This again huh?
Whether you were disappointed with the late Mueller's investigation or not, let's lay down some facts that address MAGA's whole bad faith obsession with calling it the "Russia hoax."
First, The Russia investigation was not a "hoax." There's no evidence that Obama, James Comey, or any public figure committed "treason" or orchestrated some plot against Trump, these allegations contradict years of Intel/findings and are purely politically motivated.
And remember that the FBI publicly announced its investigation into Clinton right before the election while keeping the Russia investigation under wraps. If the Democrats and FBI conspired together against Trump, wouldn't it have been the other way around? Chew on that for a bit MAGA.
With that said:
- The Mueller investigation did not exonerate Trump
- The phrase "no collusion" is a misleading, right wing slogan popularized by Trump. Mueller was not investigating "collusion." The phrase hardly appears in the report, and never within the context of absolving Trump/his campaign of wrongdoing.
- Both the Mueller probe and a GOP led senate panel found that Russia engaged in "information warfare" and attempted to interfere in the 2016 election to the benefit of Trump and with the intention of damaging Clinton's campaign.
- The Russians directly targeted our election systems.
- Russian intelligence hacked organizations, employees and volunteers working with the Clinton campaign.
- Russia manipulated American voters and coaxed hackers into attacking Democrat computer networks.
- According to Mueller, the Russian campaign began in mid-2014, when employees of the "Internet Research Agency" first came to the U.S. to gather material for their elaborate interference effort.
- By the end of 2016, the Russians had set up fake social media accounts that reached millions of voters and aimed to promote Trump and divide Americans.
- The Mueller report lays out how the Russian interference campaign ensnared American political operatives, including the Trump campaign .
- For more than 100 pages, Mueller outlines scores of Russian contacts with the Trump campaign/presidency.
- The report says that Russian agents posed as American citizens and tried to contact the Trump campaign for its cooperation.
- Mueller revealed that there were numerous links between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and that several people connected to the campaign lied to Mueller's team and tried to obstruct the investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with the Russians.
- WikiLeaks contacted the Russians on Twitter: "If you have anything Hillary-related, we want it in the next two days preferable." Then three days before the DNC, WikiLeaks released more than 20,000 emails and stolen documents to undermine Clinton's candidacy.
- In 2013, Trump took his Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow. Mueller reveals that this is when the Trumps got to know Aras Agalarov, a Russian billionaire and ally of Vladimir Putin. He owned the event hall where the pageant was held.
- Within a few months, Don Jr. signed a preliminary agreement with Agalarov's company to build a Trump Tower property in Moscow.
- Trump announces his run for presidency in 2015
- These ties between the Trump family and a Russian oligarch helped facilitate a new effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow three months later, this time led by Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, and developer Felix Sater.
- Sater told Cohen that he was working with high-ranking Russian officials. He emailed Cohen: "Buddy, our boy can become president of the USA, and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this."
- The Moscow project is one source of Russian contacts. Mueller exposes about a dozen.
- Campaign aide Carter Page met with Russians and gave a speech in Russia.
- Michael Flynn gave speeches in Russia and had contacts with the Russian ambassador, including a discussion of softening sanctions.
- National security adviser, Jeff Sessions, also met with the Russian ambassador.
- Campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared internal polling data with Russian intelligence.
- Trump aide George Papadopoulos repeatedly met with a Russian intelligence agent who told him that the Russians have dirt on Clinton.
- Another contact point was the infamous NY Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016. That morning, Trump Jr. told colleagues he has a lead on damaging info about Clinton. Russians had pitched the meeting to Trump Jr., claiming they had dirt on Clinton. Trump Jr. responded, "If it's what you say, I love it."
- On Page 77 of Mueller's second volume, he writes, "The acting attorney general appointed a special counsel on May 17, 2017, prompting the president to state [in private] that it was the end of his presidency." Not the words of an innocent person.
- During Trump's presidency, WAPO revealed that he was under investigation for obstruction of justice. Three days later, Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn to call acting AG Rod Rosenstein to say Mueller has conflicts and can't serve anymore. The president says that Mueller must go. McGahn doesn't comply.
- Mueller details in the report that Trump obstructed justice at least ten times, but he could not pursue due to the DOJ and Bill Barr's policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
- Mueller accuses Trump of trying to obstruct his investigation.
- On page 89, Mueller writes: "Substantial evidence indicates the attempts to remove the special counsel were linked to investigations of the president's conduct."
- On Page 97, "Substantial evidence indicates that the president's effort to limit the special counsel's investigation was intended to prevent further scrutiny of the president's and his campaign's conduct."
- The investigation led to the indictments of 34 individuals
- One conclusion states that Trump's campaign staff presented themselves as "attractive counterintelligence vulnerabilities"
- Both Rick Gates and Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI
- Roger Stone was charged with obstructing and lying to Congress about his Russian contacts and his connection to the release of documents stolen by the Russians.
- The "Steele Dossier" had nothing to do with Mueller's findings. In fact, the first probe began prior to the Dossier being released and the investigation developed in response to two main things: Russia hacking the DNC and intel emerging about a Russian plot to reach out to the Trump campaign to provide dirt on Clinton.
- Trump urged hackers to target Democrats: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."
- Within five hours of Trump saying those words on national TV, Russia's largest foreign intelligence service targeted Clinton's office for the first time
Trump has been downplaying the severity and threat of Russian cyber attacks and election meddling for years, siding with Putin over our own intelligence agencies on the matter.
Trump capitalized off of Russia's meddling in the election. The Mueller report said Trump's campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts"
A report earlier last year indicated that Pete Hegseth might order US Cyber Command to halt offensive cyber and information operations against Russia.
Trump fired the head of the NSA and US Cyber Command, Timothy Haugh. Haugh was a non-partisan appointee who played an outsized role in overseeing US cyber defense, particularly against Russian threats.
Trump actually once suggested that the US partner with Russia on a cyber security task force. It received swift, bipartisan backlash from lawmakers who had to remind Trump that Russia continues to be one of the US's most dangerous cyber security threats.
To this list we can also add the Republican party's failure to address foreign election interference because they have benefitted politically from this election meddling for the last several elections.
