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"There are two ways to think. The first is to trust to your ancestors, your religious leaders, or your charismatic professors. The second is to question, to challenge, to explore history for meanings, and to analyze issues. This latter is called Critical Thinking, and it is this that is the mission of my web site. "

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman  

May 2019

The Mueller Report Summaries Part 2


Volume I summarizes the Russian social media campaign through hacking the Democrats, feeding the results to the press, and timing such releases to inflict maximum damage on the Democrats. The report documents four major contacts between Trump operatives, the Trump family, and candidate Trump himself. The Russians did not just try to corrupt our election; they succeeded. The report concludes that the Russians not only tried to impact our electoral system, they actually succeeded.

The four contacts were:
1. The Trump Tower Moscow promotion in 2015, trying to get Russian monetary investment.

2. Spring, 2015 when campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos contacted a London-based person with Russian connections to secure "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in thousands of hacked emails. Papadopoulos tried, but failed, to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian government.

3. Summer 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians in hopes of getting "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The meeting did not provide anything useful. Also, Carter Page went to Moscow and met two Russian intel officers (one of them charged with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of Russia). Page was removed from the Campaign. Also, Paul Manafort under instruction by Russian operative Kilimnik tried to insert pro-Russian Ukraine plank into Republican Platform.

4. Fall of 2016, Candidate Trump bragged to a broadcaster (on tape) that "when you are a star, they (women) let you do `everything you want" The scandal of this was obscured by a sudden dump of new Hillary Clinton hacked emails. However, there was not enough evidence of deliberate cooperation or conspiracy by the Trump circle [other than those already convicted and in prison, such as Manafort and Flynn] to indict.

Trump family financial connection to Russia are being investigated by other Federal agencies.

On December 20, 2016, President Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for having interfered in the election. He (and the FBI) warned Trump, but were ignored. Senate Chief McConnell refused to make this sanction bipartisan, therefor the warning, despite Intelligence Community verification, received little attention.

Trump resisted any effort to investigate the Russian campaign to infiltrate the Trump campaign. He feared that if true, his election success would be tarnished. When FBI Director James Comey continued to investigate and inform Congress, Trump asked him for a pledge of loyalty to him, and when refused, he fired him. This action launched the Mueller Commission into investigating, which alarmed Trump, who said to his staff: "This is the end of my presidency! I am fucked."

Despite the possibility of criminal behavior by Trump and his inner circle, Mueller was hampered in his investigation when individuals invoked their Fifth Amendment protections, lied in interviews, and destroyed documents. Other witnesses lived abroad, and documents were held outside the United States. Even so, a number of convictions were made that succeeded in court.

Volume II summary was an 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. The following were the factual results of this investigation.

Issues included: Trump lying about doing business in Russia as late as 2015. The attempt to interfere with FBI Director Comey?s investigation, ending in firing him. The attempt to get Attorney General Sessions to un-recuse himself from the investigation and to fire Mueller. The attempt to get his presidential attorney McGahn to fire Special Counsel Mueller, and then to instruct him to lie about it to investigators. Trump dangled pardons to witnesses Flynn, Manafort, and personal attorney Michal Cohen, if they would refuse to cooperate with the Mueller investigation.

Trump himself refused to meet with Mueller for questioning. He would refuse a subpoena, which would have thrown the issue into the courts, a lengthy process.

Mueller?s conclusion was that because of Justice Department rules, he could not indict a sitting President. However, were this a traditional prosecutorial judgment, indictment could have been made. Although he cannot exonerate him, he leaves this process to Congress, which constitutionally can pursue justice. The data provided is a blueprint for Impeachment.

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Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, lecturer, and author of God's Law or Man's Law. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.







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