Jack - Mueller Report Pt. 13

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Today on our special coverage of the Mueller Report, Pt 13, we're covering section two C, the President’s reaction to public confirmation of the FBI’s Russia investigation. Pages 48-61. Follow along as we do a deep dive!

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A place where growing businesses can connect to qualified candidates. That place is zippercruiter.com slash AG. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two, and that campaign, and I didn't have,

and I have communications at the Russians. What do I have to get involved with, food and for I have nothing to do with, but I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails

that are missing. So it is political. You're a communist. No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession I'm a capitalist. Hello and welcome to Mueller. She wrote and our ongoing special coverage of the Redacted Mueller report. I'm your host A.G. and with me today is Jalisa Johnson. Hello. Hello. Welcome back.

Thank you. Thank you. Jordan is Jalisa Johnson. Hello. Hello, welcome back. Thank you, thank you. Jordan is feeling under the weather today. So she is at home, but she should be back soon. We wish her the best. We wish her well. Remember self-care, big thing. Big deals.

Rest up, dude. Yes. Rest easy. There is rest for the wicked. Oh, yeah. So today we're covering section 2C. And that's the president's reaction to public confirmation of the FBI's Russia investigation.

So this is pages 48 to 61. I'm gonna skip the overview because it summarizes the evidence that we're gonna go into in detail. So no need to tell you about it twice. So let's start at the bottom of page 48. And the evidence section is broken into four parts. And those are sessions recusing

from the Russian investigation, Komi confirming the existence of the Russia investigation, Trump asking the intelligence community to make public statements that he had no connection to Russia, and Trump asking Komi to lift the cloud, which is just a stoner phrase. I've lifted the cloud, bro. You're hot bucks in me with your Russia cloud.

Any loyalty. So first part one about Sessions Recusal. In late February 2017, the Department of Justice began an analysis of whether sessions should recuse from the Russian investigation. And on March 1, the press reported that in his January confirmation hearing to become Attorney General, Sessions had not disclosed the two meetings he had with Russian at Masseter Kislyak before the presidential election, leading to congressional

calls for sessions to recuse, or for a special counsel to be appointed. They just, he couldn't do it impartially. And then also on March 1st, President called Komi and said he wanted to check in, see how Komi was doing. And according to an email, Komi sent to his chief of staff after the call. The president, quote, talked about sessions a bit and said he heard Comey was doing great and said that he hoped Comey would come by to say hello when he was at the White House. So sketch so appropriate. Comey interpreted this call as an effort by the president to pull him in, right? Like that whole loyalty thing. And the next morning, the president called McGahn, Don McGahn, and urged him to contact sessions

to tell him not to recuse himself from the Russian investigation. So we've all heard the reports about him telling McGahn to tell sessions to unrecus himself, but the president was doing this beforehand, too. He was reaching out to McGahn, telling him to call sessions, so he wouldn't recuse himself from the Russian investigation. So he knew that they were talking about it. And McGann understood the president to be concerned that a recusal would make sessions look guilty for omitting the details in his confirmation hearing about those conversations he had with Kislyak.

And it would leave Trump unprotected from an investigation that could hobble the presidency – hobble. – derail his policy objectives, like misery. And detract from favorable press coverage in you know of his address to Congress that Trump had delivered earlier in the week. I guess he did a good He did good. He read from the teleprompter and so people were like he doesn't suck today. Yeah, you want a cookie? Yeah, it's so people people he was like mad that this could be bad press for his reasonable speech. Come on guys. I I read. I read the thing.

So anyway, and we know McGann has been subpoenaed now by the House Judiciary and their ongoing impeachment investigation about obstruction of justice. And even today too, they subpoenaed a Lewandowski and Rick Dearborn. Nice. And that's for the obstruction part where, and we haven't gotten to it yet in the report,

but that's for the obstruction part where Trump asked haven't gotten to it yet in the report But that's for the obstruction part where trump asked Lewandowski who was a private citizen to tell sessions To limit the scope of the molar investigation to future elections. Mm-hmm and Lewandowski didn't want to do it So he asked Rick Dearborn if he would do it and neither one more did it. And so, but I wonder if Mashburn's gonna come up to you right from the RNC platform too? Yeah, totally. Yeah, cause Mashburn and Dearborn go together. They're like bros, I guess, yeah. So, anyway, they're just outside of this report here,

the house judiciary is expanding its impeachment investigation. Right. And we'll keep you up to date on that in the regular Sunday night episodes. So McGann reached out to Sessions and reported that the president was not happy about the possibility of recusal. And Sessions replied back that he intended to follow the rules. And McGann reported back to, I know, right?

What? And so McGann reported back to the president about the call with Sessions and the president reiterated that he didn't want Sessions to recuse. And throughout the day, McGann continued trying on behalf of the president about the call with sessions and the president reiterated that he didn't want sessions to recuse and throughout the day McGon continued trying on behalf of the president to a virt sessions recusal and and this is weird to me because you know how everyone talks about well he didn't successfully obstruct justice no one carried out his obstructive acts McGon said no to everything it doesn't seem like he did because here is call in sessions

trying on behalf of the president to a virt sessions recusal point is because he failed is a meeting Sessions trying on behalf of the president to avert Sessions recusal. Good point, just because he failed, doesn't mean he didn't try. Yeah, I think he's trying here. And he's because he spoke to Sessions personal counsel, Sessions chief of staff, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and by contacting Sessions himself two more times. So he made considerable numerous attempts. Yeah, that's needy.

To try to stop the initial recusal. Right? Yeah, he may have not gone with the unrecusal stuff, but we'll get to that in a minute. You'll see. So, Sessions recalled that other White House advisors called him that day to argue against his recusal, too. And that afternoon, Sessions announced his decision to recuse from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the

United States. Give me out of here. Yeah. I don't want it. Sessions believed the decision to recuse was not even a close call at all, given the applicable language in the Code of Federal Regulations or the CFR, which Sessions considered to be clear and decisive. I wish Bar would feel that way. Right.

Race is possible. It has like a cold of ethics, I guess, right? There's an moral compass there. There are some lines that even he, the racist possum, won't cross. Leave it up to Bill Barr to do it. Oh yeah. Sessions thought that any argument that the CFR did not apply to him was very thin.

And Sessions got the impression based on the calls he received from the White House that the president was really upset with him. And shortly after Sessions announced his recusal, the White House Council's office directed that Sessions should not be contacted about to matter. Stamp calling me. So internal White House Council office notes from March 2, 2017 state, quote, no contact

with Sessions and no communications, serious concerns about obstruction. Unquote. All right. There's the intent, right? I bet this comes up in the analysis at the end of this chapter on intent. And on March 3, the day after Sessions' recusal, McGann was called into the Oval Office. Previous in Bannon were there,

and the president opened up the conversation by saying, I don't have a lawyer. Famous last words. Trump was angry with McGann about the recusal and brought up Roy Cohn stating that he wished Cohn was his attorney. McGann interpreted this comment as directed at him, and not sessions, suggesting that cone would fight

for the president, whereas McGann would not. The president wanted McGann to talk to sessions about the recusal, but McGann told the president that the Department of Justice Ethics officials had weighed in on session's decision to recuse. It's done, dude. And the president thought he brought up a former attorney general's Robert Kennedy and Eric Holder,

excuse me, attorney general and said they had protected their president. And the president also pushed back on the DOJ, the contacts policy, saying words to the effective, you're telling me the Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations or a bomb it didn't tell Holder who to investigate. And Bannon recalled the president was as mad as Bannon had ever seen him and that he screamed at McGann about how weak sessions was Wow Screamed wonder if he turned more orange when he's yeah, it's possible. Yeah, like a threat condition level. Oh, yeah

Yeah, it's kind of a whole thing what color is his skin? I'm always racist Always a threat Conrad Bannon recalled telling the president that Sessions recuse it was not a surprise. We all saw this coming, bro. And before the inauguration, they had discussed that Sessions would have to recuse from campaign-related investigations because it was work on the Trump campaign. And that weekend, Sessions and McGahn flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the president. That must have to have sucked.

God damn it. So Sessions recalled the president pulling him aside to speak to him alone and suggested sessions should unrecuse. Sessions said he had the impression that the president feared the investigation could spin out of control and disrupt his ability to govern, which sessions could have helped avert if he were still overseeing it. Interesting. Yeah. Uh-huh. And then on March 5th, 2017 White House Council's office was informed that the FBI was asking for transition period records relating to Flynn, indicating the FBI was still actively investigating Flynn.

So this is March 5th. This is when the president finds out that he hasn't dropped the Flynn thing. Oh my God. And he doesn't have chomy loyalty, he hasn't lifted the cloud. Yeah, yeah. He hasn't seen clear to let this thing with Flynn go.

And then on March 6th, the next day, the president told advisors he wanted to call the acting attorney general to find out whether the White House or the president was being investigated, although it's not clear whether the president knew at the time of the FBI's recent request concerning Flynn. So I was assuming he knew about the March 5th White House Council's office being informed about it, but he can't, he doesn't know. Mueller doesn't know of Trump knew because, you know, Trump was never sure. But yeah, things, he probably had no idea his whole life was about to get way worse. And then on to subsection two on page 52.

And this is about Komi confirming the existence of the Russian investigation during his Hipsi testimony, Hipsi being the HPSCI or the House Permanence Select Committee on Intelligence. And on March 9, 2017, Komi briefed the gang of eight congressional leaders about the FBI investigation of Russian interference, including an identification of the principle US subjects in the investigation. And although it's unclear whether the president knew of that briefing at the time, notes taken by Annie Donaldson, then McGahn's chief of staff on March 12th state, POTUS in panic chaos, need binders put in front of POTUS. All things related to Russia. Yes, yes, binders for women.

Binders for women. Of course. Yeah, we can borrow some from Mitt Romney. The week after Komi's briefing, the White House Council office was in contact with the SISI. That's the SSCI or Senate select committee on intelligence. That chairman, Senator Richard Burr. They were in the White House Council contacted him

about the Russian investigations and appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation. And this is what we're talking about, Burr, briefing the White House Council, they're by Trump, you know, by proxy. On what the briefing of the gangmate was, that's messed up. Oh yeah, it's cold, Burr.

Burr, it's cold in here. There must be some traders in the atmosphere. That's really it. Oh, we, oh, we, oh, ice, ice, ice. Wow, it's all relevant. Thank you. Even got ice in there. On March 20th, just after St. Patrick's Day, hi.

Comey was scheduled to testify before the hip-sea. And in advance of Comey's testimony, congressional officials made it clear they wanted Komi to provide information about the ongoing FBI investigation. Dana Bente, who at the time was the acting attorney general for the Russia investigation, authorized Komi to confirm the existence of the Russia investigation, but agreed Komi should not comment on who,

like particular individuals. And in his opening remarks at the Hipsi hearing, which were drafted in consultation with the Department of Justice. He didn't just go out on his own. Komi said that he had been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm the FBI as part of its counterintelligence mission is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

And whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. And as with any counterintelligence investigation, he said, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. Yeah, thankfully. Yeah. So, of course, this is before Mueller was appointed. Appointing, yeah.

So when the FBI investigates, they come with their full force of all of their shit, all their authority. So they do counter-entellant criminal justice. And they still have their side of it going on, right? The counter-entell part, yeah. The criminal part was handed off to Mueller at least specifically about the Russia hacking and social media interference.

But everything else, FBI. So Komi added that he would not comment further on what the FBI was doing and whose conduct it was examining because the investigation was ongoing, a classified. But he observed that he had taken the extraordinary step in consultation with the Department of Justice of Briefing this Congress as leaders in a classified setting in detail about the investigation. So, Komi was specifically asking whether President Trump was, excuse me, Komi was asked whether Trump was specifically under investigation

during the campaign or under investigation now. And Komi declined to answer, saying, please don't overinterpret what I've said as the chair and ranking no. We have briefed him in great detail on the subjects of the investigation and what we're doing, but I'm not going to answer about anybody in this form. So he's basically like, I told you in private, you know, I'm not going to tell you in public. Right. You're not going to get me. Yeah. Got your moment. So Komi was also asked whether the FBI was investigating the information contained in the steel dossier and he declined to answer that. According to McGann and Donaldson, that's

McGann's chief of staff, Annie. Annie. The Donaldson. The president had expressed frustration with Komi before his March 20th testimony and the testimony made it worse. Made matters worse. The president had previously criticized Comey for two frequently making headlines and not attending intelligence briefings at the White House and the president suspected Comey of leaking certain information to the media. McGahn said the president thought Comey was acting like his own branch of government. Oh, projecting much, right? That's hella projection. It is hella projection.

And I'm not so sure I disagree. But it is true that Komi did get the approval of the Department of Justice to make those statements to Congress to the hip see. And also, you know, I mean, Komi, while he sometimes acts like his own branch of government, he wasn't doing this at like out on his own. Right. It was only personal benefit as opposed to the Trump administration. Right.

Or like the reopening of the Hillary investigation or the opening, the initial opening of the Hillary email investigation where he did not coordinate with Lynch because he didn't want to seem, it didn't want to seem political for sure. So he has in the past acted as his own branch of government, but in this case, not so much. Okay. Press reports following Komi's March 20th testimony suggested the FBI was investigating the president, contrary to what Komi told the president at the end of January 6th, in that intelligent, intelligent assessment briefing. So McGann, Donaldson and senior advisor, Steven Miller, douche, recalled douche, recalled that the president

was upset with Comi's testimony and the press coverage that followed because of the suggestions that the president was under investigation. Yes, which he didn't say. Exactly. And Stephen Miller also looks like a douche. So you can clean your vagina with him, it looks like. I would make my vagina dirtier.

That's fair. Notes from the White House Council's office, dated March 21, 2017, indicate Trump was beside himself over Comi's fair. Uh, notes from the White House Council's office dated March 21, 2017, indicate Trump was beside himself over Comey's testimony. The president called McGann repeatedly that day, repeatedly, to ask him to intervene with the Department of Justice. And according to the notes, the president was getting hotter and hotter. Get rid.

Hmm. So weird, which I think means get rid of Comey. Right, right. But who says that? Get rid. Get rid. Get rid. I don't know But who says that? Get rid. Get rid. Got milk. Get rid. I don't know. It's just a weird braille. Get rid.

Officials in the White House Council's office became so concerned that the president would fire Comey that they, in fact, began drafting a memo that examined whether the president needed cause to terminate him. And the president's urging, or at the president's urging, McGann contacted Bwente several times on March 21, 2017 to seek Bente's assistance in having Komi or the Department of Justice correct the misperception that the president was under investigation. So Komi said, I'm not telling you who's under investigation, the press assumed that the

president was under investigation, that pissed the president off. And so now the president is saying you have to tell people I'm not under investigation. Bente did not recall the conversation specifically, although he did remember one conversation with Don McGann around the same time where McGann asked if there was a way to speed up or end the investigation as quickly as possible. Wednesday said McGann told him the president was under a cloud and you know made a hard for him to govern from clouds. I know we talk about the people around the president refusing to obstruct, like I had mentioned before, but this seems like obstruction here. Yeah, just a little.

Yeah, a Bente recalled telling McGahn there was no good way to shorten the investigation and attempting to do so could erode confidence in the conclusions. Yeah, what was it that who's the guy that said you can't. Chris Christie, yeah, Chris, you can't shorten it, you can only make it longer. We make it longer, totally. And Wednesday said, Megan agreed with him and dropped the issue. So the president also sought to speak with Buente directly. But Megan said, don't do that, bro.

You don't want to talk to the president. Well, Buente didn't want to talk to the president about the request to intervene with Comey. He's like, this is a bad idea. And Megan recalled, Wednesday telling him in calls that he did not think it was sustainable for Comey to stay on his FBI director for the next four years, which McGahn said he conveyed to the president.

Wente did not recall discussing with McGahn or anyone else the idea that Comey should not continue as FBI director. Okay. So that's weird because if Bente said, I don't think Comey can, I don't think you could, it's not tenable for him to be the FBI director. That could have been cause for Trump to fire Komi. Oh, yeah. But it wasn't in any of his letters, though. Like, he didn't put it on them.

Just in the report. And when Rod Rosenstein drafted the reason for firing Komi, it didn't have anything about Bente said it wasn't a good idea. So, Mueller must have put in here for a reason. Yeah, it might eat away or erode a little bit at some of the evidence, it's some of the analysis that he does, but when they did not recall discussing that with McGann.

Okay. But McGann said he recalled that. So. Interesting, yeah. McGann's a very strange character. Yeah. He is. I want to go see his tribute band.

I want to see what it's about. What's it called? I don't know, I don't know, I want to go see his tribute band. I want to see what it's about. What's it called? I don't know, I don't know, but it seems to just like... Gans Band, keep it simple. Oh my Gans Band, yes. Yes, totally. Gans Sunshine Band. All right guys, we'll be right back.

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All right, welcome back. It's me Angelisa. And we are doing the special coverage of the Mueller Report. And we are now onto subsection 3 on page 55 if you want to flip in your books, read along in your hymnals. This is when Trump asks the intelligence community to tell the public he had no connection to Russia. Right. Which he seems to have already done a bunch of times, but I think this is the focal point of the officially when he. Yeah. Because in the weeks following, Komi's March testimony, March 20th testimony, Trump repeatedly asked I see officials to push back publicly on any suggestion the president had a connection on to the Russian election interference effort and

on March 22nd, two days after Komi's testimony, the president asked director of national intelligence Dan Coats who's recently resigned and CIA director Michael Pompeo who is now Secretary of State to stay behind in the Oval Office. That's never a good sign. Right, right. I hung up the coats. Yeah, I mean, go to the cloakroom, Dan Cotes, and just stay there. Yeah. I just not a good sign at all.

I've been doing the president like wants to be alone with somebody. I just keep imagining pre-best, sticking his head in the door like, what are you guys doing? Little mole. What are you talking about? Hey guys, no, such as,

that's kind of cute. That's just what I picked. So according to Dan Cotes, the president asked him, asked them whether they could say publicly that, you know, there was no link between him and Russia. Coates responded that the office of the director of National Intelligence has nothing to do with investigations, and it was not his role to make a public statement on it. Pompeo had no recollection of being asked to stay behind after the March 22nd briefing, but recalled the president regularly urged officials

to get the word out that he had done nothing wrong with relations to Russia. Yeah, we can all vouch for that. Yeah, he's like, I don't remember that thing, but he'd said that a lot. So, Coats told Mueller's team that Trump never asked him to speak to Comey about the FBI investigation. Some ODNI staffers, however, had a different recollection

of how Coats described the meeting immediately after it occurred. So, what Coats is telling Mueller is different from what An eye staffers, however, had a different recollection of how codes describe the meeting immediately after it occurred. So, what codes is telling Mueller is different from what everyone who talked to codes that day told Mueller. Interesting. According to a senior O-D-N-I official, Michael Dempsey, codes said, right after the meeting that the president had brought up the Russian investigation and asked him to contact Komi

to see if there was a way to get past the investigation, get it over with, and it, or words to that effect. Dempsey said, Coats described the president's comments as falling somewhere between musing about hating the investigation and wanting Coats to do something to stop it. That's pretty clear. Coats doesn't remember. Dempsey remembers. Dempsey said, Coats made it clear he would not get involved.

Edward Gastaro, another ODNI official, recalled that right after Coats is meeting with the president on the walk from the Oval Office back to the Eisenhower building. Dan Cotes said the president had kept him behind to ask him what he could do to help with the investigation. And another ODNI staffer who'd been waiting for Cotes outside the Oval Office, talked to Gostaro a few minutes later and recalled Gostaro reporting that Cotes was upset because the president had asked him to contact Comey to convince him there was nothing to the Russia investigation. So we have three people who say Cotes said all that shit right after he walked out of the Oval Office and Cotes is

like I don't remember any of that shit. Wow. And then on March 25th 2017 three days after the meeting in the Oval Office the president called Cotes again and complained about the Russian investigation saying words like, I can't do anything with Russia. There's things I'd like to do with Russia. Yeah, I bet with trade, ISIS, they're all over me with this. So Russia's given him a hard time. Oh, okay. So coats told the president that the investigations were going on.

And the best thing you could do is let them run their course. Cotes later testified in a congressional hearing that he had never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way and shape with shaping intelligence in a political way or in relationship to an ongoing investigation. All right, I guess that covers it. I love Cotes' suggestion to just let it run its core, a fever, just sweat it out, man. Drink a lot of fluids. We're up, seeing dirt on it. We'll get through this. The next day, Trump called the NSA director,

Admiral Michael Rogers. And the president expressed frustration with the Russian investigation, saying it made relations with Russians difficult. The president told Rogers the thing with the Russians was messing up his ability to get things done with Russia. The president also said the news stories linking him with Russia were not true and asked Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories.

Deputy director of the NSA Richard Legit who was present for the call said it was the most unusual thing he'd experienced in 40 years of government service. And that's the NSA director? Yeah. Oh deputy, but still he's seen some shit. He's an unusual shit. You're so right. Things we can't even fucking imagine. And he's like, that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Yeah, yeah. At the NSA. Okay. 40 years. After the call concluded, Legit prepared a memo. A lot of memos. Oh yeah. The Trump memos. Make a book out of just the memos.

Coffee table collection And then look at just a little never mind. Yes, somebody flipping Trump on the in the corner. And then he and Rogers both signed signed that memo documenting the content of the conversations and the president's request. And they placed the memo in a safe. But Rogers did not perceive the president's request to be an order. And the president did not ask Rogers to push back on the Russian investigation itself. Rogers later testified in a congressional hearing that the NSA, as NSA director, he had never been directed to do anything he believed to be illegal and moral,

unethical, or inappropriate, and did not recall ever-feeling pressure to do so. Hmm, okay. Lies. In addition to the specific comments made to Dan Coates, Pompeo, and Rogers, Trump spoke on other occasions to the in the presence of I.C. officials about the Russia investigation and stated that it interfered with his ability to conduct foreign relations on at least two occasions that Trump began his presidential daily briefings by stating there was no collusion with Russia and he hoped to oppress statement to that effect could be issued. So he was just talking out loud whenever there were I.C. people.

Yeah. And blaming Russia for his inability to be president. That's just all you, bro. Yeah, they're coming after me, telling me to stop this whole thing. Yeah, they went for you because you have no ability to be president. And then Pompeo recalled the president venting about his, about the investigation on multiple occasions, complaining there was no evidence against him, nobody would publicly defend him. Rogers recalled a private conversation with the president, which he vented about the investigation and said he'd done nothing wrong and said something like the Russia thing

has got to go away and cut the whole country. I think of that like rain, rain go away song like Trump's just trying everything, rain dances. You should just do whatever you can. And then codes recalled the president bringing up the Russian investigation several times and codes said he finally told the president that codes his job was to provide intelligence and not get involved in investigation. And then, guys, finally, onto subsection four on page 57. This is where Trump asked Comey to lift the cloud.

Right. And on the morning of March 30, so this is 10 days after Comey's test to monitor Congress to Hipsi. Trump reached out to Comeomi, and according to Komi's contemporaneous records of a conversation the president said he was trying to run the country and the cloud of this Russia business was making that difficult. The president asked Komi what could be done to lift the cloud. Komi explained that they were running it down as quickly

as possible, and there would be great benefit if we didn't find anything to our good housekeeping seal of approval, but we have to do our work. Basically, let it run its course. Yeah, yeah. So, Komi also told the president that congressional leaders were aware that the FBI was not investigating the president personally,

but he cared more about public optics, not worse. Yeah, he let the cloud look bad. And yeah, because the president then told him several times, we have to get that fact out. The president commented that if there was some satellite, which Komi took to mean like an associate because the president then told him several times we have to get that fact out the president commented that if there was some satellite Which Komi took to mean like an associate of the president? That did something wrong it'd be good to find that out But they he himself had not done anything wrong and he hoped Komi would find a way to get that out that they weren't

Investigating him and after that call ended Komi called Bwente immediately and said how should I respond? Yeah, and he was said he was uncomfortable with the direct contact from the president about the investigation. And then we're going next month on, morning of April 11th, President called Comey again, according to Comey's contemporaneous notes that he took of the conversation. The president said he was following up to see if Comey did what the president had asked the last time, getting out that he personally is not under investigation. Yeah, and get for him for waiting a month instead of three days.

Some people are much more eager and come he responded that he had passed the request on to Bwente But had not heard back and he informed the president the traditional channel for such a request would be to have my house council Don McGahn contact Department of Justice leadership Wente the president said he would take that step Lies. I think he did though. I think he told pre-bist to tell McGahn. Remember pre-bist is note about it. Like that makes sense. Yeah. To call Bwente to say I didn't do anything wrong. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's not. I don't see that in here, but it must But it's not. I think it happened right? Yeah. I think it did but it must not be relevant to the to the scope, but He says the president says because I've been very loyal to you very loyal. We had that thing, you know, hmm what the dinner

loyal to you, very loyal. We had that thing, you know, what the dinner? Very romantic. It's kind of intimate. And they danced. And in a televised interview that was taped earlier that afternoon, the president was asked if it was too late for him to ask Comey to step down. The president responded, no, it's not too late, but you know, I have confidence in him. We'll see what happens. You know, it's going to be interesting. And after the interview, Hicks, Hopix, told the president, she thought the president's comment about Komi should be removed from the broadcast of the interview, but the president wanted to keep it in, which Hicks thought was stupid.

Yeah, I give it to Hicks, I'm on her side with this one, but Trump acts like everything is like to be continued, you know, we'll see, it'll be interesting. Like a reality show, yeah. It works out with hanger. And later that day, Trump told senior advisors McGann and Previs for example that he had reached out to Komi twice in recent weeks. And the president acknowledged McGann would not approve of the outreach to Komi

because McGann had previously cautioned against it. The president told McGann, he's like, I know you didn't want me to, but it called Komi. The president told McGann that Komi had indicated the FBI could make a public statement that the president was not under investigation if the department of justice approved the action which isn't true at all he was just telling him if you want to talk to me you got to go through the department of justice in your white house council right trump took that to mean of a good approval they'll say it

so after speaking with the president began followed up with when they to relay the president's understanding false understanding that the fb i could publicly announce uh... if the Department of Justice cleared it. McGann recalled, Bwente said, Komi had told him there was nothing obstructive about the calls from the president, but they made Komi uncomfortable. And according to McGann, Bwente responded that he did not want to issue a statement about the president being under investigation because of the potential political ramifications

and did not want to order Komi to do so because that action could prompt the appointment of a special counsel. Bente did not recall that aspect of his conversation with McGahn, but did recall telling McGahn the direct outreach is from the president to Komi were a problem. Bente recalled that McGahn agreed and said he would do what he could to address the issue. So it seems like McGahn's being a little less than forthcoming. Yeah, just a little bit in a few of these things, right? Like he's like, I don't remember that part.

Yeah. But Wednesday's like, yeah, no, you said that. Yeah, and he like saw the future too. He's like, dude, they'll have a muller then a muller she wrote. You'll never end. He saw it all. No, but we mention on Brian Williams and he's like,

right, right? All down here. Yeah, yeah. Here we go. All right, guys, we'll be right back with the final analysis of this evidence. Hello, it's A.G. here with Muller Shee wrote, hiring used to be a hassle, with multiple job sites sifting through stacks of resumes, confusing review processes, and confusing websites. But today hiring is simple, and all you have to do is go to one place to get it all done.

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Zip Recruiter, the smartest way to hire. All right guys, welcome back. The last section here is the analysis of the three components of obstruction of justice. And we've talked about these in previous episodes. They are obstructive act, nexus to a proceeding, and intent. That's a feint jeopardy question someday, right? Exactly, a three-parter.

Yes, what is constructive action? Who is Trump? I think is the answer. I hope someday we'll be forgetting all this. Who is Trump? I know the real answer, Alex, but can I make a joke answer first? Who is Hitler again? And then come in with the real stuff,

because this is just worth it. This is just worth it, definitely. So, OK, so A, here, obstructive act. The evidence shows after Comey's March testimony, the president repeatedly reached out to intelligence agency leaders to discuss the FBI investigation. But witnesses had different recollections of the precise content of those outreaches. Some ODNI officials recalled that codes told them immediately after the March 22nd Oval Office meeting that the president asked codes to intervene with Komi and stop the

investigation. But the first hand witnesses to the encounter remember the conversation differently. Pompeo had no memory of the specific meeting, but generally recalled the president's urging officials to get the word out that the president had not done anything wrong. Codes recalled that the president asked that Codes state publicly that Nolyn existed between the president and Russia, but did not ask him to speak with Comey or help and the investigation. The other outreach is by the president and Russia, but did not ask him to speak with Komi or help and the investigation. The other outreaches by the president during this period were similar in nature, asking Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories linking the

president to Russia and the president asked Komi to make a public statement that would lift the cloud. Yeah, asking everyone just running around like, you live the class? Shouting it. You and mother. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. mummy so these requests while significant enough that Rogers thought it important to document the encounter in a written memo and put it in a safe we're not interpreted by officials who received them as direct directives to improperly interfere with the investigation so what it seems that he's saying here is there is not an obstructive act here. Okay. Nexus to proceeding, I'm guessing.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm reading between the lines. I just thought a cool book idea would be, are you my muller? Are you really meta though? Yeah, yeah. Like the muller was a new one along, you know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

For sure. Definitely. We are our mullers. Mm-hmm. Okay. We should do that. Nexus to a proceeding part B. At the time of the president's outreaches to leaders in late March and early April, the FBI's Russia investigation did not yet involve grand jury

proceedings. The outreaches, however, came after and were in response to Komi's March 20th testimony that there was a counterintelligence mission, which conducted an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. So, Komi testified that the investigation included any links or coordination with Trump campaign officials and would include an assessment as to whether or not crimes were committed. Right. So, I think what he's saying here is yes, there is an access to an official proceeding because Komi testified to the public on March 20th before all these outreaches happened that there was an FBI investigation.

That's why he put that in a report. So it seems like we don't have enough evidence to support an obstructive act, but we do have enough for Nexus to official pursue. Yeah, I went on a four so far. One out of three. One out of three, that's right. And you need three out of three, really, to process you.

Oh, okay. So we don't even have to finish this. Well, it explains a lot. Yeah, I wrap it all up. I do want to talk about his entire. That's the show folks. At the end, maybe we'll get all three in part D. So anyway, the third part here is intent and is described above the evidence does not establish the President asked her directed intelligence agency leaders to stop or

interfere with the FBI's Russian investigation. And the President affirmatively told Comey that if some satellite was involved, some other guy, it would be good to find that out. But the president's intent in trying to prevent sessions recusal and reaching out to codes Pompeo, Rogers, and Komi, following Komi's public announcement of the Russian investigation is nevertheless relevant to understanding what motivated the president's other actions

towards the investigation. So not for this specific obstructive act, I think is what he's saying, but possibly later on, this could go toward intent. Yeah. His reaction to Komi saying there's a picture, yeah, yeah. Probably Komi's removal, which I believe is the next section. We'll talk about that later.

Oh, yeah, smoking gun, yeah, yeah. So the evidence shows the President was focused on the Russian investigations implications for his presidency, and specifically on dispelling any suggestion he was under investigation or had links to Russia. In early March, the president attempted to prevent Jeff Sessions' recusal even after being told Sessions was following the rules. And after Sessions recused, the White House Council's office tried to cut off further contact

with Sessions about the matter. Although it's not clear whether that direction was conveyed to the president, we don't know. Right. He's like the ex that just can't let it go. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Radio silent, man. Oh, clean break. I'm the worst person. Well, sometimes when it's done, it's done. It's true. Sometimes I don't care. Repair that shit. So the president continued to raise the issue of sessions recuse. And when he had the opportunity, he pulled sessions aside at golf course, urged him to unrecuse president also told advisors he wanted an attorney general who would protect him the way he perceived Robert Kennedy and Eric Holder

to protect their presidents. I think he imagined Holder actually held Obama and I rubbed his head. That's why they called him Holder. It's not his name. The president made statements about being able to direct the course of criminal investigations saying saying words to the effect of you're telling me that Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations or Obama didn't tell holder who to investigate. Pretty much admitting that he did it. Exactly. They got away with it. What about me? Come on, man. After Komi publicly confirmed the existence of the Russian investigation in that March 20 of, you know, Hipsy hearing. The president was beside himself and expressed anger that Komi did an issue, a statement

correcting any misperception that the president was, uh, himself under investigation. And Trump sought to speak with, um, Wednesday, directly, and told McGand to contact Wednesday to request Komi make a clarifying statement. President asked other IC leaders to make public statements to refute the suggestion he had links to Russia, but the leaders told him not. And on March 30th and April 11th, against the advice of White House advisors who told him that any direct contact with the FBI could be perceived as improper and interfering in an ongoing investigation, the President made personal outreaches to come, he asked him to lift the cloud on the, you know, the Russian investigation. And he could do that basically by making it public that the president was not personally

under investigation. Evidence indicates that the president was angered by both the existence of the investigation and the public reporting that he was under investigation, which he knew was not true based on Komi's representations. The president complained to advisors that if people thought Russia helped him with the election, it would detract from what he had accomplished. Other evidence indicates Trump was concerned about the impact of the Russian investigation and his ability to govern.

The President complained that the perception that he was under investigation was hurting his ability to conduct foreign relations, particularly with Russia. And the President told Dan Coats he can't do anything with Russia. He told Rogers that the thing with the Russians was interfering with his ability to conduct foreign affairs, and he told Comey he was trying to run the country and this cloud of this Russia business was making it difficult. Wow. Yeah. That cloud thing, it comes up a lot. Yeah. That's his way of looking at this. It's a cloud. So I think what we can, it's Charmin. So I think what we can assess

from here is that this particular act by the president, in and of itself, is not an obstructive act. It does have a nexus to a proceeding, but the intent's not there. But Mueller says, hang on though, this could go toward intent. You know, later, the bowait there's more obstructive act. I'm sure you're like an informational. That's my interpretation. If you have a different one, let us know. Hit us up at helloatmullershierote.com

or you can send us a correction. If you know, if you think it warrants that, build us a compliment, say I'm going to mullershierote.com, clicking contact, selecting corrections, and then, you know, we'll get it right eventually. Oh yeah. Although this is a pretty subjective interpretation. And I am pretty biased. Yeah, my most listeners are you know

They align with our bias to some degrees. So that's pretty neat. Well, when you're right. You're right when you're right Our new slogan. I Just want to formally invite everyone to my lift the cloud rally. I'm gonna have next year on 420 Maybe some kind of Russian and fear big America high again. Yeah, like the cloud. Just you know raising awareness Lower the cloud lower the cloud. again. Yeah, with the cloud. Just raising awareness. Yeah. Lower the cloud. Lower the cloud. Wow.

There we go. Yeah. That's going to be good. All right, guys. That's section two part. See, next week, join us for part D, and that's the events leading up to and surrounding the termination of Comey. And that is where I think, and I might be skipping ahead here, but that's where I think

that intent, while it doesn't show intent for the subtractive act, I think his reaction to Comey's March 20th testimony at the hip-sea will come into play in the events leading up to and surrounding the termination of Comey, particularly intent. So look for it to come up in the session. I like that, a little fan fiction, it might be reality.

It might be, we'll see, put some beans on it. So that's gonna be pages 62 to 77. So read that and then I want an essay, single space, 12 point, times new Roman on my desk by 5 a.m. Yes, Professor H. Some people call you that. They do know.

They really do. Really? Really? Yeah, yeah. They get very educated by you. I like it. Crazy, weird to make. Teacher class.

I have so many tattoos. You're the cool teacher, yeah. It just doesn't make sense. Yeah, you know what? We had a history teacher in high school named Mr. Peralta, Uriah Peralta, Vietnam vet, super left, and just tattoos everywhere, beard, you got a cane, he was like, hey guys, disabled veteran, I'm gonna tell you some shit.

Check this out. I've seen some stuff, man. Whoa, yeah. He taught us the real history. Wow. He could be the first person witness like our source in your paper. Like, he can use him as a reference. I'll have him write my preface.

Contact. Oh, forward. Contact Mr. Perolta. Yes. If you're listening. If you're listening. Alright, guys, thanks so much. Please take care of yourselves.

Take care of each other. I've been AG. I've been Jolissa Johnson. And this is Muller She Wrote. Muller She Wrote is produced and engineered by AG with editing and logo design by Jolissa Johnson. Our marketing consultant and social media manager is Sarah Least Diner and our subscriber and communications director is Jordan Coburn. Fact checking in research by AG and research assistants by Jolissa Johnson and Jordan Coburn.

Our merchandising managers are Sarah Least Diner and Sarah Hershberger Valencia. Our web design and branding, our by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios, and our website is mullersheywrote.com. Season 4 of How We Win Is Here. For the past four years we've been making history in critical elections all over the country. And last year, we made history again by expanding our majority in the Senate, eating election denying Republicans and crucial state house races, and fighting back a non-existent red wave. But the Magga Republicans who plotted and pardoned the attempted overthrow of our government

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