Page 9 - Steele Report News Today

Responding to the presidents entreaties. >> he did not want to put himself in the middle of that. he did not want to have a role in asking the attorney general to fire the special counsel, correct? >> again, i refer you to the report and the way it is characterized in the report. >> thank you. volume 2, page 85 it states that he didnt want to have the attorney general -- he didnt want to have a role in trying to fire the attorney general. so at this point i would yield back. >> thank you, mr. ch...

Mueller to testify that he did not charge an obstruction because of this long-standing justice department legal memo called the olc memo. thats important because it again shows daylight between mueller and attorney general william barr. william barr has testified there was a meeting with mueller and others and in that meeting mueller told him he did not reach a decision on obstruction because of evidence, not because of the olc opinion. final point on the exchange with congressman ratcliffe, thi...

Meant there? >> ill leave it as it appears in the report. >> its fair to say the president tried to protect himself by asking staff to falsify records relevant to an ongoing investigation. >> i would say thats generally a summary. >> would you say that that action, the president tried to hamper the investigation by asking staff to falsify records relevant to your investigation. >> ill refer you to the report if i could for review of that episode. >> thank you. also the presidents attempt to get ...

Question. >> martha: chris wallace was saying while we were watching all this. it was two difference paths. they wanted him to animate the words of the report and then there was also the line nail him down with yes or no answers. in terms of the questioning. it seems like theyve gone with the latter mostly, chris. >> i had to laugh a little bit when you talked about the testimony by robert mueller because testimony has to be put in quotes. it really hasnt been much testimony. frankly, i think yo...

Regulations, not in the olc opinions and justice manuals and the -- nowhere do those words appear together because respectfully, director, it was not the special counsels job to constitution klunsively determine donald trumps innocence or exonerate him. the bedrock principle of our justice system is a presumption of innocence and it exists for everyone. everyone is en titleed to it including sitting presidents. because there is a presumption of innocence prosecutors never, ever need to conclusiv...

On page 103 of volume 2 of your report when discussing the june 2016 trump tower meeting you reference the firm that produced steele report, unquote. the name of that firm was fusion gps, is that correct? >> youre on page 103? >> thats correct, volume 2. when you talk about the firm that produced the steele reporting, the name of the firm that produced that was fusion gps, is that correct? >> im not familiar with that. >> its not a trick question or anything. it was fusion gps. fusion gps produc...

Staff-driven investigation. that also fills in some of the blanks with regard to when bill barr put out that four-page summary of the findings there was this pushback from mueller and now it appears it probably came from muellers team saying listen, boss, we need you to get out there and say that this is not accurately reflecting the work we did for the last two years. >> this was a staff-driven operation. president trumps claim these were partisans will certainly be looked at again and i think ...

>> on page 113 it says quote, the president then directed porter to tell mcgahn to create a record to make it clear that the president never directed mcgahn to fire you, end quote, is that correct? >> that is as stated in the report. >> and you found, quote, the president said he wanted mcgahn to write a letter to the file for our records, correct? >> correct. >> and to be clear the president is asking his white house counsel, don mcgahn, to create a record that mcgahn believed to be untrue whil...

Counted 126 contacts between russians or their agents and trump campaign officials or their associates. would that sound about right? >> i cant say. i understand the statistic and i believe it -- i understand the statistic. >> mr. mueller, i appreciate you being here and your report. from your testimony and the report, i think the american people have learned several things. first, the russians wanted trump to win. second, the russians went on a sweeping cyber influence campaign. the russians ha...

Elections effectively ending your investigation into the 2016 trump campaign, is that correct? >> im not going to adopt your characterization. ill say facts as laid out in the report are accurate. >> in your report you write at page 99 -- 97 substantial evidence indicates that the presidents effort to have sessions limit the scope of the special counsels investigation to future elections interference was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the president and his campaigns conduc...