All 448 pages of the Mueller Report were released early Thursday morning. It's a lot to digest, so we turned to The New York Times, which offered some key points.
- Donald Trump did try to derail the investigation by, among other things, getting rid of Mueller, but his staff failed to cooperate with his wishes. When Trump heard a special counsel had been appointed to investigate Russian meddling in the election, he told then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, "This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. I'm [bleeped]."
- The report highlights a lot of lies and changing stories, including at least one from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who admitted that she released a statement "in the heat of the moment that was not founded on anything."
- Since the release of the report, Trump has repeatedly said the report exonerated him. That's not true. Mueller's team wrote that his conduct in office "presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred."
- Dodging being interviewed by the FBI helped Trump. Mueller had a bunch of questions that probably would have made things worse for Trump, had he sat and answered them.
- There was no evidence of conspiracy, but plenty of reasons for an investigation, including a claim from Trump campaign aide George Papdopoulos suggesting the Russian government offered to help Trump sabotage Hillary Clinton's campaign.
- In summary, Trump continually wanted to halt the investigation, the White House had ever-changing stories and the campaign had repeated contacts with Russian officials.
- While some may dismiss this all as "fake news," the report points out that most of the unflattering stories about Trump were true, and even when the White House knew this, they attacked and criticized journalists.