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Thursday, January 2, 2020

Highlights from the new Mueller FBI investigation documents

The batch includes memos about what top advisers to President Donald Trump -- including Stephen Miller, Sarah Sanders, Rob Porter, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort and others -- told then-special counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference and the President's attempts to obstruct the investigation.
The release reflects notable interviews the Justice Department showed the US House of Representatives confidentially at the conclusion of the Mueller investigation.
Here are highlights from the documents:

NSC lawyer warned K.T. McFarland not to send email that could appear to be 'quid pro quo'

READ: Newly released Mueller investigation FBI memos
Long before the current Ukraine controversy, the term "quid pro quo" came up in a White House conversation between K.T. McFarland, then a deputy national security adviser, and White House lawyer John Eisenberg, according to a heavily-redacted account of her interview with FBI interviewers.
The discussion in February 2017 came after national security adviser Michael Flynn, McFarland's boss, had been ousted over his interactions with the then-Russian ambassador. McFarland, who had been privy to details of Flynn's Russia conversations, was also being forced out.
McFarland was offered an ambassadorship to ease her way out of the White House. But first, then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus had a request, McFarland told the FBI.
Priebus said words "to the effect of 'The President would like you to send me an email saying,'" the interview notes say before a redaction. The notes continue: "could she say the President never directed Flynn to call the Russians about sanctions."
McFarland told the FBI she didn't respond to Priebus's request, but called Eisenberg to recount the conversation. She told the White House lawyer that she was being fired and offered an ambassadorship, but that the letter was being requested from her.
There are additional redactions in the interview notes, but McFarland, appears to be referring to Eisenberg, saying "He offered his opinion it was a bad idea for her to write the letter because it was awkward and looked like a quid pro quo situation."
McFarland told the FBI that Priebus later came back to her and "told her not do the email and to forget he even mentioned it."
McFarland's interview, much of which is redacted, described interactions with White House officials during the transition and after inauguration as the Trump administration tried to save a possible reset of Russian relations. A top concern was Russian retaliation after the Obama administration issued sanctions following Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
McFarland told the FBI about a meeting during the presidential transition in which Trump asked her "if the Russians did it," an apparent query about the Russian hacking attacks and other activities to meddle in the 2016 election.
McFarland said she responded "yes," to the President-elect. "Trump repeated he was not sure," the interview notes say before another redaction. "He said he had reason to doubt it was the Russians."

What Manafort told Mueller on WikiLeaks

In one of the first glimpses by the public of what Manafort told Mueller, the former Trump campaign chairman described then-candidate Trump's interest in WikiLeaks email releases that Russia had stolen from the Democrats.
During the campaign, "Manafort did not want Trump distracted by the titillation of a WikiLeak's release," investigators noted about his September 2018 interview. "Manafort viewed the drops as a gift but one that they could not control."
Mueller ultimately found in his final report that the Trump campaign welcomed the WikiLeaks releases because they could damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and the campaign strategized to take advantage of them politically. But Mueller charged no one on the campaign with conspiring with the Russians.
The interview notes have several paragraphs redacted, and the publicly released version doesn't appear to add more detail about Trump's potential knowledge of efforts to reach WikiLeaks, about which Manafort's deputy had told Mueller.
Instead, Manafort offered to Mueller theories about why Trump may have publicly encouraged Russia to find Clinton's emails that summer. Manafort said he was surprised Trump had encouraged Russia specifically.
"Manafort does not know why Trump asked Russia as opposed to another country," the notes from one of Manafort's cooperation sessions said.
Manafort also gave Mueller's team a theory about why Trump named Russia when he said at a campaign rally, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."
"Trump would have been talking with his 'kitchen cabinet,' the investigator noted from Manafort's September 2018 interview. "Manafort guesses that more people than not were identifying Russia so that stuck in Trump's head."
Manafort ultimately lied to investigators during some of his cooperation interviews and to a federal grand jury about certain topics. He is serving seven years in prison for financial and lobbying-related crimes prosecuted by Mueller's team.
This story is breaking and will be updated.

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