'I told you there was no collusion': Triumphant Trump claims 'total exoneration' and calls Mueller probe an 'illegal take-down that failed' after report finds President did NOT conspire with Russia to win election
- Donald Trump's campaign did not collude with Russia in the 2016 election, Robert Mueller found in his long-awaited report
- Trump claimed a 'complete exoneration' in the investigation
- 'There was no collusion with Russia, there was no obstruction and none whatsoever and it was a complete and total exoneration,' he said in Florida
- 'America is the greatest place on earth,' Trump said upon his return to D.C.
- The special counsel did not draw a conclusion 'one way or the other' as to whether the president obstructed justice
- Mueller's findings were announced in a letter from Attorney General William Barr
- Mueller left it up to Barr as to whether to charge Trump with obstruction
- Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the joint decision not to
- 'The investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,' Barr wrote
- Democrats are demanding Mueller's full report and its underlying documentation and evidence be made public
A joyous Donald Trump returned to the White House Sunday, hours after his campaign was cleared of allegations of Russia collusion, and told a crush of waiting reporters – twice – that 'America is the greatest place on earth.'
'I just want to tell you America is the greatest place on earth. The greatest place on earth,' the president said. He gave a thumbs' up as he walked off Marine One.
A senior administration official told DailyMail.com that the president is thrilled with the findings from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
'I haven't seen him this happy in months. It's like election night again,' the person said.
'America is the greatest place on earth,' President Trump said Sunday upon his return to the White House
Robert Mueller attended church near the White House on Sunday
The president had already boasted that Mueller's 22-month Russia probe ended with a 'complete exoneration,' slamming the entire operation as 'an illegal takedown that failed' and saying he hopes 'somebody is going to be looking at the other side.'
'There was no collusion with Russia, there was no obstruction and none whatsoever and it was a complete and total exoneration. It's a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest, it's a shame that your president has had to go through this,' Trump said in West Palm Beach, Florida before he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington D.C.
Trump called the concept that his 2016 campaign aides would collude with agents of Russia the 'most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,' and claimed the Mueller probe was illegal, an argument he has long made.
'Before I even got elected it began. And it began illegally. ... This was an illegal takedown that failed, and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side. So a complete exoneration, no collusion, no obstruction,' Trump emphasized.
He also tweeted a victory message: 'No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!'
Trump has yet to take questions from reporters about the final chapter in the made-for-TV scandal that has hung over most of his time in office.
President Trump claimed a 'complete exoneration' in the investigation
Mueller concluded that Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russians in order to improve his chances of beating Democrat Hilary Clinton.
But the findings will not be an end to the investigations surrounding the president. Instead they likely signal a new stage that will involve round after round of congressional subpoenas and hearings as House Democrats probe how Mueller came to his findings.
The special counsel did not draw a conclusion 'one way or the other' as to whether the president obstructed justice, according to the findings, but left that decision to Attorney General William Barr.
Barr explained it was a joint decision between him and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein - who was in charge of Mueller's investigation during the majority of its existence - not to charge the president.
He explained that the two men concluded 'the investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.'
He wrote in his letter to Congress that long-standing Justice Department tradition of not indicting a sitting president had nothing to do with the decision.
'Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president,' he wrote.
Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the joint decision not to charge the president with obstruction of justice
But the Democratic leaders in Congress slammed Barr's decision, saying he was not 'neutral' in the investigation, and called for Mueller's full report and its supporting documentation to be made public.
'Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers. The fact that Special Counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay. Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report,' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement.
'And most obviously, for the president to say he is completely exonerated directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility,' the two leaders added.
Mueller's conclusions were announced by Barr in a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary chairmen and ranking members on Sunday.
'The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election,' the letter states.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declared it a 'total and complete exoneration' of the president
Barr notes that Mueller investigated 'a number of actions by the president' that have been the subject of public reporting but 'did not draw a conclusion - one way or the other - as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.'
But the letter also notes the special counsel did not 'exonerate' the president - a citation that Democrats are already clinging to as they push their demand for all the documents and evidence Mueller used in the making of his report.
'The Special Counsel states that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,"' the letter states.
The president also remains under investigation by the Southern District of New York, which is looking into possible Trump campaign violations based on evidence Mueller's team seized when investigators raided the home and office of Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen last April. Cohen is cooperating with the probe
Barr reassured the lawmakers he plans to release as much of Mueller's report as possible to the public.
'My goal and intent is to release as much of the Special Counsel's report as I can consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies,' although he did not give a timeline of when that might happen.
Mueller and his team of prosecutors and investigators plumbed a series of events from the 2016 campaign, including leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that WikiLeaks posted in the summer of 2016.
Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone was indicted by Mueller for lying about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails that damaged Clinton's campaign.
The Stone indictment alleged that a top Trump campaign official instructed Stone to get information from WikiLeaks about hacked.
There were questions as to whether that Trump campaign official was the president himself. Stone claims that official is Rick Gates, who is cooperating with Mueller's investigation, and whom Stone claims is seeking a reduction in his sentence.
Mueller's report confirmed the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia did work to influence the 2016 election but the investigators also concluded no American knowingly or willingly helped Moscow in its efforts.
The special counsel found two fronts Russia worked on: the first was attempts by the Russian group Internet Research Agency to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord.
The second finding describes how 'Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks.'
It was this finding that led to many of Mueller's criminal charges against Russian agencies and actors.
But, the investigators 'did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.'
Mueller also examined the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 where then-campaign chair Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner met with a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin who claimed to have dirt that could harm Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Trump Jr. slammed the investigation, which entangled him, his siblings and the Trump Organization, in a statement.
'After more than 2 years of non-stop conspiracy theories from CNN, MSNBC, Buzzfeed and the rest of the mainstream media, as well as daily lies and smears coming from Democrats in Washington, the Mueller Report proves what those of us with sane minds have known all along, there was ZERO collusion with Russia,' he said.
'Sadly, instead of apologizing for needlessly destabilizing the country in a transparent attempt to delegitimize the 2016 election, it's clear that the Collusion Truthers in the media and the Democrat Party are only going to double down on their sick and twisted conspiracy theories moving forward,' he said.
He added: 'It's my hope that honest journalists within the media have the courage to hold these now fully debunked truthers accountable and treat them with the scorn and ridicule that they so deserve.'
President Trump gives a thumb up after returning to Mar-a-Lago from playing golf Sunday
Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Mueller leave St. John's Episcopal Church Sunday morning
Trump prepares to board Air Force One after talking to reporters in Florida
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders smiles while waiting for President Donald Trump's arrival on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declared the findings a 'total and complete exoneration' of the president.
'The Special Counsel did not find any collusion and did not find any obstruction. AG Barr and DAG Rosenstein further determined there was no obstruction. The findings of the Department of Justice are a total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States,' she wrote on Twitter.
Aboard Air Force One, she added a second tweet: ''A great day for America and for President @realDonaldTrump. After two years of wild anti-Trump hysteria, the President and his millions of supporters have been completely vindicated.'
And Vice President Mike Pence said it was a great day for 'every American who cherishes the truth and the integrity of our elections.'
'After two years of investigation, and reckless accusations by many Democrats and members of the media, the Special Counsel has confirmed what President Trump said along; there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. The Attorney General also confirmed that there was no obstruction of justice. This total vindication of the President of the United States and our campaign should be welcomed by every American who cherishes the truth and the integrity of our elections,' he said in a statement.
Sunday did not, however, bring an end of investigations surrounding the president.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler announced on Twitter his committee would be calling Barr before them to explain how he reached the conclusion Trump should not be charged.
'Special Counsel Mueller worked for 22 months to determine the extent to which President Trump obstructed justice. Attorney General Barr took 2 days to tell the American people that while the President is not exonerated, there will be no action by DOJ,' Nadler wrote.
'In light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department following the Special Counsel report, where Mueller did not exonerate the President, we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future,' he added.
And Democrats vowed earlier Sunday to continue their examination of the president.
Barr and Rosenstein arrived at the Justice Department Sunday morning to finish their work in summarizing Mueller's report for lawmakers after the special counsel submitted it to them on Friday.
While they worked, Mueller attended church Sunday a mere 500 feet from the White House.
Mueller and his wife were spotted at St. John's Episcopal Church, the yellow stucco house of worship across Lafayette Park from the White House where President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended service last Sunday.
Rep. Jerry Nadler tweeted that the House Judiciary Committee which he chairs will be calling Barr to testify
Nadler tweeted: 'Mueller worked for 22 months to determine the extent to which President Trump obstructed justice. Barr took two days to tell the American people that while the President is not exonerated, there will be no action by DOJ.'
Robert Mueller and Ann Mueller attended St. John's Episcopal Church, the yellow stucco church across Lafayette Park from the White House
Attorney General William Barr leaves his Virginia home to head to the Justice Department
Robert Mueller and Ann Mueller attended the same church President Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended last weekend
Barr's motorcade arrives at the Justice Department on Sunday
Trump returned to Twitter on Sunday for the first time since Mueller handed his report to Barr, but offered a cheerful greeting instead of a pronouncement a 'witch hunt' coming to a conclusion.
Trump's deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that as of Sunday morning, the White House had not yet received or been briefed on the findings from the special counsel's investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 election.
He told reporters later on Air Force One that the president was briefed before he left Mar-a-Lago in his private quarters by staff and attorneys.
The group did not have Mueller's full report but only Barr's letter to Congress.
Gidley said it's unclear if Trump will view the whole report.
White House Acting Chief-of-Staff Mick Mulvaney (L), his foot in a cast, walks with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) as they arrive with Trump upon their return to the White House in Washington from a weekend at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida
Graham and Mulvaney appeared in good spirits on the same day that the principal conclusions from the Mueller Report were announced
The president said, 'This is very good,' when he was briefed, according to Gidley.
Gidley said the president watched television, talked to staff and made calls during the flight back to Washington D.C.
The president seemed in a chipper mood all day Sunday.
'Good Morning, Have A Great Day!' the president wrote from his Mar-a-Lago resort club on Sunday morning, where he was spending a long weekend with first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron.
'MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,' he added.
The president played a round of golf at his Trump International course on Sunday before he returned to the nation's Capitol. Melania Trump and Barron remained in Florida for the remainder of the younger Trump's spring break.
President Trump (right) played golf with Kid Rock (left) at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Saturday
President Trump broke his Twitter silence Sunday
But he made no mention of the Mueller report
President Trump reads the newspaper while on his way to his golf course Sunday morning
Democrats and Republicans alike are prepared their spin before the findings dropped.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will reject any attempts by the Justice Department to hold a classified briefing on the report, which would prevent lawmakers from speaking about it in public.
House Democrats are also threatening to use their subpoena power to speak to Mueller, Justice Department officials and obtain any underling documentation that contributed to the special counsel's final report.
And Republicans point out there are no further indictments coming out of Mueller's probe, which they note is a win for the president. Although Mueller has wrapped up his investigation, the Southern District of New York - which is probing the president's businesses - and other jurisdictions are still investigating cases that came from the special counsel's initial prob.
Democrats on Sunday pointed out that no matter what is revealed in Mueller's findings, their investigation of the Trump and his administration will continue.
Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler (left), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Adam Schiff (right), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said their investigations of Trump will continue
'We know there was collusion,' Nadler said on 'Fox News Sunday.'
'The Justice Department believes that as a matter of law, the president, no matter what the evidence, can never be indicted,' Nadler said. 'If that is the case then they can't hold him accountable and the only institution that can hold the president accountable is Congress and Congress, therefore, needs the evidence in the information.'
He added: 'The special counsel was looking and can only look for crimes. We have to protect the rule of law. We have to look for abuses of power. We have to look for obstructions of justice, we have to look for corruption in the exercise of power, which may not be crimes. They may be, but they may not be crimes. We have a much broader mandate and we have to exercise that mandate to protect the integrity of government and protect the integrity of liberty and the country.'
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, warned Sunday there is 'significant evidence of collusion.'
'There's a difference between compelling evidence of collusion and whether the special counsel concludes that he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the criminal charge of conspiracy,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'
'The investigation is a criminal investigation. Congress's responsibility is very different, and that is, it's our responsibility to tell the American people these are the facts. This is what your president has done, this is what his key campaign and appointees have done, these are the issues that we need to take action on, this is potential compromise,' he added.
Trump, who is spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, relaxed on Saturday, spending about five hours at his golf course
Trump (seen left with his lawyer, Emmet Flood, at Mar-a-Lago on Friday) has reportedly been in a good mood as word came down that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will likely not recommend any further indictments
President Trump is spending the weekend with first lady Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago, they are seen here on Friday greeting Caribbean leaders, hours before the report was handed in
Trump relaxed on Saturday by hitting the links with rocker-rapper Kid Rock while his attorney general was seen arriving at his Virginia home after spending the day at the Justice Department reading the Mueller Report.
The president was photographed smiling next to the Bawitdaba crooner at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Saturday.
Kid Rock, who posted the image on his Twitter account, was appropriately dressed for the occasion.
He wore a red sweater vest over a white collared shirt, which complemented his American-flag style slacks and what looked like a gold belt.
Trump was standing next to him in his red ‘USA’ hat, white collared shirt, and blue slacks.
‘Another great day on the links!,’ the Michigan-born musician wrote.
‘Thank you to POTUS for having me and to EVERYONE at Trump International for being so wonderful.
‘What a great man, so down to earth and so fun to be with! KEEP AMERICA GREAT!!’
Kid Rock is an outspoken supporter of Republicans and was one of the first to back Trump during the GOP primary in 2015. He also considered running for the U.S. Senate seat from Michigan.
Attorney General William Barr (left) is seen arriving at his home in McLean, Virginia on Saturday evening
Mueller's final tally: Trump's inner circle of convicts and turncoats - and 25 wanted Russian trolls
GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence
Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired.
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY AND JAILED: MICHAEL COHEN
Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to further count of lying to Congress in November 2018. Sentenced to three years in prison and $2 million in fines and forfeitures in December 2018
Cohen was investigated by Mueller but the case was handed off to the Southern District of New York,leaving Manhattan's ferocious and fiercely independent federal prosecutors to run his case.
Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump.
He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million.
And he admitted lying to Congress in a rare use of the offense. The judge in his case let him report for prison on March 6 and recommended he serve it in a medium-security facility close to New York City.
GUILTY AND JAILED: PAUL MANAFORT
Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Sentenced to 47 months in March 2019. Pleaded guilty to two further charges - witness tampering and conspiracy against the United States. Jailed for total of seven and a half years in two separate sentences. Additionally indicted for mortgage fraud by Manhattan District Attorney, using evidence previously presented by Mueller
Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts in August 2018. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent due in September did not happen when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and witness tampering in a plea bargain. He was supposed to co-operate with Mueller but failed to.
Minutes after his second sentencing hearing in March 2019, he was indicted on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., using evidence which included documents previously presented at his first federal trial. The president has no pardon power over charges by district and state attorneys.
GUILTY AND GOING TO WEEKEND JAIL: RICK GATES
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Sentenced to 45 days weekend jail and three years probation, December 17, 2018
Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.
GUILTY AND JAILED: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Sentenced to 14 days in September 2018, and reported to prison in November. Served 12 days and released on December 7, 2018
Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank.
GUILTY AND JAILED: RICHARD PINEDO
Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Sentenced to a year in prison
Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities.
GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence and was deported to the Netherlands on his release
Van der Zwaan was a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012.
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik. His law firm say he was fired.
GUILTY: W. SAMUEL PATTEN
Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Sentenced to three years probation April 2019
Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration.
He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman.
Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named.
CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK
Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. At large, probably in Russia
Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.
He has been linked to Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.
INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS
Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. They remain at large in Russia
Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud.
Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S.
INDICTED: MICHAEL FLYNN'S BUSINESS PARTNERS
Bijan Kian (left), number two in now disgraced former national security adviser Mike Flynn's lobbying company, and the two's business partner Ekim Alptekin (right) were indicted for conspiracy to lobby illegally.
Kian, an Iranian-American was arrested and appeared in court charged with a conspiracy to illegally lobby the U.S government without registering as a foreign agent. Their co-conspirator was Flynn, who is called 'Person A' in the indictment and is not charged, offering some insight into what charges he escaped with his plea deal.
Kian, vice-president of Flynn's former lobbying firm, is alleged to have plotted with Alptekin to try to change U.S. policy on an exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania and who is accused by Turkey's strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of trying to depose him.
Erdogan's government wanted him extradited from the U.S. and paid Flynn's firm through Alptekin for lobbying, including an op-ed in The Hill calling for Gulen to be ejected. Flynn and Kian both lied that the op-ed was not paid for by the Turkish government.
The indictment is a sign of how Mueller is taking an interest in more than just Russian involvement in the 2016 election.
GUILTY AND AWAITING SENTENCE: ROGER STONE
Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign official and longtime informal advisor to Trump, was indited on seven counts including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks in January 2019. Convicted on all counts November 15, 2019, awaiting sentence
Stone was a person of interest to Mueller's investigators long before his January indictment, thanks in part due to his public pronouncements as well as internal emails about his contacts with WikiLeks.
In campaign texts and emails, many of which had already been publicly revealed before showing up in Mueller's indictment, Stone communicated with associates about WikiLeaks following reports the organization had obtained a cache of Clinton-related emails.
Stone, a former Nixon campaign adviser who has the disgraced former president's face permanently tattooed on his back, has long been portrayed as a central figure in the election interference scandal.
'They got nothing,' he said of the special counsel's investigation.
Stone gave 'false and misleading' testimony about his requests for information from WikiLeaks. He then pressured a witness, comedian Randy Credico, to take the Fifth Amendment rather than testify, and pressured him in a series of emails. Following a prolonged dispute over testimony, he called him a 'rat' and threatened to 'take that dog away from you', in reference to Credico's pet, Bianca. Stone warned him: 'Let's get it on. Prepare to die.'
CLEARED: GREG CRAIG
Greg Craig, President Barack Obama's White House counsel, was indicted for failing to register as a foreign agent. Mueller's investigators uncovered Craig's work on behalf the government of Ukraine while probing Manafort, who did business with Craig.
Prosecutors released a grand jury indictment of Craig in April 2019, after Craig's law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP agreed to pay more than $4.6 million as part of a settlement. The prominent firm also acknowledged it had failed to register, and placed much of the blame on Craig, a senior partner there.
Craig's lawyer blasted the decision as an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, and prepared to argue that omission of information during an interview is not tantamount to making false statements.
The charges stem from a 2012 report Craig and the firm produced on behalf of the Ukrainian government on opposition figure and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She was an opponent of Manafort's client , former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Craig was cleared on September 9 2019.
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