Full Text of the Mueller Report's Executive Summaries Volume II

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TO VOLUME II
Our obstruction-of-justice inquiry focused on a series of actions by the President that related to the Russian-
interference investigations, including the President's conduct towards the law enforcement officials
overseeing the investigations and the witnesses to relevant events.
FACTUAL RESULTS OF THE OBSTRUCTION INVESTIGATION
The key issues and events we examined include the following:
The Campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump. During the 2016 presidential
campaign, questions arose about the Russian government's apparent support for candidate Trump. After
WikiLeaks released politically damaging Democratic Party emails that were reported to have been hacked by
Russia, Trump publicly expressed skepticism that Russia was responsible for the hacks at the same time that
he and other Campaign officials privately sought information [Redacted: Harm to Ongoing Matter] about
any further planned WikiLeaks releases. Trump also denied having any business in or connections to Russia,
even though as late as June 2016 the Trump Organization had been pursuing a licensing deal for a skyscraper
to be built in Russia called Trump Tower Moscow. After the election, the President expressed concerns to
advisors that reports of Russia's election interference might lead the public to question the legitimacy of his
election.
Conduct involving FBI Director Comey and Michael Flynn. In mid-January 2017, incoming National
Security Advisor Michael Flynn falsely denied to the Vice President, other administration officials, and FBI
agents that he had talked to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about Russia's response to U.S. sanctions
on Russia for its election interference. On January 27, the day after the President was told that Flynn had lied
to the Vice President and had made similar statements to the FBI, the President invited FBI Director Comey
to a private dinner at the White House and told Comey that he needed loyalty. On February 14, the day after
the President requested Flynn's resignation, the President told an outside advisor, "Now that we fired Flynn,
the Russia thing is over." The advisor disagreed and said the investigations would continue.
Later that afternoon, the President cleared the Oval Office to have a one-on-one meeting with Comey.
Referring to the FBI's investigation of Flynn, the President said, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting
this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." Shortly after requesting Flynn's
resignation and speaking privately to Comey, the President sought to have Deputy National Security Advisor
K.T. McFarland draft an internal letter stating that the President had not directed Flynn to discuss sanctions
with Kislyak. McFarland declined because she did not know whether that was true, and a White House
Counsel's Office attorney thought that the request would look like a quid pro quo for an ambassadorship she
had been offered.

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The President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation. In February 2017, Attorney General Jeff
Sessions began to assess whether he had to recuse himself from campaign-related investigations because of
his role in the Trump Campaign. In early March, the President told White House Counsel Donald McGahn to
stop Sessions from recusing. And after Sessions announced his recusal on March 2, the President expressed
anger at the decision and told advisors that he should have an Attorney General who would protect him. That
weekend, the President took Sessions aside at an event and urged him to "unrecuse." Later in March, Comey
publicly disclosed at a congressional hearing that the FBI was investigating "the Russian government's
efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election," including any links or coordination between the Russian
government and the Trump Campaign. In the following days, the President reached out to the Director of
National Intelligence and the leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security
Agency (NSA) to ask them what they could do to publicly dispel the suggestion that the President had any
connection to the Russian election-interference effort. The President also twice called Comey directly,
notwithstanding guidance from McGahn to avoid direct contacts with the Department of Justice. Comey had
previously assured the President that the FBI was not investigating him personally, and the President asked
Comey to "lift the cloud" of the Russia investigation by saying that publicly.
The President's termination of Comey. On May 3, 2017, Comey testified in a congressional hearing, but
declined to answer questions about whether the President was personally under investigation. Within days,
the President decided to terminate Comey. The President insisted that the termination letter, which was
written for public release, state that Comey had informed the President that he was not under investigation.
The day of the firing, the White House maintained that Comey's termination resulted from independent
recommendations from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General that Comey should be discharged
for mishandling the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But the President had decided to fire Comey before
hearing from the Department of Justice. The day after firing Comey, the President told Russian officials that
he had "faced great pressure because of Russia," which had been "taken off' by Comey's firing. The next day,
the President acknowledged in a television interview that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the
Department of Justice's recommendation and that when he "decided to just do it," he was thinking that "this
thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story." In response to a question about whether he was angry with
Comey about the Russia investigation, the President said, "As far as I'm concerned, I want that thing to be
absolutely done properly," adding that firing Comey "might even lengthen out the investigation."
The appointment of a Special Counsel and efforts to remove him. On May 17, 2017, the Acting Attorney
General for the Russia investigation appointed a Special Counsel to conduct the investigation and related
matters. The President reacted to news that a Special Counsel had been appointed by telling advisors that it
was "the end of his presidency" and demanding that Sessions resign. Sessions submitted his resignation, but
the President ultimately did not accept it. The President told aides that the Special Counsel had conflicts of
interest and suggested that the Special Counsel therefore could not serve. The President's advisors told him
the asserted conflicts were meritless and had already been considered by the Department of Justice.
On June 14, 2017, the media reported that the Special Counsel's Office was investigating whether the
President had obstructed justice. Press reports called this "a major turning point" in the investigation: while
Comey had told the President he was not under investigation, following Comey's firing, the President now
was under investigation. The President reacted to this news with a series of tweets criticizing the Department
of Justice and the Special Counsel's investigation. On June 17, 2017, the President called McGahn at home
and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of
interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would
resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre.

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Efforts to curtail the Special Counsel's investigation. Two days after directing McGahn to have the Special
Counsel removed, the President made another attempt to affect the course of the Russia investigation. On
June 19, 2017, the President met one-on-one in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey
Lewandowski, a trusted advisor outside the government, and dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver
to Sessions. The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from
the Russia investigation, the investigation was "very unfair" to the President, the President had done nothing
wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the Special Counsel and "let [him] move forward with
investigating election meddling for future elections." Lewandowski said he understood what the President
wanted Sessions to do.
One month later, in another private meeting with Lewandowski on July 19, 2017, the President asked about
the status of his message for Sessions to limit the Special Counsel investigation to future election
interference. Lewandowski told the President that the message would be delivered soon. Hours after that
meeting, the President publicly criticized Sessions in an interview with the New York Times, and then issued
a series of tweets making it clear that Sessions's job was in jeopardy. Lewandowski did not want to deliver
the President's message personally, so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to deliver it to
Sessions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through.
Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence. In the summer of 2017, the President learned that media
outlets were asking questions about the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between senior campaign
officials, including Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer who was said to be offering damaging
information about Hillary Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." On
several occasions, the President directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the June 9
meeting, suggesting that the emails would not leak and that the number of lawyers with access to them
should be limited. Before the emails became public, the President edited a press statement for Trump Jr. by
deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was with "an individual who [Trump Jr.] was told might
have information helpful to the campaign" and instead said only that the meeting was about adoptions of
Russian children. When the press asked questions about the President's involvement in Trump Jr.'s statement,
the President's personal lawyer repeatedly denied the President had played any role.
Further efforts to have the Attorney General take control of the investigation. In early summer 2017, the
President called Sessions at home and again asked him to reverse his recusal from the Russia investigation.
Sessions did not reverse his recusal. In October 20 17, the President met privately with Sessions in the Oval
Office and asked him to "take [a] look" at investigating Clinton. In December 2017, shortly after Flynn
pleaded guilty pursuant to a cooperation agreement, the President met with Sessions in the Oval Office and
suggested, according to notes taken by a senior advisor, that if Sessions unrecused and took back supervision
of the Russia investigation, he would be a "hero." The President told Sessions, "I'm not going to do anything
or direct you to do anything. I just want to be treated fairly." In response, Sessions volunteered that he had
never seen anything "improper" on the campaign and told the President there was a "whole new leadership
team" in place. He did not unrecuse.

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Efforts to have McGahn deny that the President had ordered him to have the Special Counsel removed. In
early 2018, the press reported that the President had directed McGahn to have the Special Counsel removed
in June 2017 and that McGahn had threatened to resign rather than carry out the order. The President reacted
to the news stories by directing White House officials to tell McGahn to dispute the story and create a record
stating he had not been ordered to have the Special Counsel removed. McGahn told those officials that the
media reports were accurate in stating that the President had directed McGahn to have the Special Counsel
removed. The President then met with McGahn in the Oval Office and again pressured him to deny the
reports. Tn the same meeting, the President also asked McGahn why he had told the Special Counsel about
the President's effort to remove the Special Counsel and why McGahn took notes of his conversations with
the President. McGahn refused to back away from what he remembered happening and perceived the
President to be testing his mettle.
Conduct towards Flynn, Manafort, [Redacted: Harm to Ongoing Matter]. After Flynn withdrew from a
joint defense agreement with the President and began cooperating with the government, the President's
personal counsel left a message for Flynn's attorneys reminding them of the President's warm feelings
towards Flynn, which he said "still remains," and asking for a "heads up" if Flynn knew "information that
implicates the President." When Flynn's counsel reiterated that Flynn could no longer share information
pursuant to a joint defense agreement, the President's personal counsel said he would make sure that the
President knew that Flynn's actions reflected " hostility" towards the President. During Manafort's
prosecution and when the jury in his criminal trial was deliberating, the President praised Manafort in public,
said that Manafort was being treated unfairly, and declined to rule out a pardon. After Manafort was
convicted, the President called Manafort “a brave man” for refusing to “break” and said that “flipping”
“almost ought to be outlawed.” [Redacted: Harm to Ongoing Matter]
Conduct involving Michael Cohen. The President's conduct towards Michael Cohen, a former Trump
Organization executive, changed from praise for Cohen when he falsely minimized the President's
involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow project, to castigation of Cohen when he became a cooperating
witness. From September 2015 to June 2016, Cohen had pursued the Trump Tower Moscow project on
behalf of the Trump Organization and had briefed candidate Trump on the project numerous times, including
discussing whether Trump should travel to Russia to advance the deal. In 2017, Cohen provided false
testimony to Congress about the project, including stating that he had only briefed Trump on the project
three times and never discussed travel to Russia with him, in an effort to adhere to a "party line" that Cohen
said was developed to minimize the President's connections to Russia. While preparing for his congressional
testimony, Cohen had extensive discussions with the President's personal counsel, who, according to Cohen,
said that Cohen should "stay on message" and not contradict the President. After the FBI searched Cohen's
home and office in April 2018, the President publicly asserted that Cohen would not "flip," contacted him
directly to tell him to "stay strong," and privately passed messages of support to him. Cohen also discussed
pardons with the President's personal counsel and believed that if he stayed on message he would be taken
care of. But after Cohen began cooperating with the government in the summer of 2018, the President
publicly criticized him, called him a "rat," and suggested that his family members had committed crimes.

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Overarching factual issues. We did not make a traditional prosecution decision about these facts, but the
evidence we obtained supports several general statements about the President's conduct.
Several features of the conduct we investigated distinguish it from typical obstruction-of-justice cases. First,
the investigation concerned the President, and some of his actions, such as firing the FBI director, involved
facially lawful acts within his Article II authority, which raises constitutional issues discussed below. At the
same time, the President's position as the head of the Executive Branch provided him with unique and
powerful means of influencing official proceedings, subordinate officers, and potential witnesses—all of
which is relevant to a potential obstruction-of-justice analysis. Second, unlike cases in which a subject
engages in obstruction of justice to cover up a crime, the evidence we obtained did not establish that the
President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. Although the
obstruction statutes do not require proof of such a crime, the absence of that evidence affects the analysis of
the President's intent and requires consideration of other possible motives for his conduct. Third, many of the
President's acts directed at witnesses, including discouragement of cooperation with the government and
suggestions of possible future pardons, took place in public view. That circumstance is unusual, but no
principle of law excludes public acts from the reach of the obstruction laws. If the likely effect of public acts
is to influence witnesses or alter their testimony, the harm to the justice system's integrity is the same.
Although the series of events we investigated involved discrete acts, the overall pattern of the President's
conduct towards the investigations can shed light on the nature of the President's acts and the inferences that
can be drawn about his intent. In particular, the actions we investigated can be divided into two phases,
reflecting a possible shift in the President's motives. The first phase covered the period from the President's
first interactions with Comey through the President's firing of Comey. During that time, the President had
been repeatedly told he was not personally under investigation. Soon after the firing of Comey and the
appointment of the Special Counsel, however, the President became aware that his own conduct was being
investigated in an obstruction-of-justice inquiry. At that point, the President engaged in a second phase of
conduct, involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both
public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation. Judgments about the nature
of the President's motives during each phase would be informed by the totality of the evidence.
STATUTORY AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSES
The President's counsel raised statutory and constitutional defenses to a possible obstruction-of-justice
analysis of the conduct we investigated. We concluded that none of those legal defenses provided a basis for
declining to investigate the facts.
Statutory defenses. Consistent with precedent and the Department of Justice's general approach to
interpreting obstruction statutes, we concluded that several statutes could apply here. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1503,
1505, 1512(b)(3), 1512(c)(2). Section 1512(c)(2) is an omnibus obstruction-of-justice provision that covers a
range of obstructive acts directed at pending or contemplated official proceedings. No principle of statutory
construction justifies narrowing the provision to cover only conduct that impairs the integrity or availability
of evidence. Sections 1503 and 1505 also offer broad protection against obstructive acts directed at pending
grand jury, judicial, administrative, and congressional proceedings, and they are supplemented by a provision
in Section 1512(b) aimed specifically at conduct intended to prevent or hinder the communication to law
enforcement of information related to a federal crime.

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Constitutional defenses. As for constitutional defenses arising from the President's status as the head of the
Executive Branch, we recognized that the Department of Justice and the courts have not definitively resolved
these issues. We therefore examined those issues through the framework established by Supreme Court
precedent governing separation-of-powers issues. The Department of Justice and the President's personal
counsel have recognized that the President is subject to statutes that prohibit obstruction of justice by bribing
a witness or suborning perjury because that conduct does not implicate his constitutional authority. 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.
Under applicable Supreme Court precedent, the Constitution does not categorically and permanently
immunize a President for obstructing justice through the use of his Article II powers. The separation-of-
powers doctrine authorizes Congress to protect official proceedings, including those of courts and grand
juries, from corrupt, obstructive acts regardless of their source. We also concluded that any inroad on
presidential authority that would occur from prohibiting corrupt acts does not undermine the President's
ability to fulfill his constitutional mission. The term "corruptly" sets a demanding standard. It requires a
concrete showing that a person acted with an intent to obtain an improper advantage for himself or someone
else, inconsistent with official duty and the rights of others. A preclusion of "corrupt" official action does not
diminish the President's ability to exercise Article Il powers. For example, the proper supervision of criminal
law does not demand freedom for the President to act with a corrupt intention of shielding himself from
criminal punishment, avoiding financial liability, or preventing personal embarrassment. To the contrary, a
statute that prohibits official action undertaken for such corrupt purposes furthers, rather than hinders, the
impartial and evenhanded administration of the law. It also aligns with the President's constitutional duty to
faithfully execute the laws. Finally, we concluded that in the rare case in which a criminal investigation of
the President's conduct is justified, inquiries to determine whether the President acted for a corrupt motive
should not impermissibly chill his performance of his constitutionally assigned duties. 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.
CONCLUSION
Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate
conclusions about the President's conduct. The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent
presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial
judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the
President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the
applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not
conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.

Full Text of the Mueller Report's Executive Summaries Volume II

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Full Text of the Mueller Report's Executive Summaries Volume II