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President Trump has spent the last two years denouncing the “fake news” media, and yet some of the key moments in Robert S. Mueller III’s report were uncovered or bolstered through journalists’ investigative scrutiny. Moreover, in seeking to find out whether the president had obstructed justice, Mr. Mueller and his team looked to the administration’s public and private responses to reports in the media.

The Mueller report cites work from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other news outlets dozens of times. Some of the stories published over the past two years were important turning points for the investigation. The report also reveals moments when the president and his aides rebutted stories they knew were true. Televised interviews figure prominently in the report as well. The president’s now-famous sit-down with Lester Holt on “NBC Nightly News” and Rudolph Giuliani’s discussions of pardons for Paul Manafort on CNN were crucial viewing for the Mueller investigative team.

The report reveals a lot we didn’t know about how the president and his aides responded to overtures from Russia and how they attempted to thwart investigations. But many of the bombshells in the document were first reported by the press. Below, we’ve rounded up a selection of stories from The New York Times and The Washington Post that shaped this investigation.