Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view

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Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view

2019-02-23 21:47 Last Updated At：22:10

Special counsel Robert Mueller has not made a single public comment since his appointment in May 2017. But he has spoken loudly, if indirectly, in court — indictment by indictment, guilty plea by guilty plea.

In doing so, he tracked an elaborate Russian operation that injected chaos into a U.S. presidential election and tried to help Donald Trump win the White House. He followed a Republican campaign that embraced the Kremlin's help and championed stolen material to hurt a political foe. And ultimately, he revealed layers of lies, deception, self-enrichment and hubris that followed.

The full, final report on the investigation, believed to be in its final stages, may never be made public. That's up to Attorney General William Barr.

But woven through thousands of court papers, the special counsel has made his public report. These are the key findings:

RUSSIA TRIED TO HELP TRUMP

The Kremlin directed a large-scale effort to help Trump during the 2016 election.

According to U.S. intelligence agencies and lengthy indictments brought by Mueller's team, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a multipart influence campaign aimed at hurting Democrat Hillary Clinton's candidacy, undermining American democracy and helping Trump get elected.

That effort included the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, Clinton's campaign and other Democratic groups. Russian intelligence officers then coordinated the release of stolen emails and internal documents using the false online personas Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks, and later the anti-secrecy group, WikiLeaks.

While the hacking was being carried out, Mueller has also accused a Russian troll farm, known as the Internet Research Agency, of using fake social media accounts to flood the American public with disinformation. That social media effort began in 2014 with a goal of sowing discord by trumpeting extreme positions on divisive political issues. But as the presidential campaign progressed, Mueller team says the effort began supporting Trump and disparaging Clinton.

WikiLeaks has denied that Russian was the direct source of the material it released. One defendant in the troll farm case has denied the allegations.

PEOPLE AROUND TRUMP WERE RECEPTIVE TO THE HELP

Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone, and Trump himself all sought to benefit politically from Russian election interference.

In the middle of the campaign, Trump Jr. took a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer thinking he would be getting "dirt" on Clinton. Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting, which included Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, despite it being described as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign.

Stone sought to help the Trump campaign benefit from damaging material released by WikiLeaks. After the DNC pointed the finger at Russia in its hacking, Stone pitched himself as a WikiLeaks insider in discussions with the Trump campaign. According to Mueller , Trump's campaign kept in contact with Stone about the timing and content of any releases of Clinton documents that could be damaging to her campaign.

Trump himself also publicly welcomed Russia's help. During a political rally, Trump called on Russia's hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clinton's private server, saying: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

Court documents show that on that same day, Russian intelligence officers tried to hack into email accounts hosted at a domain used by Clinton's personal office, as well as email addresses used by her campaign.

TRUMP WAS TRYING TO DO BUSINESS IN RUSSIA DURING THE CAMPAIGN

In fact, he wanted to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Court documents in the case of Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, show the Trump Organization pursued the project even after Trump had secured the Republican presidential nomination. As part of that effort, Cohen spoke with an assistant to the Kremlin's spokesman about finding the land and financing for the building's construction. He also pitched Trump on visiting Russia during the campaign as part of the business proposal.

The potential deal ultimately fell through but Cohen discussed the project with Trump and his family even as the GOP candidate was publicly claiming that he had nothing to do with Russia.

HIS CLOSE ADVISERS SOUGHT RUSSIAN BACK CHANNELS DURING THE TRANSITION

The moves violated a long-standing norm in American democracy of "one president at a time."

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn , in particular, was the main conduit, according to court documents .

In the waning weeks of the Obama administration, Flynn had several conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., involving two issues important to Mueller. On Dec. 22, 2016, at Kushner's direction, Flynn asked Kislyak to delay or vote against a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, a request Russia rebuffed.

A couple days later, President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its election interference efforts. But in discussions with Kislyak, Flynn asked that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond "in a reciprocal manner."

Putin ultimately decided not to respond in kind, which Kislyak said was the result of Flynn's request.

LOTS OF PEOPLE AROUND TRUMP LIED TO INVESTIGATORS

His national security adviser, campaign chairman, personal lawyer and three other aides or advisers: All of them have been accused of lying to federal agents or Congress.

Many of the lies cut to the heart of the investigation.

Flynn lied about his contacts with Kislyak. Cohen lied about the Trump Tower Moscow deal. Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos lied about his contacts with Russian intermediaries who appeared to know ahead of time about Russia's stealing of Clinton's emails.

Mueller has also accused Stone of lying to Congress about his discussions regarding WikiLeaks, though Stone has denied any wrongdoing.

STILL, NO DIRECT EVIDENCE OF CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY WITH RUSSIA

Mueller's brought charges against more than 30 defendants but he hasn't charged any Americans, let alone Trump associates, with actively conspiring with the Russia government during the 2016 campaign. That includes Stone, who has dismissed the charges against him as "process crimes."

Trump has used the lack of conspiracy charges to claim vindication using his favorite phrase, "NO COLLUSION!"

Read AP's coverage of the Russia probe: https://apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations

Storm-battered South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life

2024-05-10 02:46 Last Updated At：02:51

COLUMBIA, Tenn. (AP) — Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.

A heavy line of storms swept into Atlanta near the end of the morning rush hour. Busy hub airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, reported delays. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center cited an “enhanced risk” for severe weather from Texas to South Carolina.

The storms continue a streak of torrential rains and tornadoes this week from the Plains to the Midwest and, now, the Southeast. Since Monday, 39 states have been under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. On Wednesday, 98 million people were under some sort of severe weather risk, said Evan Bentley, a Storm Prediction Center forecaster.

The weather comes on the heels of a stormy April in which the U.S. had 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second-most on record for the month and the most since 2011.

More than 170,000 homes and businesses still lacked power Thursday afternoon in several Southern states after storms the night before, according to PowerOutage.us.

One in Tennessee damaged homes, injured people, toppled power lines and trees, and killed a 22-year-old man in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, officials said. A second person was killed south of Nashville in Columbia, the seat of Maury County, where officials said a tornado damaged or destroyed more than 140 homes.

Bob Booth had just gotten home to Columbia from Georgia and was sitting down to watch television when he heard a “crazy racket.”

“I get up and look out, and it was all hell breaking loose outside,” Booth said. “Then the top half of one of my trees goes down across the road.”

Retired pastor Walter Shell said he and his wife grabbed their two dogs and headed for the basement when his phone alerted him to a tornado.

“It missed where me and my wife were standing by about 4 inches. It went around,” he said. “It pays to pray, I can tell you.”

Torrential rains led to a flash flood emergency and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service issued a tornado emergency, its highest alert level, for nearby areas.

A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and swept under streets while playing with other children as adults cleared debris, his father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, posted on social media.

The boy, Asher, emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after being given CPR, “but the damage is substantial,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers. A vigil was planned for Thursday afternoon at the school district office.

“Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.

Schools were closed Thursday in Rutherford and several other Tennessee counties. In Georgia, some districts north of Atlanta canceled in-person classes or delayed start times because of storm damage overnight that included fallen trees on houses and vehicles around Clarkesville. No injuries were reported there.

“We’re just trying to clean up right now and wait for the next round,” said Lynn Smith, director of the Habersham County Emergency Management Agency.

A strong tornado damaged at least 20 homes in northern Alabama’s DeKalb County and caused injuries but no deaths, officials said.

In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared Wednesday night for Gaston County, west of Charlotte, after a storm that toppled power lines and trees, including one that landed on a car. One person in the car was killed, and another was taken to a hospital, officials said.

The storms followed heavy rain, strong winds, hail and tornadoes in parts of the central U.S. on Monday, including a twister that ripped through an Oklahoma town and killed one person. On Tuesday, the Midwest took the brunt of the bad weather. Tornadoes touched down in parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, according to the weather service.

Michigan's Kalamazoo area was hard hit as a FedEx facility was ripped apart, with downed power lines trapping about 50 people.

Tornadoes were also confirmed near Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister was at least the 11th tornado this year in the state, which sees two tornadoes in an average year.

Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.

Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Travis Loller, Jeff Amy, Joey Cappelletti, Ed White, Sarah Brumfield, Adrian Sainz and John Raby.

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