Mueller’s damning portrait of the president who reacted to his appointment by saying: ‘I’m f***ed’

Special Counsel Robert Mueller ultimately did not accuse President Trump of crimes  – but he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise.

When Mueller was appointed, the special counsel’s report says, Trump ranted: ‘I’m f***ed. This is the end of my presidency.’

The account was included in the report that was released to Congress on CD-Roms and to the public in a PDF document that could not be searched. It provides new details on the moment Trump learned of Mueller’s appointment and actions he took to keep the walls from closing in on him.

Mueller declined to call any of the actions criminal, yet, he intentionally left room for Congress to arrive at another conclusion. 

‘If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so,’ he writes.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller ultimately did not accuse President Trump of crimes – but he did paint an unflattering portrait of a foul-mouthed executive who believed the Russia probe would lead to his demise

He outlines ten instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice – and notes that the president believed the appointment of a special counsel would lead to his being ousted from office. 

According to the report, on May 17, 2017, Sessions left a meeting to take a call from Rosenstein, who delivered the news. 

In notes by White House aide Reed Hunt, the president slumped back in his chair. 

‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’ m f*****,’ he said, according to Hunt’s notes. 

Then, according to the report, ‘The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, “How could you let this happen, Jeff?” 

Trump contrasted Sessions to former AGs Eric Holder and Bobby Kennedy, venting, ‘you were supposed to protect me’ or similar words.  

‘The President returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, “Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.’ 

Trump seemed extremely upset afterwards, recounted former Trump communications director and White House aide Hope Hicks. 

‘Hicks said that she had only seen the President like that one other time, when the Access Hollywood tape came out during the campaign,’ she said.

Sessions handed in a resignation letter after the incident, as per Trump’s request. Trump asked Sessions if he wanted to stay, and when Sessions said he did, Trump said he wanted Sessions to stay. 

‘At the end of the meeting, the president shook Sessions’s hand but did not return the resignation letter,’ according to the report. 

This action also caused concerns. Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said it acted like a ‘shock collar’ and that Trump had DOJ ‘by the throat.’ 

Priebus and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were said to be concerned and said they would try to get it back.

The report also describes an incident on a flight to the Middle East where, according to Hicks, Trump pulled out the letter and showed it out to a group of advisors. 

When Priebus asked Trump about the letter on the trip, Trump told him it was back at the White House residence. Only three days after he returned did Trump return the letter to Sessions with a notation stating: ‘Not accepted.” ‘

After reviewing a litany of instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice, the attorney general opted to exonerate the president. He claimed that Mueller left the task to him.

The redacted report revealed that Mueller explicitly left the job to Congress.

‘With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,’ the special counsel wrote.

He said, ‘The separation-of-powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regard less of their source.

‘The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.’

The president’s lead attorney said Thursday that instances of alleged obstruction of justice are ‘easily explained’ as defensive actions of a person being ‘framed’ with crimes he didn’t commit.

Giuliani told Fox News, ‘He was an innocent man being accused of something he didn’t do.’ 

The president was concerned that investigators who worked for Mueller were ‘highly partisan Democrats’ who were ‘very strongly supportive’ of Hillary Clinton. 

He believed that he was being ‘framed’ by the prosecutors, Giuliani said.

‘And he was right,’ the attorney added. ‘You’re going to find out over the ensuing four, five months, they were framing him. This was a deliberate plan to plant this idea.’

The president's lead attorney says that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are 'easily explained' as defense mechanisms from the under-siege executive

The president’s lead attorney says that instances of alleged obstruction of justice, which were outlined in the special counsel report and serve as the basis for claims that Donald Trump committed crimes, are ‘easily explained’ as defense mechanisms from the under-siege executive

The special counsel reviewed ten instances in which the president may have interfered with the investigation in way that could be determined as obstructing justice. 

But Giuliani said it was always a false accusation because, ‘It’s kind of ridiculous to go after a man for obstruction when he was falsely accused, he was defending himself. 

‘His intent, in each one of these situations – all 10 of them – is easily explained as an intent to not get framed.’

Giuliani suggested that Mueller’s prosecutors tried to trick Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, into claiming that President Trump knew about a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was at the center or allegations that that Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy.

He said, ‘And he doesn’t get intimidated by Mueller’s out of control prosecutors, and they don’t put him solitary confinement like they put Manafort, and they don’t question him 11 times, and try to get him to say – they tried so hard to get Manafort to say that the president knew about that meeting on June 9. 

‘They literally conducted the kind of questioning that you conduct for a terrorism suspect,’ he contended.

Giuliani said it was his belief that Mueller did not draw a conclusion on the topics, because the allegation wouldn’t stand up in court.

‘Nothing was obstructed they can’t point to a single thing that was obstructed in the investigation. So now you’re talking about a purely theoretical crime,’ he said. ‘And I think as a practical matter in most United States Attorney’s office they would laugh this kind of thing out of court.’ 

 

 

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk