Robert Mueller testifies before the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, when the former special counsel will likely face questions about whether President Donald Trump made efforts to obstruct justice.

Mueller’s report, released in April, detailed 10 incidents that the special counsel’s office looked at to see if Trump obstructed justice.



“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’s report states.

[Read More: Trump’s Efforts To ‘Influence’ Russia Probe Got Foiled By His Staff, Mueller Says]

Obstruction of justice is a serious charge that could be grounds for impeachment. It was part of the articles of impeachment against presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.

Here is a rundown of the 10 episodes of potential obstruction mentioned in the Mueller report:

1. Trump suggested “letting Flynn go.”

In December 2016, during the transition, Michael Flynn, who would become national security adviser, had two calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which they discussed newly imposed U.S. sanctions on Russia. Flynn later lied to administration officials and the FBI about the calls, which got him fired from the White House and later resulted in him pleading guilty to lying to investigators.

On Jan. 27, 2017, Trump had a private dinner with then-FBI Director James Comey in which he asked for Comey’s loyalty. In a private conversation the next day, Trump told Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” according to Mueller’s redacted report.

Trump later instructed K.T. McFarland, then the deputy national security adviser, to contact Flynn, “telling him the President felt bad for him and that he should stay strong,” the report states. Mueller’s redacted report discusses whether Trump’s actions amount to obstruction of justice but does not make a definitive pronouncement.

2. Trump pushed Sessions to reverse his recusal from the Russia probe.

Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessionsrecused himself from the Russia investigation in early 2017 after reports that he had twice met with Ambassador Kislyak in 2016. Sessions’ recusal infuriated Trump, who privately asked the attorney general to reverse his decision. After Comey confirmed the existence of the Russia investigation in March 2017, the redacted report states Trump “contacted Comey and other intelligence agency leaders and asked them to push back publicly” on suggestions the president was connected to Russian meddling.

The special counsel found that “the evidence does not establish that the President asked or directed intelligence agency leaders to stop or interfere with the FBI’s Russia investigation” in this specific case. But the redacted report states the incident helps illuminate Trump’s motivations behind other actions with regard to the investigation and notes that he “complained to advisors that if people thought Russia helped him with the election, it would detract from what he had accomplished.”

3. Trump fired Comey.

Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017, and “acknowledged that he intended to fire Comey regardless of the DOJ recommendation and was thinking of the Russia investigation when he made the decision,” according to the redacted report. Trump was angered that Comey had not publicly stated that Trump wasn’t under investigation and worried the investigation would limit what he could do while in office.

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I.,” Trump told Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after Comey’s firing, according to the report. “He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off ..... I’m not under investigation.”

There is evidence that Trump’s firing of Comey was an attempt to “protect himself from an investigation into his campaign,” according to the redacted report. But it also states that “the evidence does not establish that the termination of Comey was designed to cover up a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia.”

4. Trump tried to get rid of Mueller.

After special counsel Robert Mueller took his post in May 2017, Trump fumed to senior advisers that Mueller had conflicts of interest but was told that his criticisms had no grounds and were “ridiculous.” Nevertheless, Trump twice called White House Counsel Don McGahn to tell him that he wanted Mueller removed due to those perceived conflicts of interest ― the latter time more forcefully directing McGahn to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire him.

“McGahn recalled the President telling him ‘Mueller has to go’ and ‘Call me back when you do it.’ … McGahn understood the President to be saying that the Special Counsel had to be removed by Rosenstein,” the redacted report states.

McGahn decided that he would not carry out the president’s order and instead informed White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that he intended to resign, telling Priebus “that the President had asked him to ‘do crazy shit.’” Although McGahn ultimately did not resign and Trump did not follow up with him again, the redacted report discusses whether or not Trump’s actions were attempts to obstruct justice.