WASHINGTON - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that US President Donald Trump asked him to help gather information for an inquiry into Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The New York Times, citing two unidentified US officials, earlier reported the request to assist in the investigation -- which aims to discredit the Russia probe -- was made during a recent telephone call between Trump and Morrison.
An Australian government spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that the request was made, saying in a statement Australia "has always been ready to assist and cooperate with efforts that help shed further light on the matters under investigation".
"The PM confirmed this readiness once again in conversation with the President."
The Times said the White House had restricted access to the transcript of the call, in a similar way to its handling of Trump's recent call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
That call -- during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate his potential 2020 Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden -- has led to the opening of an impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led House of Representatives.
The Washington Post reported separately that Attorney General Bill Barr has had multiple meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials in an effort aimed at undermining US intelligence's conclusion that Russian interference helped Trump to victory in the 2016 presidential election.
In addition to contacting the Australian leader, Barr has met with British intelligence and last week was in Italy, together with US Attorney John Durham, asking for Rome's help in revisiting the 2016 Russia investigation, according to the newspaper.
The Post said Barr risked appearing to use his powers as head of the US Justice Department to help Trump politically when he is facing impeachment and, potentially, removal from office for abuse of power.
- DOJ probing 'political witch hunt' -
Former special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the US election was completed in March with the identification of numerous acts of collusion or attempted collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
But after Mueller ruled there was not enough material for criminal charges, Trump called for another investigation into what he called the Russia "political witch hunt" and "hoax."
The Justice Department chose Durham to examine the roots of the Mueller probe, including the evidence that led the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to declare that Russia did in fact interfere in 2016 to boost Trump.
Australia and Britain were both important because the original FBI Russia meddling probe was launched in July 2016 after the bureau received a tip from an Australian diplomat in Britain about a meeting between people tied to Russian intelligence and a Trump campaign official.
But Barr's involvement in the Durham investigation has raised questions that it is a partisan political probe.
In a statement, the Justice Department defended the contacts abroad and said Trump's and Barr's role was to help Durham make contacts.
"Mr. Durham is gathering information from numerous sources, including a number of foreign countries," said Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec.
"At Attorney General Barr's request, the president has contacted other countries to ask them to introduce the attorney general and Mr. Durham to appropriate officials," she said.
cl-pmh/ft/arb-hr/jah
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WASHINGTON - Former special counsel Robert Mueller's reticent testimony to Congress likely confirmed what many Democrats had feared: if they want to end Donald Trump's presidency, their best bet is through next year's election, not impeachment.
Mueller's highly anticipated appearance Wednesday at back-to-back House hearings delivered neither the viral moments nor the bombshell soundbites that the anti-Trump crowd hoped would persuade skeptics or overwhelmingly reshape public opinion.
The contents of Mueller's remarks were damning, several Democrats said, noting the former FBI director's statements that the 2-year investigation of Russian election interference was "not a witch hunt," and indeed found substantial evidence of obstruction of justice.
But after Mueller's flat one-word answers, seeming confusion about questions and refusal to produce new information, hopes that the performance would launch lawmakers on a path to impeachment had dimmed.
The 2020 election "is unquestionably the only way he gets removed from office, so we can never lose sight of that," House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who presided over one of Mueller's hearings, said Thursday.
Even Democrat Al Green, who forced an unsuccessful House vote on articles of impeachment last week following Trump's racially charged attacks on four liberal congresswomen, acknowledged Mueller's appearance fell short of expectations.
"There was no 'aha' moment because we've had the report and watched or discussed the President's impeachable actions ad nauseum," Green said on Twitter.
Ninety-five of the House's 235 Democrats voted for Green's measure. While pro-impeachment legislators were hoping dozens would shift to their position, just two more lawmakers publicly announced they now backed impeachment proceedings.
House Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester said she supports impeachment after listening to Mueller declare that Trump stonewalled his investigation, failed to tell the truth in written answers to questions, and likely could have been charged with a crime without the Justice Department's policy against indicting a sitting president.
"Director Mueller has done his job. Now it's time for Congress to do ours," she said.
House Democrat Karen Bass, an impeachment skeptic, said the hearing "didn't change me," and that she wanted to proceed with ongoing House investigations.
"I also think that all of our leaders need to be on the same page," she said.
AGAINST IMPEACHMENT
They aren't. According to Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, rebuffed an impeachment push by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, telling a closed-door meeting after Mueller's testimony that it was premature.
For months, Pelosi has tamped down impeachment calls, aware of how dangerous such a vote would be for centrist Democrats in Republican-leaning districts.
She has argued that the case should be ironclad before lawmakers launch such a divisive process, especially given the likelihood it would die in the Republican-led Senate.
Several 2020 presidential hopefuls support impeachment, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand.
But Pelosi has highlighted the need for the White House candidates to focus on the economy and health care -- kitchen table issues that propelled Democrats to their House majority last year -- in order to help win back working-class voters who tilted for Trump in 2016.
She is also concerned about public opinion polling showing that most Americans are against impeachment, and has said unsuccessful proceedings would allow Trump to claim exoneration, boosting his re-election bid.
But she made clear that she was not shutting the door, saying, "If we have a case for impeachment, that's the place we will have to go."
ELECTION SECURITY
Meanwhile, Pelosi is backing House investigations of Trump and his administration, and is monitoring several court cases which could provide potentially damning new evidence and testimony from the White House.
While Mueller failed to provide Democrats with their closing argument for impeachment, he did issue a clarion call for election security, warning that Russia was preparing more interference for 2020.
Even with current administration officials like FBI director Christopher Wray recently warning lawmakers of active threats, Republicans have blocked Democratic proposals to safeguard US elections.
The Democratic-led House passed legislation requiring voting systems to use paper ballots and improve technical protections, but it has stalled in the Senate.
Senate Democrats introduced an initiative requiring political campaigns to report to federal authorities any election interference attempts by foreign entities.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the measure Thursday, calling it "a highly partisan bill" from lawmakers "hyping up a conspiracy theory about President Trump and Russia."
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WASHINGTON - Former US Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday defended the integrity of his Russia investigation during a dramatic congressional hearing and reiterated that he had not cleared President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice or, as the president has said, totally exonerated Trump.
Mueller appeared for eagerly anticipated testimony at the first of two back-to-back congressional hearings that carry high stakes for Trump and Democrats who are split between impeaching him or moving on to the 2020 election.
The former FBI director, who spent 22 months investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US election and Trump's conduct, appeared first before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The committee's Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, praised Mueller and said no one, including Trump, is "above the law."
Mueller, 74, was surrounded by news photographers as he took his place in the packed hearing room, showing little apparent emotion as he scanned the scene.
"Obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the government's efforts to find the truth and to hold wrongdoers accountable," Mueller testified.
Trump has claimed that the Mueller inquiry resulted in the president's "complete and total exoneration." Asked by Nadler if he had exonerated Trump, Mueller said, "No."
Mueller, accused by Trump of heading a "witch hunt" and trying to orchestrate a "coup" against the Republican president, said his inquiry was conducted in "a fair and independent manner" and that members of the special counsel's team "were of the highest integrity."
"Let me say one more thing," Mueller said. "Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government's effort to interfere with our election is among the most serious."
In a comment sure to disappoint Republicans, Mueller said he would not answer questions about the origins of the Russia probe in the FBI before he was named to take over the inquiry in 2017 or about a controversial dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent
Mueller was set to testify later in the day before the House Intelligence Committee. Democrats control the House, while Trump's fellow Republicans control the Senate.
The hearing provided Democrats a chance to air publicly and in plain language the key findings of the sometimes dense Mueller report. Democrats entered the hearings hoping Mueller's testimony would rally public support behind their own ongoing investigations of the president and his administration. Democrats are deeply divided over whether to launch the impeachment process set out in the US Constitution for removing a president from office for "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Mueller's inquiry detailed numerous contacts between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia at a time when the Kremlin was interfering in the 2016 US election with a scheme of hacking and propaganda to sow discord among Americans and boost Trump's candidacy.
Mueller's investigative report said the inquiry found insufficient evidence to establish that Trump and his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. The report did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice in a series of actions aimed at impeding the inquiry, but pointedly did not exonerate him. Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, subsequently cleared the president of obstruction of justice.
The Justice Department has a longstanding policy against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.
'PRINCIPLES OF FAIRNESS'
In his opening statement, Mueller reiterated that his team had decided not to make a determination on the question of obstruction. "Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. That was our decision then and remains our decision today," Mueller said.
Nadler said in his opening statement that Mueller conducted the inquiry with "remarkable integrity" and was "subjected to repeated and grossly unfair personal attacks."
"Although department policy barred you from indicting the president for this conduct, you made clear that he is not exonerated. Any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. And in this nation, not even the president is above the law," Nadler said.
But Republican congressman John Ratcliffe accused Mueller of exceeding his authority in the report's extensive discussion of potential obstruction of justice by Trump after the special counsel made the decision not to draw a conclusion on whether Trump committed a crime. Ratcliffe agreed that Trump was not above the law, but said the president should not be "below the law" either.
The committee's top Republican, Doug Collins, said the facts of the Mueller report are that "Russia meddled in the 2016 election. The president did not conspire with Russians. Nothing we hear today will change those facts."
"The president watched the public narrative surrounding the investigation assume his guilt while he knew the extent of his innocence," Collins said. "The president's attitude towards the investigation was understandably negative, yet the president did not use his authority to close the investigation."
Collins asked Mueller a series of rapid-fire questions.
"That went a little fast for me," Mueller told Collins at one point.
Ahead of the hearing, Republicans objected to Democrats on the two committees allowing Aaron Zebley, the former deputy special counsel who had day-to-day oversight of investigations in the inquiry, to accompany Mueller.
"This was specifically NOT agreed to, and I would NEVER have agreed to it," Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning before the hearing began. Trump also complained that Mueller had not investigated various of the president's foes including 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and, referring to the former special counsel, "HIMSELF."
Trump has repeatedly assailed the inquiry as a "witch hunt" and an attempted "coup," accused Mueller of having conflicts of interest and called the special counsel's team of lawyers "thugs" with a Democratic political agenda. Trump is hoping to move beyond the Russia investigation as he runs for re-election in 2020, with a large field of Democratic candidates competing for their party's nomination to challenge him.
Mueller's investigation led to criminal charges against 34 people and three Russian entities. People who were convicted at trial or pleaded guilty included Trump's former campaign chairman and other aides.
The Justice Department on Monday sent a letter telling Mueller to limit his testimony to merely discussing what is written in the report, a directive that the two committee chairmen rejected as exceeding the department's authority.
Mueller appeared for his testimony reluctantly and only after being subpoenaed.
Until Wednesday, Mueller had not faced questioning in public about his findings. He remained silent when the Justice Department on April 18 released a redacted version of his 448-page investigation report, which the special counsel had submitted to Attorney General Barr the prior month. Mueller made a nine-minute statement to reporters on May 29 at the Justice Department but took no questions.
Mueller, who served as Federal Bureau of Investigation director from 2001 to 2013 under presidents in both parties, was named as special counsel by the Justice Department in May 2017 to take over the FBI's Russia probe after Trump fired James Comey as the agency's chief. Mueller's inquiry lasted 22 months.
With a no-nonsense reputation, Mueller is a Marine Corps combat veteran from the Vietnam War who later served as a federal prosecutor and became the architect of the modern FBI after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump is defending his unprecedented decision to give his Justice Department chief unfettered access to the country's deepest foreign intelligence secrets amid an outcry from the spy community and a veiled warning from the US intelligence czar.
The president said Attorney General Bill Barr needed unilateral power to declassify any top secret material to get to the roots of the 2016-2018 investigation into whether his election campaign colluded with Russia.
Barr "will be able to see how this hoax, how the hoax or witch hunt started, and why it started," Trump said.
"It was an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States. It should never ever happen to anybody else, so it's very important."
But politicians and former intelligence community leaders said Trump and Barr are threatening to expose the country's most protected sources of secrets on Russia to mount a political attack on a legitimate investigation that exposed a serious threat to the United States.
REOPENING THE RUSSIA MEDDLING INVESTIGATION
The brief order issued late Thursday tells the heads of each of the bodies of the intelligence community, including the CIA and National Security Agency, to support Barr in his review of what he has called suspected improper "spying" on Trump by the FBI and intelligence bodies.
It also gives Barr the power to access and declassify any information he views necessary, which could extend to the top-secret sources of information that intelligence chiefs used to conclude that Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a concerted effort to sway the election on Trump's behalf in 2016.
The same information led to the investigation of Trump by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose final report in April detailed numerous acts of possible collusion, but concluded none amounted to criminal conspiracy.
Critics said Trump and Barr, who has become one of the president's staunchest defenders, were playing fast and loose with intelligence for political reasons.
"The president has granted sweeping declassification powers to an attorney general who has already shown that he has no problem selectively releasing information in order to mislead the American people," said Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"People risk their lives to gather the intelligence material that President Trump and Attorney General Barr are so eager to politicize."
'REALLY BAD IDEA'
Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin called for Congress to thwart the move.
"Giving Barr declassification authority for this investigation is a really bad idea," he said on Twitter.
"The agencies can cooperate but must retain their legal responsibility for protecting sources."
Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence who oversees the various intelligence branches, stepped carefully, but also made clear that Barr should not play loose with the country's secrets.
"I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the intelligence community in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk," he said.
'DANGEROUS ABUSE OF POWER'
Barr himself has stunned law enforcement and intelligence officials with his willingness to question whether there was a genuine foundation for the investigation into Russian election meddling and into the many suspect contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
The investigation was launched in mid-2016 after campaign advisor George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in London that Russians had offered dirt on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The subsequent investigation, which included authorized national security wiretaps, found a concerted effort by Russia to develop contacts, exchange information and negotiate deals, from a Trump real estate project in Moscow to the lifting of sanctions on Russia.
Those acts and episodes have all been made public in detail in congressional testimony and Mueller's report.
But Trump continues to insist that the investigation had no foundation and that the spying on his advisors was illegal, the product of a menacing "deep state."
Former CIA officer Evan McMullin warned that Trump's move "is truly a dangerous abuse of power."
"Barr will selectively release sensitive information, as he did with Mueller's report, to shape a favorable narrative for Trump and impede the intelligence community's ability to collect intel on foreign threats."
pmh/wd
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Defying the U.S. Congress, Attorney General William Barr will not attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday on his handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report, said panel Chairman Jerrold Nadler, accusing Barr of being afraid to testify.
"Barr has just informed us that he will not attend tomorrow's hearing," Nadler, a Democrat, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after a contentious Senate hearing earlier in the day where Barr defended his treatment of the report.
Nadler also said the Justice Department had not complied with his subpoena for Mueller's full report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election and underlying evidence from the probe.
Committee Democrats vowed to issue a subpoena to force Barr to testify, while Nadler held out hope that the attorney general would reconsider and show up when the hearing convenes at 9 a.m. (1300 GMT) on Thursday.
"We plan on subpoenaing him if he decides not to show up. He can run but he can't hide," Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said in a statement that the panel had placed "unprecedented and unnecessary" conditions on Barr's testimony and called the questions posed by committee staff inappropriate. "The attorney general remains happy to engage directly with members," the statement said.
Barr's decision not to testify surfaced hours after the committee adopted a more aggressive format that would subject the attorney general to an extra hour of questions from committee lawyers, in addition to questions from Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the panel.
Nadler insisted that it was not the administration's place to determine the format for the hearing.
"He is terrified of having to face a skilled attorney," the chairman said of Barr. "Given how dishonest he has been ... I can understand why he's afraid of facing more effective examination."
The House Judiciary chairman also said he would consider a contempt citation against the attorney general in the next day or two, if the Justice Department continued to defy the subpoena for the unredacted report.
Nadler issued the subpoena on April 19, a day after Barr released a redacted version of the report, which also looked at whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct investigations after the 2016 election.
The Mueller report details a series of acts by Trump to impede the Russia probe but does not conclude whether those actions constitute the crime of obstruction. It found, however, that Trump and his campaign did not engage in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow.
Democrats contend that Barr misrepresented the contents of the Mueller report in a March 24 summary and during a subsequent news conference. They also allege that he may have provided misleading testimony to Congress about criticism he received from Mueller.
Some Democrats including Senator Mazie Hirono said on Wednesday that Barr should resign. Asked if he agreed, Nadler told reporters: "He's going to have to answer for apparently testifying untruthfully in both the Senate and the House, and that's certainly one option."
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WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Robert Mueller complained in a letter to Attorney General William Barr that his four-page summary of Mueller's Russia report "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the investigation's conclusions, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The Post said it reviewed a copy of Mueller's letter, which was written in late March after Barr released a summary on March 24 that said Mueller had found no evidence of collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.
Barr also said in the summary that Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had found the evidence insufficient to support such a charge.
Barr's four-page summary was released more than three weeks before a redacted version of Mueller's 448-page report was released to the public on April 18.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment to Reuters.
"The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusions," Mueller wrote, according to the Post.
"There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations," the Post quoted Mueller as writing.
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WASHINGTON - Former top Justice Department official Sally Yates said on Sunday that if Donald Trump were not president, he would have been indicted on obstruction charges in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Yates, a career federal prosecutor who rose to acting attorney general before Trump fired her in 2017 less than two weeks into his presidency, told NBC's "Meet the Press" the Republican president was shielded by department guidelines that a sitting president should not be indicted.
"I've personally prosecuted obstruction cases on far, far less evidence than this," Yates said. "And yes, I believe, if he were not the president of the United States, he would likely be indicted on obstruction."
Mueller's report, redacted for classified and other sensitive information, detailed a series of actions by Trump to impede the investigation. It did not make a conclusion on whether those actions constituted the crime of obstruction said the findings did not exonerate him.
The report cited attempts by Trump to thwart the Mueller investigation, as well as the president telling Russian officials he had faced "great pressure" from the probe but that it had been eased after he fired FBI Director James Comey.
Mueller also said Congress has the power to address whether Trump violated the law and Congress is conducting its own investigations into whether he obstructed justice.
Yates told NBC there was a larger question raised by the report, which she said painted a "devastating portrait" of a campaign that welcomed Russian intervention, lied about it and then tried to cover it up.
"Is this the kind of conduct that we should expect from the president of the United States?" she said. "I mean, when the Russians came knocking at their door, you would expect that a man who likes to make a show of hugging the flag would've done the patriotic thing and would've notified law enforcement."
Yates was fired by Trump after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and refused to defend new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority nations.
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NEW YORK - The number of Americans who approve of President Donald Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a special counsel report detailing Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll.
The poll, conducted Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, is the first national survey to measure the response from the American public after the U.S. Justice Department released Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report that recounted numerous occasions in which Trump may have interfered with the investigation.
According to the poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States approved of Trump’s performance in office, down from 40 percent in a similar poll conducted on April 15 and matching the lowest level of the year. That is also down from 43 percent in a poll conducted shortly after U.S. Attorney General William Barr circulated a summary of the report in March.
In his report, Mueller said his investigation did not establish that the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russians. However, investigators did find “multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations.”
While Mueller ultimately decided not to charge Trump with a crime, he also said that the investigation did not exonerate the president, either.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,005 adults, including 924 who were familiar with the Mueller report. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.
To see the entire Reuters/Ipsos poll, click here.
SHARP SPLIT
The poll found that 50 percent of Americans agreed that “Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election,” and 58 percent agreed that the president “tried to stop investigations into Russian influence on his administration.”
Forty percent said they thought Trump should be impeached, while 42 percent said he should not.
The poll responses were sharply split along party lines, with Democrats much more critical of Trump than his fellow Republicans.
The Mueller investigation had previously charged 34 other people and three Russian entities, netting convictions or guilty pleas from several Trump associates including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
So far, the report does not appear to have convinced many to change their opinions about the president’s conduct during a bitter presidential campaign, whether his inner circle improperly engaged with Russian agents, or if he tried to interfere with federal investigators afterward.
Among those respondents who said they were familiar with the Mueller report, 70 percent said the report had not changed their view of Trump or Russia’s involvement in the U.S. presidential race. Only 15 percent said they had learned something that changed their view of Trump or the Russia investigation, and a majority of those respondents said they were now more likely to believe that “Trump or someone close to him broke the law.”
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WASHINGTON—Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report on Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election will be released on Thursday, providing the first public look at the findings of an inquiry that has cast a shadow over Donald Trump's presidency.
Attorney General William Barr plans to release the nearly 400-page report detailing Mueller's 22-month investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia and questions about obstruction of justice by the president.
Its disclosure, with portions expected to be blacked out by Barr to protect some sensitive information, is certain to launch a new political fight in Congress and on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, as Trump seeks re-election in a deeply divided country.
The release marks a watershed moment in Trump's presidency, promising new details about some of the biggest questions in the probe, including the extent and nature of his campaign's contacts with Russia and actions Trump may have taken to hinder the inquiry including his 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Mueller submitted the report to Barr on March 22. Two days later, Barr sent lawmakers a four-page letter saying the inquiry did not establish that Trump's 2016 campaign team engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia and that Mueller had not exonerated Trump of committing the crime of obstruction of justice. Barr subsequently concluded that Trump had not committed obstruction of justice.
A source familiar with the matter said the version of the report to be released on Thursday was "lightly redacted."
The release of the report may deepen an already bitter partisan rift between Trump's fellow Republicans, most of whom have rallied around the president, and his Democratic critics, who will have to decide how hard to go after Trump as they prepare congressional investigations of his administration.
Barr said he would hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) on Thursday to discuss the report, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017.
Copies of the report will be delivered to Congress more than an hour later, between 11 a.m. and noon (1500-1600 GMT), a senior Justice Department official said. The delay in seeing the report sparked Democratic complaints that Barr, a Trump appointee, wanted to shape the public's views during his news conference before others had a chance to draw their own conclusions.
Top congressional Democrats called on Mueller to testify publicly in Congress about his investigation, criticizing Barr's roll-out of the report.
"We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsel's investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
The spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
Mueller's investigation, which Trump has called a "witch hunt," raised questions about the legitimacy of Trump's presidency and laid bare what the special counsel and U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a Russian operation to derail Democrat Hillary Clinton's candidacy and elevate Trump, the Kremlin's preferred candidate.
'POLITICAL HOAX'
Ahead of the report's release, Trump went on Twitter to renew his attack on the inquiry, writing, "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" and attacking Democrats and "Dirty Cops."
Jay Sekulow, a Trump lawyer, said the president's team will respond to the document's release "initially with a statement" and will decide on whether to release a rebuttal report "based on the developments of the day." A person familiar with the matter said such a rebuttal report would be about 30 pages long."
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Barr would elaborate on Justice Department communications with the White House over the past several weeks regarding the report and whether the White House invoked a legal doctrine called executive privilege that allows the president to withhold information about internal executive branch deliberations from other branches of government.
Barr plans to address whether executive privilege was invoked by the White House in the Russia report to be released on Thursday and also elaborate on Justice Department communications with the White House over the past several weeks, a Justice Department spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that White House lawyers held talks with U.S. Justice Department officials in recent days about the conclusions in Mueller's report, aiding them in preparing for its release.
Democrats are concerned that Barr, appointed by Trump after the president fired former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, could black out material to protect the president.
Some Democrats have spoken of launching impeachment proceedings against Trump in Congress, allowed under the U.S. Constitution to remove a president from office for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors," but top Democrats have been notably cautious.
Mueller charged 34 people and three Russian companies. Those who were convicted or pleaded guilty included figures close to Trump such as his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, personal lawyer Michael Cohen and national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Since Barr released the March 24 letter, Trump has claimed "complete and total exoneration," and condemned the inquiry as "an illegal takedown that failed." At a March 28 rally in Michigan, Trump said that "after three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead."
Justice Department regulations gave Barr broad authority to decide how much of Mueller's report to make public, but Democrats have demanded the entire report as well as the underlying investigative files. Barr is due to testify to Congress in public about the report in early May.
The Justice Department has been working for weeks to prepare the redactions, which will be color coded to reflect the reason material is omitted.
Barr said he would redact parts to protect secret grand jury information, intelligence-gathering sources and methods, material that could affect ongoing investigations and information that unduly infringes on the privacy of "peripheral third parties" who were not charged.
The release comes as both parties gear up for the November 2020 presidential election. Trump already has launched his campaign for a second four-year term, and a crowded field of Democrats has formed to seek the nomination to challenge him.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Doina Chiacu, Andy Sullivan, Jan Wolfe, Nathan Layne, Karen Freifeld and Makini Brice; Writing by John Whitesides and Will Dunham, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US Attorney General William Barr plans to issue a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday.
"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees.
He said he is willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller's report on May 1 and May 2.
Mueller completed his 22-month investigation probe into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia on March 22.
On Sunday, Barr sent a 4-page letter to Congress that outlined Mueller's main findings. Barr told lawmakers that Mueller's investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in its election interference activities.
Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Barr said that based on the evidence presented, he concluded it was not sufficient to charge the president with obstruction.
He said his 4-page letter on Sunday "was not, and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting" of Mueller's investigation and said he believes the public should be allowed to read it and judge for themselves.
"I do not believe it would be in the public's interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or release it in serial or piecemeal fashion," he wrote.
Lawmakers have since been clamoring for more details, with Democrats calling for a full release of the report and some lawmakers urging a deadline of April 2.
Barr said in his letter on Friday that certain information must be redacted before the report is released, including secret grand jury information, intelligence sources, and methods and information that by law cannot be public or might infringe on privacy.
He said Trump has the right to assert executive privilege on some materials but that "Trump has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me."
Because of that, he said, there are no plans for the Justice Department to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review.
At a rally on Thursday in Michigan, Trump celebrated the end of the investigation and what he called "lies and smears and slander."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Top congressional Democrats said Sunday it was "urgent" that the full report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election be publicly released, stressing it does not exonerate President Donald Trump.
"The fact that Special Counsel (Robert) 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," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.
They also said Attorney General Bill Barr, nominated just months ago by Trump, is "not a neutral observer" in the process and that his summary of the report, delivered to Congress earlier, is not an objective determination about Mueller's findings.
The two Democrats also said that Trump's declaration that the report is a complete exoneration of the president because it clears him of colluding with Russia "directly contradicts the words of Mr Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Here is a timeline of significant developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 US presidential election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow.
2017
May 17 - US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and to look into any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Trump's campaign.
The appointment follows President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 and days later Trump attributed the dismissal to "this Russia thing."
June 15 - Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports.
Oct. 30 - Veteran Republican political operative and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who worked for the campaign for 5 pivotal months in 2016, is indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States and money laundering as is his business partner Rick Gates, who also worked for Trump's campaign.
- Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.
Dec. 1 - Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month who also had a prominent campaign role, pleads guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his discussions in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to Washington.
2018
Feb. 16 - Federal grand jury indicts 13 Russians and 3 firms, including a Russian government propaganda arm called the Internet Research Agency, accusing them of tampering to support Trump and disparage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The accused "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 US presidential election" according to the court document filed by Mueller.
- An American, Richard Pinedo, pleads guilty to identity fraud for selling bank account numbers after being accused by prosecutors of helping Russians launder money, buy Facebook ads and pay for campaign rally supplies. Pinedo was not associated with the Trump campaign.
Feb. 22 - Manafort and Gates are charged with financial crimes, including bank fraud, in Virginia.
Feb. 23 - Gates pleads guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agrees to cooperate and testify against Manafort at trial.
April 3 - Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, is sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to Mueller's investigators, becoming the first person sentenced in the probe.
April 9 - FBI agents raid home, hotel room and office of Trump's personal lawyer and self-described "fixer" Michael Cohen.
April 12 - Rosenstein tells Trump that he is not a target in Mueller's probe.
April 19 - Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter in the election campaign, joins Trump's personal legal team.
June 8 - Mueller charges a Russian-Ukrainian man, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort business partner whom prosecutors say had ties to Russian intelligence, with witness tampering.
July 13 - Federal grand jury indicts 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 and staged releases of documents. Russia, which denies interfering in the election, says there is no evidence that the 12 are linked to spying or hacking.
July 16 - In Helsinki after the first summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly contradicts US intelligence agencies that concluded Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda. Trump touts Putin's "extremely strong and powerful" denial of meddling. He calls the Mueller inquiry a "rigged witch hunt" on Twitter.
Aug. 21 - A trial jury in Virginia finds Manafort guilty of 5 counts of tax fraud, 2 counts of bank fraud and 1 count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account.
- Cohen, in a case brought by US prosecutors in New York, pleads guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance law violations. Cohen is subsequently interviewed by Mueller's team.
Aug. 31 - Samuel Patten, an American business partner of Kilimnik, pleads guilty to unregistered lobbying for pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine.
Sept. 14 - Manafort pleads guilty to 2 conspiracy counts and signs a cooperation agreement with Mueller's prosecutors.
Nov. 8 - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump's request. He had recused himself from overseeing the Mueller inquiry because of his contacts with the Russian ambassador as a Trump campaign official. Trump appoints Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, a critic of the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general.
Nov. 20 - Giuliani says Trump submitted written answers to questions from Mueller, as the president avoids a face-to-face interview with the special counsel.
Nov. 27-28 - Prosecutors say Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to investigators, which Manafort denies. Trump says he has not ruled out granting Manafort a presidential pardon.
Nov. 28 - Giuliani says Trump told investigators he was not aware ahead of time of a meeting in Trump Tower in New York between several campaign officials and Russians in June 2016.
Nov. 29 - Cohen pleads guilty in the Mueller investigation to lying to Congress about the length of discussions in 2016 on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. "I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1's political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1," says Cohen, who previously identified "individual 1" as Trump.
- The president criticizes Cohen as a liar and "weak person."
Dec. 12 - Two developments highlight growing political and legal risks for Trump: Cohen sentenced to 3 years in prison for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the election; American Media Inc, publisher of National Enquirer tabloid, strikes deal to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments. Publisher admits payment was aimed at influencing the 2016 election, contradicting Trump's statements.
2019
Jan. 25 - Longtime Trump associate and self-proclaimed political "dirty trickster" Roger Stone charged and arrested at his home in Florida. Stone is accused of lying to Congress about statements suggesting he may have had advance knowledge of plans by Wikileaks to release Democratic Party campaign emails that US officials say were stolen by Russia.
Feb. 21 - US judge tightens gag order on Stone, whose Instagram account posted a photo of the judge and the image of crosshairs next to it.
Feb. 22 - Manhattan district attorney's office is pursuing New York state criminal charges against Manafort whether or not he receives a pardon from Trump on federal crimes, a person familiar with the matter says. Trump cannot issue pardons for state convictions.
Feb. 24 - Senior Democratic US Representative Adam Schiff says Democrats will subpoena Mueller's final report on his investigation if it is not given to Congress by the Justice Department, and will sue the Trump administration and call on Mueller to testify to Congress if necessary.
Feb. 27 - Cohen tells US House Oversight Committee Trump is a "racist," a "con man" and a "cheat" who knew in advance about a release of emails by WikiLeaks in 2016 aimed at hurting rival Clinton. Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow during the campaign even as he publicly said he had no business interests in Russia, Cohen testifies.
March 7 - Manafort is sentenced in the Virginia case to almost 4 years in prison. The judge also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.
March 13 - Manafort is sentenced to about 3-1/2 more years in prison in the Washington case, bringing his total prison sentence in the 2 special counsel cases to 7-1/2 years.
- On the same day, the Manhattan district attorney announces a separate indictment charging Manafort with residential mortgage fraud and other New York state crimes, which unlike the federal charges cannot be erased by a presidential pardon.
March 22 - Mueller submits his confidential report on the findings of his investigation to US Attorney General William Barr.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - When members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russia's role in the 2016 US election have arrived for work each day, they have placed their mobile phones in a locker outside of their office suite before entering.
Operating in secrecy in a nondescript glass-and-concrete office, the team of prosecutors and investigators since May 2017 has unearthed secrets that have led to bombshell charges against several of President Donald Trump's aides, including his former national security adviser, campaign chairman and personal lawyer, who have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.
To protect those secrets from prying ears, the whole of the office suite in southwest Washington has been designated a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), US spy speak for an area that has restrictions to ensure secret information stays secure.
One common restriction in SCIFs is to keep out smartphones and other electronic devices, which can be turned into covert listening devices or spy cameras. Visitors also have been required to turn these over before entering.
The restrictions, while not surprising given the team was investigating whether a hostile foreign power tried to help Trump win the 2016 election and whether his campaign conspired in the effort, have not been previously reported.
Mueller is widely expected to conclude his work anytime and send a report to the US attorney general. It is unclear how much of the report will be made public.
Accounts of witnesses interviewed by the special counsel's team, their lawyers and others familiar with the investigation reveal the lengths to which Mueller, a former FBI director, has gone to ensure his high-profile probe safeguarded its secrets.
In a city known for its leaks, Mueller has pulled off a rare feat. He has kept a tight lid on both his office and the evidence he was amassing in his highly sensitive investigation that has cast a cloud over Trump's presidency. And he did it even as Trump relentlessly criticized him, calling the probe a "witch hunt" and the special counsel's team "thugs."
THE ADVISER AND THE DODGE CHARGER
When former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo agreed to an interview with Mueller in May 2018, he was told he would be picked up at the hotel where he was staying in Washington. On the lookout for a black government SUV, Caputo and his lawyer were surprised when an FBI agent drove up in his personal car, a white Dodge Charger.
"Then he drove us 15 blocks to their location and we went in through the garage so that nobody would see," Caputo said in an interview.
Caputo was questioned about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort's aide Rick Gates and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone. When the interview was over, Mueller's team told him they would take him back to his hotel. Caputo said Mueller's team was not happy with what he said next.
"I said I'm meeting a TV crew downstairs so I won't need a ride," Caputo said. "They weren't upset that I was talking to the media, they were disturbed that I was doing it in (front of) the office."
"They were concerned ... that would put their agents and attorneys at risk," Caputo said, adding that he agreed to meet the news crew at a different location nearby.
Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg said an FBI agent picked him up at the train station to take him to the office.
"You put your phone and any electronic devices and leave them in a compartment out front," Nunberg added. "It was a very plain office."
Nunberg said he went into a conference room with three tables, and prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, a member of Mueller's team, came in with three FBI agents, one female and two males.
The office's location was not publicly revealed but was discovered by journalists. Still, it has not been widely publicized. Mueller's team has asked media outlets not to publish the exact location for security purposes.
"We are working in a secure location in Southwest DC," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, has said.
STAYING OUT OF THE NEWS
"In a town where everybody and their mother is trying to get on the front page, Bob Mueller was always trying to stay out of the news," said Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department spokesman. "He wanted to be judged on actions, not press conferences."
Corallo, who was briefly a spokesman for Trump's legal team, was interviewed by Mueller's team in February 2018.
Corallo and other witnesses summoned for interviews by Mueller's team said they were picked up from their lawyers' offices and taken to a secure parking garage in the building in southwest Washington.
The team's office suite was anonymous with no plaque on the door to identify its occupants, said Washington lawyer A. Joseph Jay, who represented a witness he declined to identify.
More than once, Jay recalled, members of Mueller's team expressed their commitment to confidentiality. "They made it clear on a number of occasions, 'We don't leak. You don't have to worry about that with us.'"
"By keeping to their code of silence, they were professionals," Jay said. "They weren't reacting to the spin. They were doing their jobs. They spoke through a number of indictments. They spoke through a number of sentencing memos."
Mueller has remained silent throughout the investigation and his office has issued only one statement. In that statement, issued this past January, spokesman Carr labeled as "not accurate" a BuzzFeed News account describing evidence collected by the special counsel that allegedly showed that Trump had directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal. BuzzFeed has stood by its story.
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, himself a former federal prosecutor, also remarked on Mueller staying out of sight.
"Whenever we talk to them, they say, 'We'll take it to Bob.' He's like the Wizard of Oz," Giuliani said.
Giuliani said although he was suspicious of leaks to the news media, he acknowledged he knew of none for sure from the special counsel's team and that nothing he told Mueller's office was leaked.
"Mueller doesn't talk to us. I don't know why he'd talk to the press," the former New York mayor added.
Joseph Campbell, a former assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division who worked at the agency when Mueller headed it, said the special counsel knows how to handle sensitive investigations and ignores the attacks on him.
"He went through 12 years starting with 9/11 of extremely critical and sensitive investigations around the world," said Campbell, referring to the 2001 attacks on the United States. "This is right in his wheelhouse."
"He is not affected by external criticism or speculation," Campbell added.
Robert Litt, former general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said any leaks about the investigation appeared to have come from witnesses or their lawyers.
"There's nothing he can do about that," Litt said, referring to Mueller.
Litt said Mueller, the 74-year-old former U.S. Marine Corps officer and architect of the modern FBI, probably "cares little about the public perception of him."
"He cares," Litt said, "about doing the job right."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said in a sentencing memo released Saturday that President Donald Trump's former campaign director Paul Manafort was a "bold" criminal who "repeatedly and brazenly" broke the law.
Manafort, 69, who pleaded guilty to 2 conspiracy charges, faces sentencing on March 13. The memo addressed to the judge in charge of his case did not recommend a specific sentence -- but outlined the gravity of his crimes.
It said he violated the law for years and his sentence "must take into account the gravity of this conduct," to deter both Manafort and anyone who would commit similar crimes.
Manafort is one of 6 former Trump associates and senior aides who have been charged by Mueller's team, which is believed to be nearing the end of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
"Manafort committed an array of felonies for over a decade, up through the fall of 2018," the memo said, naming crimes including tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, bank fraud and violating a law related to lobbying.
"His criminal actions were bold," it continued, pointing out that they continued after he was charged, including attempting to tamper with witnesses, and lying to the FBI, government agencies and even his own lawyer.
Mueller's office last week said it agreed with a Justice Department calculation that Manafort should face up to 24 years in prison, after he was found to have violated a plea deal which agreed to a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Earlier this month, District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed with prosecutors that Manafort had "intentionally" lied to investigators about his contacts with a suspected Russian operative, Konstantin Kilimnik, in 2016 and 2017 -- despite having pledged to cooperate as part of his September plea agreement.
Jackson also ruled that Manafort had lied about a secretive payment he made to a law firm, and lied on another occasion when investigators queried him about a separate, still secret investigation related to the Mueller probe.
Dated Friday, the memo was expected to be made public on Friday evening -- but was not released until Saturday, with several passages redacted.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
US President Donald Trump's intensifying attacks this week against the Russia collusion investigation underscore a growing nervousness over the how much evidence investigators may have accumulated on the 2016 Trump campaign's ties to Moscow.
In new charges unveiled Thursday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, former top Trump aide Michael Cohen admitted direct communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin's office on behalf of Trump's business through the first half of 2016.
Trump, who earlier tweeted that the Mueller probe was an "illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt," blasted Cohen as a "weak person" who lied to get a reduced sentence.
But the most recent news from the investigation suggests that Mueller, a cagey former FBI director, is holding back and could have more shocks in store for the US leader as he nears the conclusion of the 18-month-old investigation.
Cohen talked to top Putin aide
Cohen, who was Trump's personal lawyer and a senior executive in the president's real estate business, the Trump Organization, admitted to having lied to Congress about trying to negotiate a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow well into the middle of 2016, even when Trump had wrapped up the Republican nomination for president.
Trump in the past denied any ongoing contacts with Moscow. But the criminal complaint filed Thursday depicts Cohen in regular contact with Putin's top spokesman Dmitry Peskov during that period, seeking to arrange a trip by Trump to Russia to meet Putin.
The complaint also says that Cohen kept senior Trump campaign figures, including members of Trump's family, informed of these efforts -- suggesting Trump himself might have been in the loop. That could be trouble for a number of people if they have denied to Mueller or Congress knowledge of Russia contacts during that period.
The WikiLeaks nexus
Mueller has already shown he has evidence that the Trump campaign and Trump's family entertained offers of dirt on Clinton from Russia.
He is expected to soon charge conservative activist Jerome Corsi and campaign advisor Roger Stone in relation to their alleged attempts to coordinate with WikiLeaks over July-October 2016 as the group published Democratic emails damaging to Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton.
The US says the emails were hacked by Russian intelligence which supplied them to WikiLeaks, aiming to tilt the election in Trump's favor. Mueller has already indicted 25 Russians as part of a criminal "conspiracy" to influence the election.
The key question is, does Mueller have evidence that, in trying to contact WikiLeaks, Corsi and Stone were working on behalf of and with the knowledge of Trump or top Trump campaign officials? And would that mean they could be seen as conspiring with the Russians?
Manafort's broken cooperation deal
On Monday Mueller accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of violating a cooperation deal by lying to investigators. What the lies were about remains a mystery, but it could underscore what most observers believe: that Mueller has far more evidence than his targets know.
Trump has held out the possibility of a pardon to Manafort, who he says was treated "cruelly" by the investigation. Now questions are being raised on whether Trump has obstructed justice by suggesting the pardon.
Mueller's questionnaire for Trump
The new Cohen and Manafort charges came just after Trump returned answers to a long list of questions submitted to him by Mueller that focus on Russia contacts.
The White House delayed answering the questions since the beginning of this year, worried that Trump could be trapped in a possible lie by making statements contrary to evidence presented Mueller by others.
Trump's anger about the investigation raises the possibility that his answers might be contradicted by Cohen, Manafort and others.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
