The Mueller Report: Presented with Related Materials by The Washington Post

by The Washington Post

Barr told Congress that he and Rosenstein did not believe there was sufficient evidence to accuse Trump of

by early 2016 favored candidate Trump and disparaged

and made contact with Trump supporters and Trump Campaign officials in the United

investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons conspired or coordinated with the IRA.

IRA operation began to focus on supporting candidate Trump in early 2016, the Russian government employed a second form of interference: cyber intrusions (hacking) and releases of hacked materials damaging to the Clinton Campaign.

of Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign” or “Campaign”) showed interest in WikiLeaks’s releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage candidate Clinton. Beginning

Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure

and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump

conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference...

The Trump Organization pursued the project through at least June 2016, including by considering travel to Russia by Cohen and candidate Trump.

Papadopoulos worked with Mifsud and two Russian nationals to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and the Russian

for example, a Russian lawyer met with senior Trump Campaign officials Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and campaign chairman Paul Manafort to

communications setting up the meeting showed that the Campaign anticipated receiving information from Russia that could assist candidate Trump’s electoral prospects, but

there was public reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies had “high confidence” that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents

31, 2016, based on the foreign government reporting, the FBI opened an investigation into potential coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign.

August 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met in New York City with his long-time business associate Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI assesses to have ties to

had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting.

public statement “that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.” Those “thefts” and

Immediately after the November 8 election, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began trying to make inroads into the new administration. The

delay (by V. Putin).” The next day, on December 31, 2016, Kislyak called Flynn and told him the request had been received at the highest levels and Russia had chosen not to retaliate as a result of Flynn’s

Intelligence Agency, FBI, and National Security Agency—that concluded with high confidence that Russia had intervened in the election through a variety of means to assist Trump’s candidacy and harm

Trump reacted negatively to the Special Counsel’s

efforts to curtail the Special Counsel’s investigation and prevent the disclosure of evidence to it, including through public and private contacts with potential witnesses. Those and related actions are described

Justice Manual is whether the conduct constitutes a crime; if so, whether admissible evidence would probably be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction; and whether prosecution would serve

Second, while the investigation identified numerous links

individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.

charge any Campaign official as an unregistered agent of the Russian government or other Russian principal. And our evidence about the June 9, 2016 meeting and ...

sufficient to charge a criminal campaign-fin...

evidence was not sufficient to charge that any member of the Trump Campaign conspired with representative...

investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied to the Office...

with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference. The Offic...

Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his interactions with Russian Ambassador Kislyak during the tran...

some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated—including some associated with the Trump Campaign—deleted relevant communications or communicated during

the Special Counsel “to investigate Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election and related matters.” Office of the

Special Counsel,” the Order stated, “is authorized to conduct the investigation

any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President

any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and (iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).

Special Counsel had been authorized since his appointment to investigate allegations that three Trump campaign officials—Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and George Papadopoulos—“committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s

IRA conducted social media operations targeted at large

U.S. audiences with the goal of sowing discord in the U.S. political system.3 These operations constituted “active measures” (активные мероприятия), a

By early to mid-2016, IRA operations included supporting the Trump Campaign and disparaging candidate Hillary Clinton. The IRA made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Some IRA employees, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing

their Russian association, communicated electronically with individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities, including the staging of political rallies.5 The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation.

First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign promoted—typically by

pro-Trump or anti-Clinton content published by the IRA through IRA-controlled social media accounts. Additionally, in a few instances, IRA

IRA employees monitored the reaction of the Trump Campaign and, later, Trump Administration officials to their

Starting in June 2016, the IRA contacted different U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump Campaign in an effort to coordinate pro-Trump IRA-organized rallies inside the United States. In all cases, the IRA contacted the Campaign while claiming to be U.S. political activists working

The IRA’s contacts included requests for signs and other materials to use at rallies,107 as well as requests to promote the rallies and help coordinate logistics.108 While

investigation has not identified evidence that any Trump Campaign official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.

sum, the investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through the “active measures” social media campaign carried out by the IRA, an organization funded by Prigozhin and companies that he controlled. As explained further in Volume I, Section V.A, infra, the Office concluded (and a grand jury has alleged) that Prigozhin, his companies, and IRA employees violated U.S. law through these operations, principally by undermining through deceptive acts the work of federal agencies

Office is aware of reports that other Russian entities engaged in similar active measures operations targeting the United States. Some evidence collected by the Office corroborates those reports, and the Office has