, Oct. 5, 2017, Source Southern District of New York sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Mueller sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Mueller sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Mueller sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Southern District of New York sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Southern District of New York sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Southern District of New York sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Southern District of New York sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018. Source Southern District of New York cooperation agreement, Sept. 20, 2018, Source Southern District of New York sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, Dec. 7, 2018, Source Southern District of New York cooperation agreement, Sept. 20, 2018, Source Mueller charging document for Michael Flynn, Dec. 1, 2017, Source Mueller charging document for Michael Flynn, Dec. 1, 2017, Source Mueller request to find Manafort in breach of plea agreement, Dec. 7, 2018