Donald Trump said ‘This is the end of my presidency. I’m f***ed,’ when told about Mueller investigation
The US President told former Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election was "the worst thing to ever happen to me"
DONALD Trump said "This is the end of my presidency. I'm f***ed" when he was first told about Robert Mueller's investigation, the special counsel's redacted reports says.
The US President made the comment to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he told him about the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
According to Sessions' chief of staff Jody Hunt, the brash New York billionaire said: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm f***ed."
Trump, angry at the attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the investigation, asked Sessions: "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" the reports claims.
The outspoken US leader reportedly told Sessions that he'd heard special counsels ruin presidencies and that the probe could take "years and years and I won't be able to do anything."
The report says that The Donald declared: "This is the worst thing to ever happen to me."
In the 448-page document, which found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, it is claimed that the Republican firebrand tried to have Mueller fired.
Mueller was appointed in May 2017 after the US President sacked FBI director James Comey - who was heading the investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Moscow.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was then appointed to oversee the special counsel after Sessions recused himself because of his fervent support for Trump during the election.
Following the publishing of the redacted document, the former Apprentice host posted a triumphant "Game Over" tweet as it was announced Mueller's report has cleared him of collusion with Russia and obstructing justice.
The "Game of Thrones" inspired tweet came as Attorney General William Barr made public the findings of former FBI director Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign's contacts with the Kremlin and allegations of obstruction of justice by the president.
What we know about Mueller's report:
- The Mueller report was a 22-month long investigation into possible collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russa.
- Attorney General William Barr said the report found no evidence of collusion between the President and Moscow.
- Mueller's report did not say Trump was exonerated from obstruction of justice, however, and found at least 10 occasions where Trump may have tried to interfere with the investigation.
- Trump has nevertheless declared the report a total victory and celebrated with a bizarre Game of Thrones themed meme tweet.
Speaking at a press conference to present the report, Barr said Mueller’s probe found no collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow.
"No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats. Game over," read Trump's response.
The page report marks the culmination of former FBI director Mueller’s 22-month investigation and was first submitted to Barr at the end of last month.
The probe began in May 2017, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former Mueller as a special counsel to investigate any possible meddling.
But despite Mueller finding no collusion between Trump and the Kremlin, the President appears not to be in entirely in the clear.
The Special Counsel says in his report he lacked confidence to clear Trump of obstruction of justice.
He suggested Congress could take action on at least 10 instances where the president sought to interfere with the probe.
Trump had tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president, the report found.
Exonerating the President of collusion, Barr said President Trump has faced an "unprecedented situation" and there has been "relentless speculation".
"Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion," the Attorney General said.
"The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process but thanks to the special counsel's thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign," Barr said.
ATTACKS ON INVESTIGATION
The report also states the President engaged in "public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both private and public to encourage witnesses not cooperate with the investigation".
The report says Trump directed ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask former Attorney General Sessions to say the Russia investigation was "very unfair".
In response Trump told Mueller he had no recollection of several key events in Mueller's probe, including a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top aides and a Russian lawyer offering aid to his campaign.
The President also told Mueller he had no recollection that he was told that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to aid his campaign or hurt Hillary Clinton's 2016 effort, or that any foreign leader wanted to help his candidacy.
Ahead of the report’s full release the President tweeted the investigation was the "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!" adding that it amounted to “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”.
"Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats," he wrote in a string of tweets in the hours before the report’s release.
After the report's release the President said he was a "having a good day".
"We do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say, and this should never happen to another president again," he said.
Mueller's remit was to look into any links and coordination between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Trump’s campaign.
The appointment followed Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 which Trump attributed to “this Russia thing”.
Mueller's inquiry has seen charges brought against several of Trump's inner circle.
An early casualty was Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser who also had a prominent campaign role.
He pleaded guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his discussions in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to Washington.
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