Though Mueller did not reach a conclusion as to whether Trump obstructed justice by seeking to shut down the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the special counsel presented evidence of the president’s efforts to “influence” the probe and the witnesses who cooperated with it. But at least some of those efforts appear to have been stymied by members of the president’s own staff, who chose not to heed his orders. “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” Mueller wrote. Of those instances, Mueller cited a number of Trump administration officials who resisted the president’s efforts to limit the investigation. Mueller also shed more light on Trump’s efforts directing McGahn to fire the special counsel, an episode The New York Times first reported last year.

Source: Huffington Post April 18, 2019 17:03 UTC