Table of Contents

Introduction

Ryan Goodman, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Just Security

Volume I

1. The Special Counsel’s Investigation

Joshua Geltzer

2. Legal Standards and Evidentiary Considerations

Asha Rangappa

3. Russian “Active Measures” Social Media Campaign and Criminal Charges against 13 Russian Nationals and 3 Russian Entities

Kristen Eichensehr

4. Russian Hacking and Dumping Operations and Criminal Charges against 12 Russian Military Intelligence Officials

Jennifer Daskal

5. Trump Campaign Interest in Hacked Materials

Joshua Geltzer

6. Links and Contacts with Russia: Michael Cohen and Trump Tower Moscow

Kate Brannen

7. Links and Contacts with Russia: George Papadopoulos

Kate Brannen

8. Links and Contacts with Russia: Carter Page

Kate Brannen

9. Links and Contacts with Russia: Trump Tower June 2016 Meeting

Kate Brannen and Ryan Goodman

10. Links and Contacts with Russia: Paul Manafort

Rita Siemion

11. Links and Contacts with Russia: Michael Flynn

Barbara McQuade

12. Links and Contacts with Russia, Additional Individuals

Asha Rangappa

13. Charging Decisions: The Foreign Agent Registration Act

Jennifer Daskal

14. Charging Decisions: Accepting Information from Foreign Officials (campaign finance law)

Paul Seamus Ryan

15. Charging Decisions: False Statements and Obstruction of the Investigation

Barbara McQuade

Volume II

1. Setting the Stage: Investigation of a Sitting President and Overarching Factual Issues

Ryan Goodman

2. Legal Framework for Obstruction of Justice: Elements and Case Law

Asha Rangappa

3. Trump’s Response to Reports of Russian Support

Joshua Geltzer

4. Incident One: Shielding Flynn

Mimi Rocah

5. Incident Two: Pressuring FBI Director Comey and the Intelligence Chiefs

Barbara McQuade

6. Incident Three: Firing FBI Director Comey

Mimi Rocah

7. Incident Four: Efforts to Remove Special Counsel Mueller

Renato Mariotti

8. Incident Five: Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel Investigation

Barbara McQuade

9. Incident Six: Efforts to Prevent Disclosure of Emails about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting with Russians

Andy Wright

10. Incident Seven: Efforts to Have Attorney General Sessions Take Over the Investigation

Andy Wright

11. Incident Eight: Ordering White House Counsel McGahn to Deny that the President Tried to Fire the Special Counsel

Joyce Vance

12. Incident Nine: Conduct Toward Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort

Elie Honig

13. Incident Ten: Conduct Toward Michael Cohen

Elie Honig

14. Prebuttal I: Response to Possible Statutory Defenses

Joshua Geltzer

15. Prebuttal II: Response to Possible Constitutional Defenses

Harry Litman

Epilogue

George T. Conway III

Appendix: Additional Writings by Our Experts

Introduction to the Expert Summaries

By Ryan Goodman, Co-editor-in-chief, Just Security

At the time of publishing this online resource, the House Judiciary Committee is ramping up investigations that now include consideration of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. We at Just Security believe that it is accordingly more important than ever for Americans to be familiar with the contents of the Special Counsel’s Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. To that end, we have created a digestible summary of the Report, broken down into 30 sections, which can be read in five to 10 minutes each. Each summary aims to present, in clear and straightforward language and without additional analysis or commentary, the findings of the Special Counsel as he presented them to the Attorney General.

These summaries are relevant not only to current congressional processes, but also for the historical record. The Special Counsel’s investigation is significant for understanding the events of 2016 and the conduct of the President toward the investigation. There will surely be many lessons drawn from the Special Counsel’s Report in the years ahead. We have thus undertaken this project with the goal of providing an easily accessible resource for the present moment and far beyond it.

Our summaries are not intended to be a substitute for reading the Report itself, but rather as a helpful guide to the main themes, characters, and takeaways in the full Report. We hope that these summaries will render the original text more accessible for the general reader — much like reading a plot summary of a Shakespeare text makes following along with the play itself much easier. We also hope that this collection will serve as a convenient reference for journalists, commentators, and the general public when the events and individuals described in the Report are covered in the course of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation. We hope this resource will also serve as a convenient reference for the study of American legal history over time.

A few editorial notes about our summaries are in order. First, while we have generally followed the sequence of the investigative findings provided by the Special Counsel, we have in some cases combined information on the same topic or person found in different sections of the report into a single summary. The relevant pages of the original Report are listed at the top of each summary for reference. Second, the Report is so carefully written that the same sentences, phrases or clauses are sometimes repeated verbatim in the summaries in order to accurately convey the Special Counsel’s meaning. Quotation marks are used only when the Report itself used quotation marks, for example, in referring to a specific statement by a White House official or other witness. Again, the pages at the top of each summary should be considered the citations for all of the material contained therein.

Finally, we were fortunate and thrilled to have the best legal minds come together in this effort. The author of each summary is listed on his or her respective byline. Just Security would like to extend our enormous gratitude to the following individuals, who were critical to the swift, informed, articulate presentation of these summaries:

Kate Brannen*

George Conway

Jennifer Daskal

Kristen Eichensehr

Joshua Geltzer*

Ryan Goodman*

Elie Honig

Harry Litman

Renato Mariotti

Barbara McQuade

Asha Rangappa*

Mimi Rocah

Paul Seamus Ryan

Rita Siemion

Joyce Vance

Andy Wright

*Lead editors on the project.

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Volume 1.1

The Special Counsel’s Investigation

(pp. 1, 11-13)

By Joshua Geltzer

The Russian government interfered in America’s 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion, including by directing the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), yielding documents later released by WikiLeaks. After a foreign government contacted the FBI in July 2016 regarding a suggestion made by Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that the campaign had received offers of Russian assistance, the FBI opened an investigation into possible cooperation between the campaign and the Russian government. In October 2016, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence publicly attributed the DNC hack, among others, to the Russian government. By early 2017, several congressional committees were investigating Russian election interference.

The “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” represents the culmination of Robert S. Mueller III’s work from 2017 to 2019 as the Special Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice investigating Russian election interference. It was written by the Special Counsel’s Office and presented to Attorney General William P. Barr in order to explain the Office’s decisions to prosecute specific individuals and not to prosecute other individuals after over two years of investigative and legal work.

The Special Counsel’s work was governed by Justice Department regulations promulgated in 1999. Those regulations allow the attorney general to appoint a special counsel to oversee a criminal investigation when doing so (1) would avoid a conflict of interest for others at the Justice Department and (2) “would be in the public interest.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed the Special Counsel “to investigate Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election and related matters.” The appointment called for the Special Counsel specifically to continue the Russia-related counterintelligence investigation whose existence then-FBI Director James Comey had confirmed publicly in congressional testimony and “to ensure a full and thorough investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.” Moreover, the appointment order authorized the Special Counsel to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation,” and “any other matters” otherwise within the scope set out by the special counsel regulations.

Additionally, the order appointing the Special Counsel referred specifically to the section of the Justice Department regulations that provided the Office with “authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel’s investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses.” The Special Counsel’s authority to investigate “any matters that arose … directly from the investigation” permitted the Special Counsel to investigate these same sorts of crimes—such as obstruction of justice—even if they were committed before the Special Counsel took over the Russia investigation, such as while it was still being overseen at the FBI by Comey.

In addition to his order appointing the Special Counsel, Rosenstein subsequently provided two memoranda clarifying the scope of the Special Counsel’s work. The first indicated that the Special Counsel had been authorized since his appointment specifically to investigate three Trump campaign officials—Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and George Papadopoulos—including whether they engaged in criminal activity through their links to the Russian government as it attempted to interfere in the 2016 election. The same memorandum also confirmed the Special Counsel’s authority to investigate a range of other matters, such as additional allegations involving Manafort and Papadopoulos as well as allegations against Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn. The second clarifying memorandum confirmed the Special Counsel’s authority to investigate a range of additional matters, including activities of Trump associates Michael Cohen, Richard Gates, and Roger Stone, as well as allegations that, during his Attorney General confirmation process, Jeff Sessions had made false statements to the U.S. Senate.

Guided by these instructions, the Special Counsel made use of the substantial evidence already collected before his appointment while also obtaining significantly more evidence, including both classified and unclassified information. During the course of the Special Counsel’s work, two district courts—one in Washington, D.C., and another in Virginia—confirmed the broad scope of the Special Counsel’s mandate in the course of denying challenges to criminal charges brought by the Office. When the Special Counsel identified evidence of potential criminal activity that fell outside his mandate, he consulted with Rosenstein’s office and referred it to other law enforcement authorities, such as other parts of the Justice Department.

The Special Counsel’s team included, at its peak, 19 attorneys as well as support staff. It also included approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic experts, and additional staff. The Office issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search-and-seizure warrants, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

The nature of the investigation that the Special Counsel took over—a counterintelligence investigation—meant that, in addition to pursuing criminal charges, it was clear from the outset that the Office would identify foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information relevant to law enforcement’s efforts to understand foreign influence in the United States and, in turn, to attempt to mitigate it. The FBI personnel who worked with the Office conveyed that information to the FBI throughout the Special Counsel’s tenure, and the Office met regularly with the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. The FBI embedded with the Special Counsel’s team personnel whose mission was specifically to review results of the investigation and then to summarize and disseminate information of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence interest. That work on identifying foreign influence—rather than potential criminal charges—is beyond the scope of the Report.

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Volume 1.2

Legal Standards and Evidentiary Considerations

(pp. 2-3, 9-10, 174, 180-181)

By Asha Rangappa

This Report consists of two volumes. Volume I describes the results of the Special Counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and Russia’s interactions with the Trump campaign. Volume II involves the President’s conduct with regard to the FBI’s investigation, and his actions toward the Special Counsel. The legal framework used in that investigation are stated separately in Volume II.

The actions and events described in the Report are based on evidence that the Special Counsel’s Office believed to be substantial and credible. When the Office was confident that the evidence met this standard, the Report indicates that the investigation “established” those actions and events took place. At times, the Report may indicate the absence or conflict in the evidence for an event. If a set of facts was not established, that does not mean that there was no evidence of those facts.

The Office was not always able to obtain a full picture of the activities of the subjects of the investigation. In some instances, witnesses and documents located outside of the United States presented practical obstacles to obtaining evidence. In other instances, the Office was limited in obtaining information because of internal Department of Justice policies, legally privileged communications, or individuals invoking their Fifth Amendment rights. In addition, some individuals provided false or incomplete information during their interviews or testimony. The investigation established that several individuals associated with the Trump Campaign lied to the Office and to Congress, and those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference. Finally, the Office became aware that some individuals who were interviewed or investigated — including some individuals associated with the Trump Campaign — deleted relevant communications using encrypted applications.

As a result, while the events described in the report are accurate and complete to the greatest extent possible, the obstacles described above presented gaps in the available information. It is possible that the unavailable information would illuminate or change the picture of events presented in the Report.

In deciding whether to charge individuals investigated in the course of the Special Counsel investigation, the Office first considered two factors based on the Department of Justice Manual: (1) whether the conduct of the individual(s) constituted a federal offense; and (2) whether the admissible evidence would be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction for that offense. The latter would entail convincing a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that an individual committed a crime. If these criteria were met, the Office then considered whether a prosecution would serve a substantial federal interest, if they could be effectively prosecuted in another jurisdiction, or if any non-criminal alternatives to prosecution existed.

The Office uncovered evidence of numerous links between members of the Trump Campaign and individuals with ties to the Russian government. In evaluating whether these links constituted a federal offense, the Office did not employ the concept of “collusion,” which is not a crime under the U.S. criminal code or a term of art under federal criminal law. Rather, the Office used conspiracy law, which is the federal crime that most closely matches the dictionary definition of collusion, and which is defined under several different federal statutes. The Office also defined “coordination” — a term that appears in the Order appointing the Special Counsel — as “an agreement — tacit or express — between the Trump campaign and the Russian government on election interference.” Under this definition, coordination would require “more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsible to the other’s actions or interests.”

Based on these definitions, the investigation did not establish that the contacts between the Trump Campaign and individuals tied to Russia knowingly or intentionally participated in a conspiracy against the United States. With regard to a conspiracy to violate campaign finance statutes, the Office concluded that unresolved legal questions and factual considerations would present difficulties in proving a willful violation of the law. The Office charged two individuals, Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, for violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act in their work on behalf of Ukraine. Several individuals intentionally made false statements about their contacts with Russian agents or took steps to obstruct the Office’s investigation, and in some cases were charged with making false statements and obstructing justice.

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Volume 1.3

Russian “Active Measures” Social Media Campaign and Criminal Charges against 13 Russian Nationals and 3 Russian Entities

(pp. 14-35,* 174*)

By Kristen Eichensehr

“Active measures” are “operations conducted by Russian security services aimed at influencing the course of international affairs.” The Internet Research Agency, LLC (IRA) and Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering (collectively “Concord”) are Russian entities funded by Russian businessman Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2016. In the first major indictment arising out of the Special Counsel’s investigation, a grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted the IRA, Concord, and 13 associated individuals for violating U.S. laws while attempting to interfere in the 2016 election.

As early as 2014, the IRA sought to influence public opinion through online media and forums. IRA employees called “specialists” operated Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts and later added Tumblr and Instagram accounts. The IRA accounts initially posed as individual U.S. persons, but by 2015, the IRA created larger social media groups and public pages that claimed affiliation with U.S. groups, like the Tennessee Republican Party, or posed as fictitious U.S. groups.

In February 2016, IRA internal documents referenced supporting the Trump Campaign and opposing Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and the IRA’s social media accounts took actions throughout the election season to support the Trump Campaign. According to congressional testimony from Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, the IRA purchased 3,500 advertisements on Facebook, and posts by IRA-controlled accounts reached at least 29 million U.S. persons, and perhaps as many as 126 million people.

The IRA was also active on Twitter. IRA employees operated individual accounts that posted original content and also communicated directly with U.S. Twitter users. Some of the accounts gained tens of thousands of followers, and their tweets received significant attention from Twitter users, as well as from U.S. media outlets that quoted IRA tweets as reactions of real U.S. persons. Numerous high-profile U.S. persons, including former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, Sean Hannity, and Michael Flynn Jr., also retweeted or responded to the IRA accounts. The IRA also engaged in botnet activity on Twitter. According to Twitter, the company notified approximately 1.4 million people who Twitter believed may have been in contact with an IRA-controlled account, and in January 2018, it publicly identified 3,814 accounts linked to the IRA.

The IRA’s activities were not limited to cyberspace. In June 2014, two IRA employees traveled to the United States to gather intelligence. The IRA also organized dozens of political rallies in the United States. To do so, the IRA would announce an event, send direct messages to its social media followers inviting them to attend, and recruit U.S. persons as event coordinators. Some rallies drew hundreds of attendees, and the Trump Campaign posted about one on its Facebook page. The IRA also targeted and recruited U.S. persons to amplify its messages on social media and to perform political acts (such as walking around New York City dressed up as Santa Claus with a Trump mask).

In addition, the IRA made contact with the Trump Campaign. The interactions took two forms. First, Trump Campaign members and surrogates, including Donald J. Trump Jr., Kellyanne Conway, Flynn, and then-candidate Trump’s personal Twitter account, promoted IRA-controlled content on social media by, for example, retweeting it. Second, IRA employees posing as U.S. conservative activists contacted Trump Campaign affiliates to coordinate pro-Trump rallies in the United States. The Office did not uncover evidence that any Trump Campaign official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.

On February 16, 2018, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging the IRA, Concord, and 13 Russian nationals, including Prigozhin, with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Some defendants were also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and with aggravated identity theft. Concord entered an appearance in U.S. court and moved to dismiss the charges. The district court denied Concord’s motions to dismiss, and the case remains pending.

The Office did not bring charges against Trump Campaign officials because the investigation did not reveal that such officials knew they were communicating with Russian nationals engaged in the criminal conspiracy, and therefore, they lacked the knowledge or criminal purpose required to charge them. One U.S. national, however, was charged for IRA-related conduct. On February 12, 2018, Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to identity fraud for supplying false or stolen bank account numbers that allowed the IRA conspirators to access U.S. online payment systems, but Pinedo was unaware of the identity of the IRA members to whom he sold the bank account numbers.

* Some of these pages are heavily redacted due to harm to an ongoing matter.

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Volume 1.4

Russian Hacking and Dumping Operations and Criminal Charges against 12 Russian Military Intelligence Officials

(pp. 36-50, 173, 175-179*)

By Jennifer Daskal

Two military units of the Russian Federation’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) carried out highly sophisticated, targeted, and successful hacking and dumping operations between March and October 2016. The operation was done in order to undermine Hilary Clinton’s candidacy and influence the outcome of the presidential election. Ultimately, the GRU stole hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from individuals associated with the Clinton Campaign, Democratic National Committee (DNC), and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), tens of thousands of which were ultimately released via WikiLeaks, as well as the GRU-created “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0.”

The GRU-led attacks began in March 2016, as part of a sophisticated and ultimately successful spear phishing campaign, pursuant to which GRU officials obtained access to numerous email accounts of Clinton Campaign employees and volunteers, including those of Campaign Chairman John Podesta. By August 12, 2016, the GRU — using credentials stolen from a DCCC employee during a spear phishing operation — gained access to the DCCC computer network, which included 29 different DCCC computers. From there, GRU officers were able to access more than 30 computers on the DNC network, including the DNC mail server and file server.

Once access was established, the GRU officers installed malware into the affected computers, enabling them to log keystrokes and thereby uncover passwords, internal communications, and sensitive personal information; take screenshots; and gather other data. This data was then transferred from the DNC and DCCC computers to GRU-controlled computers leased within the United States.

This first tranche of email releases took place in April 2016, and included internal correspondence related to the Clinton Campaign, fundraising files, and personal information obtained from email accounts of individuals associated with Clinton’s campaign. Documents were initially posted on the GRU-created website “DCLeaks.” A DCLeaks Facebook account, Twitter account, and Gmail account also were used to disseminate documents and communicate with reporters.

On June 16, 2016 — a day after the DNC publicly announced the breach of its networks — GRU officials created a WordPress blog using the persona of Guccifer 2.0. Over the next four months, Guccifer 2.0 released thousands of stolen DNC and DCCC documents in a series of blog posts, including opposition research, internal policy documents, analysis of specific congressional races, and fundraising material. Guccifer 2.0 engaged in targeted releases as well—sending a congressional candidate documents related to the candidate’s opponent and sharing Florida-related data, stolen from the DCCC, with a U.S. blogger covering Florida politics.

Communications between the GRU and WikiLeaks in order to coordinate their activities began in mid-June 2016. On June 29, 2016, the GRU attempted to send WikiLeaks a large encrypted data file. On July 14, 2016, a GRU transfer of a large data file with the name “wk dnc link I .txt.gpg” was successful. WikiLeaks confirmed receipt on July 18, 2016. On July 22, WikiLeaks released of over 20,000 emails and other documents stolen form the DNC. The release appears to have been timed carefully: It was 3 days in advance of the Democratic National Convention.

On October 7, 2016, the same day that an Access Hollywood video surfaced of Donald Trump making politically damaging comments about women, WikiLeaks released its initial tranche of Podesta’s emails. Over the next month, WikiLeaks released some 50,000 documents stolen from Podesta’s personal email account. These included private speeches given by Clinton, internal Clinton Campaign communications, and correspondence related to the Clinton Foundation. Other releases followed.

The Trump Campaign showed interest in the WikiLeaks releases. This included Trump’s July 26, 2016, statement: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to the emails stored on Clinton’s personal server while she was Secretary of State. Within five hours of that statement, the GRU began to target email accounts associated with Clinton’s personal office.

The GRU also made contact through the Guccifer 2.0 persona, via Twitter, with a former Trump Campaign member. In three instances between August and September 2016, the GRU sent private messages to that individual. Details of these interactions are redacted, due to harm to an ongoing matter.

In July 2018, 12 Russian GRU military officials were charged in a 12-count indictment for their roles in the hacking and release operations designed to influence the 2016 election. Specifically, they were charged with conspiring to hack into DNC, DCCC, and Clinton Campaign computers, in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and for committing identify theft and conspiring to commit money laundering in the process, along with other charges. All 12 defendants remain at-large.

Overall, the investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government, including Russian offers of assistance. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away. Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated or conspired in those Russian election interference efforts.

Several pages that address a related charging decision are redacted on the ground that they pose harm to an ongoing matter. At least one other possible charge – a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – was considered and ultimately rejected.

Finally, the Office ruled out bringing charges on the theory that the post-hacking dissemination of stolen emails could constitute trafficking in or receipt of stolen property under the National Stolen Property Act. Several federal courts have understood the Act to apply only to tangible items—not the dissemination of stolen emails—which would make prosecution potentially risky.

* These pages, which include charging and declination decisions related to the Russian hacking and dumping operations, are heavily redacted due to harm to an ongoing matter.

See also Volume 1.5: Trump Campaign Interest in Hacked Materials

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Volume 1.5

Trump Campaign Interest in Hacked Materials

(pp. 51-65*)

By Joshua Geltzer

The Trump Campaign showed interest in WikiLeaks’ releases of hacked materials throughout the summer and fall of 2016. In June 2016, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange claimed in an interview to “have emails relating to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication.” But the Trump Campaign was frustrated that the Clinton emails had not been found. Conversations about the emails—and, ultimately, their release—involved Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Donald Trump himself.

Moreover, by late summer 2016, the Trump Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on WikiLeaks’ possible release of the Clinton emails. At one point, Trump specifically told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming.

Conservative political commentator Jerome Corsi asked Trump associate Ted Malloch to put Corsi in touch with Assange to arrange an interview. While Malloch did not do so, he and Corsi did have multiple discussions about WikiLeaks. In one conversation, Corsi told Malloch that the release of the emails of Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta was coming, after which “we” would be in the driver’s seat.

On October 7, 2016, the Washington Post published an Access Hollywood video that captured comments Trump had made years earlier and that was expected to adversely affect the Trump Campaign. Less than an hour after the video’s publication, WikiLeaks released the first set of Podesta’s emails hacked by the Russians.

Corsi later said that he thought that he had told people on a conference call that the Access Hollywood tape was forthcoming and, additionally, had sent a tweet asking whether anyone could contact Assange; but Corsi then said that perhaps he had done nothing. The Office was unable to find evidence of any such tweet or to identify anyone who indicated having received non-public information about the tape from Corsi or having contacted WikiLeaks on October 7 after a conversation with Corsi.

Donald Trump Jr., however, did have direct electronic communications with WikiLeaks during the campaign. In September 2016, WikiLeaks was told that an anti-Trump website was about to launch, and sent Trump Jr. a direct message on Twitter previewing its launch and providing the password for it. Trump Jr. emailed senior Trump Campaign staff, indicating, “I got a weird Twitter DM from wikileaks,” and sharing what he had received. After the website launched the following day, Trump Jr. sent a direct message to WikiLeaks expressing his thanks.

The next month, WikiLeaks sent additional direct messages to Trump Jr., including writing that it was “great to see you and your dad talking about our publications. Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us wlsearch.tk.” WikiLeaks added that the link would help Trump in “digging through” leaked emails and stated, “we just released Podesta emails Part 4.” Two days later, Trump Jr. publicly tweeted the link.

Additionally, the Trump Campaign engaged in persistent efforts to enlist Trump associates to identify the 30,000 emails from Clinton’s private server that the media had reported as permanently destroyed. One of those was Henry Oknyansky, a Florida-based Russian, with whom Stone met in person in May 2016 along with Alexei Rasin, a Florida-based Ukrainian. Rasin offered to sell Stone derogatory information on Clinton that Rasin claimed to possess. Stone refused.

The Trump Campaign also engaged in other efforts to obtain the Clinton emails. Trump stated publicly in July 2016 that he hoped that Russia would “find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” then privately and repeatedly asked Trump Campaign associates to find the emails. In response, Michael Flynn contacted multiple people in an effort to do so. Those included Barbara Ledeen, a Senate staffer who had previously sought the emails and who kept Flynn updated throughout summer 2016 on her efforts, as well as Peter Smith, an investment advisor active in Republican politics who also attempted to obtain the emails.

In December 2015, before Flynn’s request, Ledeen emailed to Smith a 25-page proposal to obtain the emails consisting of three phases: two stages of open-source analysis, then a third phase of checking with certain intelligence services to determine if any had been able to access Clinton’s server. Smith ultimately declined to participate in Ledeen’s proposed initiative.

After Trump’s July 2016 public statement, Smith tried to locate the Clinton emails himself, creating a company, raising money, and recruiting security experts. Smith claimed to others involved in the effort that he was in contact with hackers with “ties and affiliations to Russia,” who had access to the emails and that his efforts were coordinated with the Trump Campaign. He provided updates on his efforts to Flynn and Trump Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis; and a document that Smith used for fundraising indicated that his work was “in coordination” with the Trump Campaign.

In September 2016, Smith and Ledeen reconnected about their efforts, with Ledeen claiming to have obtained from the “dark web” deleted Clinton emails. A technology advisor determined that the emails were not authentic. Investigation of a backup of Smith’s computer found two files downloaded from WikiLeaks and originally attached to emails received by Podesta, with creation dates prior to their release by WikiLeaks; but analysis indicated that the creation dates did not reflect when the files were downloaded to Smith’s computer. Smith continued to send emails claiming, for example, a “tug-of-war going on within WikiLeaks over its planned releases,” but no additional emails were in fact released. Smith also drafted emails claiming contact with Russian hackers, but that remains unsubstantiated.

All told, the Trump Campaign displayed interest in the work of the Russian government to obtain, through hacking, emails associated with the Clinton Campaign, Democratic National Committee, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and to disseminate information from those emails through WikiLeaks and fictitious online personas.

* Some of these pages are heavily redacted due to harm to an ongoing matter and revelation of investigative techniques.

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Volume 1.6

Links and Contacts with Russia: Michael Cohen and Trump Tower Moscow

(pp. 66-79, 195-197)

By Kate Brannen

Between 2013 and 2016, the Trump Organization pursued the development of a Trump-branded property in Russia. The pursuit of this deal involved several Trump Organization employees, including Donald Trump, who was president of the company at the time, as well as several Russian contacts, including Russian government representatives.

From 2015 until the middle of 2016, Michael Cohen spearheaded the project and reported on its progress to Trump and others at the company. When first questioned about the project, he lied to Congress and the Office, saying the Trump Organization’s pursuit of Trump Tower Moscow ended in January 2016. Instead, the company was still trying to make the deal happen as late as June 2016. Cohen also lied about the extent to which he kept Trump informed of the project’s progress and whether he and Trump had discussed traveling to Moscow for it. Cohen also misled investigators about the communications he had with a Russian government official about it.

The first attempt at the project began after the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, which the Trump Organization organized with the Crocus Group, a Russian real estate company owned by Aras Agalarov. Donald Trump Jr. was the primary negotiator for the Trump Organization, while Agalarov’s son, Emin, and Irakli “Ike” Kaveladze represented the Crocus Group. Both companies negotiated a letter of intent (LOI) in early 2014; and, in February 2014, Ivanka Trump toured the proposed site with Emin during a visit to Moscow. But, beginning in fall 2014, members of the Trump organization became less responsive to Crocus Group correspondence, and, by the end of November, the project appeared to have stalled.

A second run at the project began in summer 2015, when Felix Sater, a New York-based real estate advisor who had worked previously with the Trumps, contacted Cohen, who, at the time, was special counsel to Donald Trump. Sater reached out on behalf of I.C. Expert Investment Company, a Russian real-estate development corporation controlled by Andrei Vladimirovich Rozov. The plan was for I.C. Expert to construct the building and license the name and brand from the Trump Organization. Cohen received approval from Trump to negotiate directly with I.C. Expert, and he kept Trump, Ivanka and Donald Jr. apprised of the discussions.

Between October and November 2015, the Trump Organization and I.C. Expert completed an LOI for a Trump Tower Moscow. Per the LOI, the Trump Organization stood to earn substantial sums over the lifetime of the project, including a $4 million “up-front fee” prior to groundbreaking, without the company having to assume significant liabilities or financing commitments.

The day after the Trump Organization returned the signed LOI, Sater emailed Cohen, writing:

Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process ….

The next step entailed getting buy-in from the Russian government, which Sater and Cohen thought necessary for the project.

About a month after the LOI was signed, the wife of a man named Dmitry Klokov, an executive at a large Russian electricity company, emailed Ivanka Trump offering assistance with the Trump Campaign. She forwarded the email to Cohen, who followed up with Klokov, but Cohen was confused about his identity, mistakenly thinking Klokov was a former Olympic weightlifter after a quick Google search.

In conversations with Cohen, Klokov offered the Campaign “political synergy” and recommended that Cohen travel to Russia to speak with him and an unidentified intermediary. He said this could lead to a meeting in Russia between Trump and an individual Klokov described as “our person of interest,” later identified as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Cohen and Klokov disagreed over whether these trips should be done officially and with a formal invitation, which was Cohen’s preference. Klokov thought the Trump organization should pursue these meetings between Trump and Putin outside of the business track, and that the rewards of such a meeting for Trump’s company would come in time. In the end, Cohen rejected Klokov’s assistance and did not appear to bring his offer to the attention of the Campaign, instead continuing to work with Sater, who Cohen understood was working his own Russian government contacts.

But, by late December 2015, Cohen was frustrated with Sater’s lack of progress and started trying to make contact with the Russian government himself. He tried emailing Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government’s press secretary, seeking to connect with Putin’s chief of staff. But he incorrectly typed the email address and the message was never delivered. In January 2016, he sent a message to info@prpress.gov.ru, requesting a conversation and meetings with appropriate people to discuss Trump Tower Moscow. He also emailed Peskov’s correct address.

Cohen first told Congress and the Office that, when he received no answer to these inquiries in January 2016, he dropped the project. But he later admitted this was untrue: Elena Poliakova, Peskov’s personal assistant, wrote back to Cohen, and they later spoke on the phone for 20 minutes. Cohen asked for help with the project, and, according to him, Poliakova asked detailed questions, took notes, and said that she would need to follow up with others in Russia.

After that, Cohen did not recall anything further from Poliakova or others in the Russian government, and the Office did not find any evidence of it. However, Sater texted Cohen the next day and said, “[c]all me when you have a few minutes to chat … It’s about Putin they called today.” He then sent Cohen multiple versions of a draft invitation to Moscow, which noted the “working visit” would be to discuss the project and to coordinate a future visit by Trump.

Cohen did not travel to Russia, but discussions about when he and Trump might be able to do so continued. Cohen let Sater know that Cohen could travel to Moscow before the Republican National Convention in July but Trump’s visit would need to wait until after he officially became the Republican nominee. Sater kept pressing Cohen to commit to a trip, inviting him to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June and indicating he could potentially meet Putin then. Cohen initially responded positively, but, according to Cohen, he became worried that Russian officials were not as interested in meeting with him as Sater had suggested. On June 14, 2016, Cohen met Sater in the lobby of the Trump Tower in New York to tell him that Cohen would not be traveling to Moscow at that time.

Trump and Ivanka had also been invited to attend the Forum by Russia’s deputy prime minister. Trump’s attendance at the Forum was also pursued by Robert Foresman, a New York-based investment banker-began who said he had been asked by Anton Kobyakov, a Russian presidential aide, to see if Trump could speak at the event. The Office found no evidence that the Campaign followed up with Foresman.

Discussions about a Trump trip to Moscow had also taken place in 2015, when Sater told Cohen he was arranging a trip with Evgeny Dvoskin, who had been indicted in the U.S. for stock fraud and was now an executive at a Russian bank under U.S. sanctions. That trip never happened.

After initially lying to Congress and the Office, Cohen admitted to investigators that he discussed the idea of traveling to Moscow twice with Trump, and both times Trump expressed interest; but scheduling conflicts seemed to preclude him from going. Cohen eventually pleaded guilty to making false statements about Trump Tower Moscow. The Office recommended to the judge that Cohen’s cooperation with the investigation be taken into account when he was sentenced.

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Volume 1.7

Links and Contacts with Russia: George Papadopoulos

(pp. 80-94,* 192-194)

By Kate Brannen

George Papadopoulos was a foreign policy advisor to the Trump Campaign from March 2016 to early October 2016. While Papadopoulos kept the Campaign informed of his many interactions and exchanges about the Russian government’s outreach to him, he said he could not recall whether he told the Campaign about his most consequential conversation.

That conversation occurred in April 2016 in London, when a man named Joseph Mifsud, a professor who claimed to have high-level contacts within the Russian government, told Papadopoulos that he had learned during a recent trip to Moscow that the Russian government had obtained “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Other Trump Campaign officials could not recall whether Papadopoulos had shared this information with them or stated, with varying degrees of certainty, that he had not. No documentary evidence was found to show he had shared this information with the Campaign.

However, Papadopoulos did share the details of this conversation with people outside of the Trump Campaign. He admitted to the FBI that he told the then-Greek foreign minister that Russia had obtained Clinton-related emails. A different foreign government told the FBI on July 26, 2016, that Papadopoulos had also suggested to one of its representatives that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could help the Campaign by anonymously releasing “dirt” it had collected on Clinton. Based on this information, the FBI opened its investigation of potential coordination between Russia and the Trump Campaign a few days later.

When Papadopoulos was first questioned by the FBI in January 2017, he lied about his conversations with Mifsud and two other Russian contacts, concealing the timing, extent and nature of these exchanges. Most notably, he claimed that his conversations with Mifsud all happened before he joined the Trump Campaign.

In fact, Papadopoulos first met Mifsud in early March 2016, shortly after Papadopoulos joined the Trump Campaign as a foreign policy advisor. Mifsud was affiliated with the London Centre of International Law Practice, where Papadopoulos had taken a job in February 2016. While starting his new job in London, Papadopoulos reached out to the Trump Campaign, expressing an interest in joining.

After conducting minimal vetting, Sam Clovis, the Trump Campaign’s national co-chair and chief policy advisor, made Papadopoulos a foreign policy advisor. On March 21, Trump publicly named Papadopoulos a foreign policy advisor, describing him as an “excellent guy.”

At their first meeting, Mifsud, a Maltese national who maintained a number of Russian contacts in London, told Papadopoulos that he could help him with introductions to contacts within the Russian government. Mifsud’s contacts included someone who had been employed by the Internet Research Agency, which participated in the social media campaign to influence the 2016 election.

In London, Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to Olga Polonskaya, whom Papadopoulos first understood to be Putin’s niece before learning that was inaccurate. When questioned about her, Papadopoulos lied to the FBI and said that he had met Polonskaya before joining the Trump Campaign.

After he met Polonskaya, Papadopoulos quickly emailed the Campaign’s foreign policy advisory team with the subject line: “Meeting with Russian leadership–including Putin.” Papadopoulos explained that the Russians were eager to set up a meeting, even between Putin and Trump, if there was interest.

Clovis responded to the email, counseling Papadopoulos to proceed with caution and not to make any commitments to his new Russian contacts. Clovis closed his email, “More thoughts later today. Great work.”

Papadopoulos flew to Washington, D.C., for a March 31 meeting of Trump’s foreign policy team. Sen. Jeff Sessions and Trump led the meeting. When it was Papadopoulos’ turn to speak, he discussed a potential meeting with Russian officials. Trump expressed interest in the idea of meeting Putin. Papadopoulos returned to London with the understanding that the Campaign was supportive of his efforts to arrange a meeting with the Russian government.

Papadopoulos met again with Mifsud in London on April 12, 2016. After that, Mifsud traveled to Moscow. There, he introduced Papadopoulos over email to Ivan Timofeev, a member of the Russian International Affairs Council. They spoke several times over Skype and email about setting up a meeting between the Campaign and Russian officials.

On April 26, 2016, the day after he returned from Moscow, Mifsud met with Papadopoulos. There, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that he had learned that the Russians had obtained “dirt” on Clinton.

Throughout this time and into the summer of 2016, Papadopoulos kept the Campaign apprised of his efforts to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian government officials. Paul Manafort, a senior Campaign official at the time, forwarded one of these updates from Papadopoulos to another Campaign official with the note: “Let[’]s discuss. We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the Campaign so as not to send any signal.”

Papadopoulos’ Russian contacts also included exchanges on LinkedIn and in person with Sergei Millian. Millian, an American citizen and native of Belarus, introduced himself as the president of the “New York-based Russian American Chamber of Commerce” and claimed that he had “insider knowledge and direct access to the top hierarchy in Russian politics.” They met more than once in New York City that summer. In August 2016, Millian told Papadopoulos via Facebook message that he would share with him “a disruptive technology that might be instrumental in your political work for the Campaign.” Papadopoulos did not recall this happening. After the election, both men met to discuss business opportunities for Papadopoulos in Russia and arranged to meet in Washington, D.C., when they both attended Trump’s inauguration. Their contacts were not fully explored, however, because Millian remained out of the country for the duration of the Office’s investigation and refused to be interviewed.

Papadopoulos was eventually arrested for lying to the FBI and conducted several more interviews in the summer and fall of 2017. His lies harmed the investigation, such as by leaving investigators without accurate information when Mifsud lied to them multiple times during a February 2017 interview.

* Lengthy passages on these pages are redacted due to grand jury information.

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Volume 1.8

Links and Contacts with Russia: Carter Page

(pp. 95-102,* 166-167,* 183)

By Kate Brannen

Carter Page worked on the Trump Campaign from January 2016 through September 2016, primarily as a foreign policy advisor. Before that, he had extensive experience living and working in Russia. After he moved back to the United States, Russian intelligence officials approached him and formed relationships with him in 2008 and again in 2013.

Russian intelligence took advantage of Page’s interest in business opportunities in Russia, noting in a recorded conversation in 2013 that “it’s obvious that he wants to earn lots of money.” Page met with a Russian intelligence official working under diplomatic cover multiple times in New York City. Page provided his thoughts, as well as documents, about the energy industry. The Russian intelligence officer with whom he met was later charged by the U.S. government with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The criminal complaint included descriptions of his conversations with Page, who was described as “Male-1.” Page told the FBI that he knew the men were members of the Russian intelligence services but said the information he had provided them was immaterial.

After joining the Trump Campaign, Page worked on briefing memos and talking points on Russia and talked up his high-level Russian contacts. He proposed that Trump meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested that he would be able to set up such a meeting. He advocated pro-Russian foreign policy positions and, in July 2016, traveled to Russia, where he met with Russian government officials.

Planning for his trip began in April 2016, when he was invited to give a speech at the July 2016 commencement ceremony at the New Economic School in Moscow, an honor previously bestowed on President Barack Obama in 2009. Page suggested to the Campaign that Trump give the speech instead of him, but Corey Lewandowski, who was the Campaign manager at the time, disagreed and told Page that if he did travel to Russia it would be in his personal capacity, not as a representative of the Trump campaign.

As Page’s trip to Moscow approached, Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov was asked in an email from a New York-based public relations consultant whether he wanted to introduce Page to any Russian government officials on Page’s Moscow trip. Peskov replied, “I have read about [Page]. Specialists say that he is far from being the main one. So I better not initiate a meeting in the Kremlin.”

During Page’s public speeches in Moscow, he criticized U.S. foreign policy toward Russia. Afterward, he shook hands and talked with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who attended the event. While in Moscow, Page also met with Andrey Baranov, the head of investor relations at Rosneft, a Russian energy company. Page said they discussed “immaterial non-public” information, as well as Page’s involvement in the Trump campaign, although he could not recall the details. He also discussed potential business opportunities with Tatneft, another Russian energy company.

While in Moscow, Page emailed several Campaign officials telling them about his conversations, including a “private” one he said that head conducted with Dvorkovich. Page told the Campaign that he had talked with Russian legislators as well as “senior members of the Presidential Administration.” But it remains unclear whether these descriptions of his meetings and conversations in Moscow were accurate.

After the trip to Moscow, Page started attracting a lot of press coverage in the United States, so much so that the Campaign tried to distance itself from him, downplaying his role. After it was reported that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating Page, the Trump Campaign formally removed him on September, 24, 2016. He later tried to get a job in the Trump administration, inflating his credentials and campaign experience. Trump’s Transition Team ignored his application.

In December 2016, Page traveled again to Moscow in an apparent attempt to secure business opportunities for himself. Although Page was traveling in his personal capacity, Konstantin Kilimnik, Paul Manafort’s longtime business associate who the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence, reported to Manafort in an email that, “Carter Page is in Moscow today, sending messages he is authorized to talk to Russia on behalf of DT on a range of issues of mutual interest, including Ukraine.” Dvorkovich met with Page again on this trip, and asked him if Page could help him connect with members of the Trump Transition Team.

In the end, the Office decided not to bring charges against Page because it did not find sufficient evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Page acted as an agent of the Russian government or that he coordinated with the Russian government in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. However, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued warrants on four separate occasions to conduct surveillance on Page based on a finding of probable cause that he was an agent of a foreign power. This is a different (and lower) standard than the one governing the Office’s decision on whether to bring criminal charges against him.

* Lengthy passages on these pages are redacted due to grand jury information.

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Volume 1.9

Links and Contacts with Russia: Trump Tower June 2016 Meeting

(pp. 110-122*)

By Kate Brannen and Ryan Goodman

In early June 2016, Donald Trump Jr. responded enthusiastically to an offer to meet with a Russian attorney who could provide derogatory information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

The offer came from Emin Agalarov, the son of Aras Agalarov, a Russian real-estate developer with whom the Trumps had done business before. Aras had ties to Putin as well as Russia’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. Trump had paired up with the Agalarovs to work on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and had also previously pursued the development of a Trump Moscow real-estate project with them. Aras expressed interest in Trump’s campaign. In an email drafted by Goldstone to Trump Jr. on February 29, 2016, Aras passed on his “congratulations” for Trump’s winning in the primary and an “offer” of his “support and that of many of his important Russian friends and colleagues[,] especially with reference to U.S./Russian relations.”

On June 3, 2016, Emin Agalarov called Robert Goldstone, his publicist who had served as an intermediary between the Agalarovs and the Trumps when they had worked together in the past. During the call, Emin conveyed to Goldstone that the attorney was a prosecutor and that the information that could interest the Trumps concerned Clinton. The lawyer was Natalia Veselnitskaya, who maintained a relationship with the government throughout this period. She had previously worked as a prosecutor for the Russian government and, more recently, lobbied against the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses. In December 2018, she was indicted for allegedly lying to a federal district court in separate litigation about her relationship to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.

After the phone call with Emin, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr., telling him that Emin had just called him and had asked him to contact Trump Jr. about “something very interesting.” The email went on to say:

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.

Goldstone asked what would be the best way to handle this and whether he should also share it with candidate-Trump, noting that it was “ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.” Within minutes, Trump Jr. emailed back, saying he should speak to Emin about it first, and ended his message saying, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

It took a few days before Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov finally spoke on the phone, but phone records show they had multiple brief calls on June 6 and June 7. On June 6, Aras Agalarov called Ike Kaveladze, who had represented his company before in its dealings with the Trumps, and asked him to attend a meeting in New York with the Trump Organization. Kaveladze, who attended the June 9 meeting in Trump Tower, told the Office that Aras had told him the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Magnitsky Act. When Kaveladze later learned that senior Trump Campaign officials would attend the meeting, he checked in with one of Emin’s assistants who said the purpose of the meeting was to convey “negative information on Hillary Clinton.”

On the day of the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya invited Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet-born U.S. lobbyist who had previously worked on issues related to the Magnitsky Act, to lunch, along with Anatoli Samochornov, a Russian-born translator who had worked with Veselnitskaya before. After lunch, the group went to Trump Tower for the meeting with the senior members of the Trump Campaign.

Conduct of the meeting

According to witnesses, eight people attended the meeting: Trump Jr., Manafort, Kushner, Kaveladze, Samochornov, Akhmetshin, Goldstone, and Veselnitskaya. The Office spoke to everyone by Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya, who declined to be interviewed voluntarily.

At the meeting, which lasted about 20 minutes, Veselnitskaya discussed how certain Americans doing business in Russia — including the Ziff brothers — had broken the laws there and had then donated their profits to the Democratic National Committee or the Clinton Campaign. Trump Jr. asked follow-up questions about how any of this could be tied directly to the Clinton Campaign, to which Veselnitskaya gave an unsatisfying answer.

Akhmetshin then spoke about the Magnitsky Act and how Russia had prohibited the U.S. adoption of Russian children in response to its passage. Trump Jr. said that his father was still a private citizen but that the issue could be revisited if and when he became president. Kushner grew aggravated during the course of the conversation, sending a text to Manafort describing the experience as a “waste of time.” He then left before the meeting was over.

In press interviews and congressional testimony, Veselnitskaya told a very different story than the other people who attended the meeting, seemingly misrepresenting what she discussed during the meeting and how she had introduced herself.

After the meeting, Goldstone apologized to Trump Jr. With Veselnitskaya next to him, Kaveladze first told Aras that the meeting had gone well, but later told Aras that the meeting was a waste of time. Kaveladze also told his teenage daughter in an email that the “meeting was boring. The Russians did not have any bad info on Hilary[sic].”

In his congressional testimony, Trump Jr. said he thought he should listen to what Goldstone and his colleagues had to offer, and depending on what if any information was provided at the meeting he could then “consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it any further consideration.”

Awareness of the meeting within the Campaign

Senior members of the Campaign discussed the meeting before it occurred. On June 8, 2016, Trump Jr. forwarded the entirety of his correspondence with Goldstone to Manafort and Kushner under the subject line, “FW: Russia – Clinton – private and confidential,” adding a note that the “[m]eeting got moved to 4 tomorrow at my offices.” Kushner corresponded with his assistant about the meeting beforehand, and Manafort acknowledged receipt of Trump Jr.’s email in writing.

Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign manager, told the Office that in the days before June 9 Trump Jr. announced at a meeting of senior campaign staff that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation. Gates believed Trump Jr. said the information was from a group in Kyrgyzstan that he was introduced to by a friend. According to Gates, Manafort warned the group that the meeting would likely not yield vital information and they should be careful.

Michael Cohen recalled that on June 6 or 7 Trump Jr. may have told candidate Trump about an upcoming meeting to receive adverse information about Clinton, though Cohen did not recall Trump Jr. stating that the meeting was connected to Russia. In testimony, Trump Jr. said he did not inform his father about the meeting beforehand. President Trump told the Office that he has “no recollection of learning at the time” of the meeting, and the Office found no documentary evidence showing that he was made are of the meeting beforehand.

Post-June 9 events

After the election, Veselnitskaya and Aras made additional efforts to follow up on the meeting in reference to the Magnitsky Act, but the investigation did not identify evidence that the Trump Transition Team responded.

In June 9, 2017, attorneys representing the Trump Organization started contacting participants of the June 9, 2016 meeting. In an email sent to Emin on June 27, 2017, Goldstone said he was “interviewed” by Trump attorneys about the June 9 meeting who were “concerned because it links Don Jr. to officials from Russia–which he has always denied meeting.”

The June 9 meeting became public in July 2017. On July 10, 2017, Alan Futerfas, outside counsel for the Trump Organization and, subsequently, personal counsel for Trump Jr., sent Goldstone a proposed statement for Goldstone to issue. The proposed statement read: “I can definitively state that the statements I have read by Donald Trump Jr. are 100% accurate. … Ms. Veselnitskaya mostly talked about the Magnitsky Act and Russian adoption laws.” In response, Goldstone proposed a different statement which asserted that he had been asked “by [his] client in Moscow – Emin Agalarov – to facilitate a meeting between a Russian attorney (Natalia Veselnitzkaya [sic]) and Donald Trump Jr. The lawyer had apparently stated that she had some information regarding funding to the DNC from Russia.” Goldstone never released either statement.

An organization controlled by Veselnitskaya offered to pay $90,000 of Samochornov’s fees, an offer that Samochornov understood was conditioned on his making statements consistent with Veselnitskaya. He declined the offer, telling the Office he did not want to perjure himself.

* Lengthy passages on these pages are redacted due to grand jury information.

See also Volume 1.14: Charging Decisions: Accepting Information from Foreign Officials and Volume 2.9: Incident Six: Efforts to Prevent Disclosure of Emails about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting with Russians

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Volume 1.10

Links and Contacts with Russia: Paul Manafort

(pp. 129-140,* 182-183)

By Rita Siemion

Paul Manafort joined the Trump Campaign in late March 2016, initially as the Campaign’s convention manager, believing that a relationship with the Campaign would be financially beneficial to him if Trump won the presidency. On May 19, 2016, he was promoted to campaign chairman and chief strategist. Manafort continued in that role until he resigned from the Campaign in mid-August 2016 amid negative media reports about his political consulting work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

Manafort’s Russian contacts during and after the campaign stem from his prior consulting for a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska from 2005 to 2009, and his political consulting work from 2005 to 2015 for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

In 2005, Manafort began working for Deripaska, who oversaw a global empire of aluminum and power companies and maintained close ties to Vladimir Putin. Manafort’s company earned tens of millions of dollars from its work for Deripaska, which included installing friendly political officials in countries where Deripaska had business interests and briefing the Kremlin about the benefits the work could confer on “the Putin government.” Manafort’s company was also loaned millions of dollars by Deripaska. In 2007, Deripaska invested in a fund created by Manafort to pursue investments in Eastern Europe. When the fund failed, a litigation dispute between Manafort and Deripaska soured their business relationship.

Deripaska had previously introduced Manafort to a Ukrainian oligarch who hired him as a political consultant, including for work supporting the Party of Regions, a political party in Ukraine aligned with Russia. Manafort became a trusted advisor to Viktor Yanukovych, the Party of Regions candidate who became President of Ukraine in 2010 and remained in power until 2014, when he fled to Russia amidst political unrest.

Manafort stayed in touch with these Russian and Ukrainian contacts during the campaign period through a Russian national named Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort employee with ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort instructed Rick Gates, his deputy on the Campaign and a longtime employee, to provide Kilimnik with regular updates on the status of the Trump Campaign, including internal polling data, details of Manafort’s role in the Campaign, and the prospects for a Trump victory. Manafort expected Kilimnik to share the information provided by Gates with other oligarchs in Ukraine as well as with Deripaska. Manafort also offered to provide private briefings to Deripaska.

Manafort also met in person with Kilimnik twice during the campaign period. The first meeting took place in New York on May 7, 2016, during which Manafort provided Kilimnik with information on the Trump Campaign and discussed the political situation in Ukraine. The second meeting took place in New York on August 2, 2016. Kilimnik requested the meeting to deliver a message from Yanukovych, who was then living in Russia. The message was about a plan to resolve the political problems in Ukraine by creating a republic in eastern Ukraine with Yanukovych as its leader. Manafort acknowledged the plan as a “backdoor” for Russian control and that U.S. support was required for the plan to succeed.

During this August 2 meeting, Manafort also briefed Kilimnik on the state of the Trump Campaign and the plan to win the election, including discussion of the Campaign’s messaging, internal polling data, and battleground states Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. They also discussed Manafort’s litigation and soured business relationship with Deripaska and how Manafort might be able to obtain payment for his political consulting work in Ukraine that remained unpaid.

The investigation did not uncover evidence of Manafort’s passing along information about the Ukrainian peace plan to Donald Trump or anyone else in the Campaign or later in the administration. But the Office did not have access to all of Manafort’s electronic communication and Manafort repeatedly lied to the Office and the grand jury about the Ukrainian plan and his meetings with Kilimnik.

While the Office also could not determine with certainty Manafort’s purpose in sharing internal polling data with Kilimnik, Manafort told Gates that his role in the Campaign would be “good for business” and potentially a way to be made whole for his political consulting work in Ukraine. Manafort also claimed that by sharing campaign information, Deripaska might end the litigation and repair their soured business relationship. Because of questions about Manafort’ s credibility and the Office’s limited ability to gather evidence on what happened to the polling data after it was sent to Kilimnik, the Office could not assess what Kilimnik, or those he shared it with, did with the internal Campaign information. The Office also did not identify evidence of a connection between Manafort’s sharing of polling data and Russia’s interference in the election, which had already been reported by U.S. media outlets at the time of the August 2 meeting. The investigation did not establish that Manafort otherwise coordinated with the Russian government on its election-interference efforts.

Accordingly, while the investigation uncovered extensive evidence that Manafort’s pre-campaign work for the Ukrainian government violated the Foreign Agent’s Registration Act (FARA), the investigation did not yield evidence that was likely to be enough for proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Manafort, or any other Campaign officials, acted as an agent of the Russian government or at its direction, control or request, during the relevant period.

* Some passages on these pages are redacted due to grand jury information.

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Volume 1.11

Links and Contacts with Russia: Michael Flynn

(pp. 160-61, 167-173, 194-195, with additional information in Vol. 2, pp. 24-26)

By Barbara McQuade

Incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn dealt with Russia on two sensitive matters during the transition: a United Nations Security Council vote and the Russian government’s reaction to the imposition of U.S. sanctions for interfering in the 2016 election.

In late November, Flynn and Jared Kushner met with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in Trump Tower, on the request of the Ambassador. Their discussion included U.S. policy toward Syria, and Kislyak proposed having Russian generals brief Transition Team members on a secure communications line. Kushner said the Transition Team offices did not have a secure line and proposed using secure facilities at the Russian Embassy. The Ambassador immediately rejected the proposal.

First, on December 21, 2016, Egypt submitted a resolution to the U.N. Security Council requiring Israel to cease settlement activities in Palestinian territory. The media speculated that the Obama Administration would not oppose the resolution.

According to Flynn, the Transition Team wanted to support Israel by opposing the resolution. On December 22, Trump and Transition Team members contacted foreign officials to determine their views and rally opposition. Jared Kushner led the effort, and Flynn was responsible for Russia. After a phone call with Kushner, Flynn called Kislyak. According to Flynn, he requested that Russia vote against or delay the resolution. Later that day, Trump spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Egypt postponed the vote.

On December 23, the resolution was resubmitted. Kislyak informed Flynn that Russia would not vote against the resolution. The resolution passed 14-0, with the United States abstaining.

Second, on December 28, President Obama imposed sanctions on nine Russian individuals and entities, expelled 35 Russian officials, and closed two Russian compounds in the United States. Trump and the Transition Team feared that the sanctions would harm the United States’ relationship with Russia. Trump, K.T. McFarland, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, and other Transition officials were staying at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Flynn was vacationing in the Dominican Republic, but was in daily contact with McFarland, his incoming deputy.

On December 29, McFarland exchanged emails with Transition Team members about the sanctions. McFarland believed she told Bannon and Priebus that Flynn was scheduled to talk to Kislyak that night. Flynn said he chose not to communicate with Kislyak about the sanctions until he had heard from the team at Mar-a-Lago. He spoke with Transition Team member Michael Ledeen and McFarland for 20 minutes each regarding what to communicate to Kislyak.

McFarland sent an email to Transition Team members about the sanctions and informed them that “Gen [F]lynn is talking to russian ambassador this evening.” About an hour after sending the email, McFarland briefed Trump, Bannon, Priebus, Sean Spicer, and others on the sanctions and possible Russian responses. Trump asked McFarland if the Russians did “it,” meaning the intrusions intended to influence the presidential election (according to the FBI Interview with McFarland). McFarland said yes, and Trump expressed doubt that it was the Russians. Trump opined that the sanctions provided him with leverage over the Russians. Priebus recalled that McFarland may have mentioned that the sanctions situation could be “cooled down” and not escalated. McFarland recalled that someone may have told Trump at the end of the meeting that Flynn was speaking to the Russian ambassador that evening. Priebus thought it was possible that McFarland mentioned Flynn’s scheduled call at the meeting, but he was not certain.

Flynn called Kislyak and asked that Russia not escalate the situation, not get into a “tit for tat,” and respond to the sanctions in only a reciprocal manner. The investigation did not identify evidence that Trump asked Flynn to make any request to Kislyak.

Flynn reported to McFarland by phone on his call with Kislyak, stating that Russia would not retaliate because they wanted a good relationship with the incoming Administration. McFarland gave Flynn a summary of her briefing with Trump.

The next day, Putin released a statement that Russia would not retaliate. Trump tweeted, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin).” Flynn then sent a text message to McFarland summarizing his call with Kislyak from the day before, which she emailed to Kushner, Bannon, Priebus, and other Transition Team members. Flynn told the Office that he omitted from his message the topic of sanctions because it could be perceived as interfering with the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

On December 31, Kislyak called Flynn and told him the request had been received at the highest levels and that Russia would not retaliate. Flynn later told McFarland that he believed his phone call had made a difference. Flynn recalled discussing the sanctions with Bannon on New Year’s Day and that Bannon appeared to know about Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak. Bannon recalled meeting with Flynn that day, but told investigators that he did not remember discussing sanctions with Flynn. Two days later, Flynn met with Trump and thought they discussed the Russian reaction to the sanctions, but Flynn did not have a specific recollection of telling Trump about the substance of his calls with Kislyak.

The FBI interviewed Flynn on January 24, 2017, four days after he became national security advisor. During the interview, Flynn made two false statements. First, Flynn said he did not ask Kislyak to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions. Second, Flynn stated that did not ask any countries to take any particular action on the U.N. resolution.

Flynn made these false statements when the FBI had an open investigation into Russian election interference, including the nature of any links between the Trump Campaign and Russia. Flynn’s false statements and omissions impeded and otherwise had a material impact on that ongoing investigation. They also came shortly before Flynn made submissions to the Department of Justice, pursuant to the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), that also contained materially false statements and omissions.

The Special Counsel charged Flynn with making false statements to the FBI. On December 1, 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty. He awaits sentencing.

The investigation also produced evidence of violations of FARA by Flynn. Those potential violations concerned Turkey, not Russia, and were resolved when Flynn admitted to the facts in the Statement of Offense that accompanied his guilty plea.

The investigation did not yield evidence sufficient to sustain any charge that any individual affiliated with the Trump Campaign acted as an agent of a foreign principal within the meaning of FARA or subject to the direction or control of the government of Russia, under 18 U.S.C. § 951. As a result, the Special Counsel did not charge any other Trump Campaign official with violating FARA or Section 951, or attempting or conspiring to do so, based on contacts with the Russian government or a Russian principal.

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Volume 1.12

Links and Contacts with Russia, Additional Individuals

(pp. 103-110, 123-126, 127-129, 144-166,* 197-198)

By Asha Rangappa

Several contacts between individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and Russia occurred during the week of Republican National Convention, after the Convention, and during the post-election and transition period. During and after the Convention, these contacts occurred with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak or the Russian Embassy.

Immediately after the 2016 election, Russian government officials, as well as Russian businessmen with ties to the Russian government, began making outreach to the Campaign and transition team through multiple channels. These businessmen included Petr Aven and Kirill Dmitriev, two members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circles of wealthy “oligarchs” who meet on a quarterly basis with Putin. Aven advised the Office that in the quarterly meeting immediately following the 2016 election, Putin was concerned about additional U.S. sanctions against Russia and that Aven took Putin’s words to mean that he was expected to reach out to the incoming Trump administration to establish communication channels. Aven’s understanding of his directive was consistent with the Office’s observations of Dmitriev, who referred to Putin as his “boss” and also undertook outreach to the new administration.

The Report lists the following contacts between the Russian Embassy or Russian businessmen with close ties to Putin, and with the following individuals:

J.D. Gordon: Gordon was a senior campaign advisor on policy and national security. Gordon met Kislyak at a conference during the week of the Convention (July 18-21, 2016), in which Gordon and Sessions delivered speeches, and spoke with Kislyak briefly after the speeches and at the reception. Gordon was responsible for diluting a proposed amendment to the Republican Party platform from providing “lethal” assistance to Ukraine to providing only “appropriate” assistance. Following the Convention, Kislyak invited Gordon to breakfast at his residence, which Gordon declined. The Office determined that Gordon’s contacts with Kislyak were brief and non-substantive, and also did not establish that Gordon either spoke to or was directed by Trump himself to make the policy change.

Jeff Sessions: Then-Senator Sessions, a Trump Campaign surrogate, also attended and delivered a speech at the same conference as Gordon. Following his speech, Sessions spoke with Kislyak as well as other ambassadors at the conference. He advised the Office that he spoke only for a few minutes and did not recall the substance of the conversation. In September 2016, Sessions met with Kislyak in his Senate office, at the ambassador’s request, and in the presence of two Senate aides. The meeting lasted for 30 minutes. Kislyak made additional attempts to arrange meetings with Sessions, which Sessions declined.

The Office considered whether Sessions committed perjury or made false statements to Congress based on his confirmation testimony and subsequent written statements denying contacts with Russia. The Office concluded that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Sessions was willfully untruthful in his answers and declined to charge him with these offenses. The Office also concluded that there was no evidence that Kislyak conversed with Sessions at an event at the Mayflower Hotel where they were mutually present or at later events hosted by the Center for the National Interest.

Jared Kushner: Kushner was a senior campaign and transition advisor. Immediately following the election, Kislyak reached out to Kushner to request a meeting, which Kushner took at Trump Tower on November 30, 2016. The meeting was attended by Michael Flynn and lasted approximately 30 minutes. Kushner asked Kislyak for a person with direct contact with Putin to direct future communications, and also asked Kislyak if they could use the secure communications channel at the Russian Embassy to communicate.

Kushner declined a second meeting with Kislyak, but through Kislyak met Sergey Gorkov, a Russian businessman with direct ties to Putin. Gorkov is the owner of the Russian-owned bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), which is under U.S. Treasury sanctions. Kushner, who had ongoing business interests, including an upcoming debt obligation, claimed that the discussion involved diplomatic issues, but VEB claimed it involved business – the investigation did not resolve the conflict in these accounts. Gorkov had previously advised a bank colleague that he would be “reporting back to Putin” after the meeting. Gorkov followed up with Kushner to advise him that “the information about the meeting had a very positive response!”

Hope Hicks: Hicks was the Trump Campaign press secretary. Hicks received a call at 3 a.m. on election night purporting to be on behalf of Putin. She requested an email to confirm that it was the Kremlin making the request. Hicks received an email the following morning from an official at the Russian Embassy, with a message from Putin to President-elect Trump. After checking with Kushner, Hicks conveyed the email to transition officials. A formal call between Trump and Putin occurred five days later.

Erik Prince: Prince was a Campaign supporter and frequently visited transition offices at Trump Tower after the election. After receiving a message on election night from an unnamed individual who wrote, “Putin has won,” Dmitriev requested a meeting with transition officials through an intermediary. The intermediary was George Nader, a senior advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Nader arranged a meeting between Dmitriev and Prince to take place in the Seychelles, and assured Dmitriev that Prince “wielded influence” with the incoming administration. The meeting took place in January 2017 and at it, they discussed cooperation and conflict resolution and Russian involvement in Libya. Prince and Dmitriev had a second meeting, after which, according to Prince, he debriefed campaign strategist Steve Bannon. Bannon advised the Office that he and Prince never discussed Dmitriev. The Office was unable to resolve the conflict between these accounts because communications between Prince and Bannon during this time period had not been preserved.

Rick Gerson: Gerson is a hedge fund manager and friend of Kushner who had no formal role in the Trump transition, but helped arrange meetings between transition members and foreign officials like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and bin Zayed. Gerson met Dmitriev through a U.A.E. national security advisor, initially to discuss a joint business venture. Dmitriev also presented Gerson with a reconciliation plan between the U.S. and Russia and asked Gerson to share it with Kushner, which he did. Dmitriev solicited feedback from Gerson on the proposal on behalf of “his boss” and followed up with Gerson after Trump’s post-election call with Putin to acknowledge that the plan played a role in the success of that call. Gerson did not have further contact with Dmitriev after their business deal stalled in March 2017.

Dmitri Simes: Simes is the CEO of the Center for the National Interest (CNI), a think tank in Washington, D.C., with expertise on the Russian government. Simes advised the Trump Campaign, through Kushner, on how to respond to the Clinton Campaign’s attacks on Trump regarding Russia-related matters. Following the election, Aven attempted to establish contact with the Trump transition team through Richard Burt, a former U.S. ambassador who worked at Alfa-Bank, which Aven owned. Burt attempted to arrange a meeting between Aven and the Trump transition team through Simes, but Simes discouraged such a meeting in light of the attention on Russian election hacking in the press and in Congress. Aven continued to receive pressure from Putin to make contact with the Trump administration.

* Lengthy passages on these pages are redacted due to grand jury information and revelation of investigative techniques.

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Volume 1.13

Charging Decisions: The Foreign Agent Registration Act

(pp. 181-183)

By Jennifer Daskal

Other than the pre-existing charges involving Paul Manafort, Robert Gates, and Michael Flynn, there was insufficient evidence to charge other Trump Campaign associates for working on behalf of or conspiring to work on behalf of Russia.

Two federal statutes regulate work conducted by people in the United States on behalf of a foreign government. One statute – 18 U.S.C. 951 – generally requires advance notice to the Attorney General for those working under the direction or control of a foreign government.

The other statute—known as the Foreign Agent Registration Act, 22 U.S.C. 611 et seq. – is aimed at those engaged in political and economic activities, such as lobbying or promotion of foreign propaganda and foreign economic interests. It thus applies the Attorney General-notification requirement to anyone who engages in specified activities, including raising or distributing money or other things of value, acting as a political consultant, or engaging in political activities on behalf of a foreign principle. The definition of foreign principle includes foreign governments, foreign political parties, and other foreign entities—a wider array of foreign actors than that covered by 18 U.S.C 951.

Manafort and Gates were charged with violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act for their failure to disclose their pre-campaign work as agents of the government of Ukraine. They pleaded guilty to those charges. Flynn also was separately accused of violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act based on activities conducted on behalf of Turkey; Flynn admitted to the underlying facts as part of his December 2017 guilty plea for making false statements.

The Special Counsel did not, however, find sufficient evidence to charge any Trump Campaign officials as working under the direction or control of Russia or any of its officials. In particular, the Office did not find evidence likely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Campaign officials acted as agents of the Russian government during the relevant time period.

The Special Counsel separately investigated whether Papadopoulos acted as an unregistered agent or under the direction of control of Israel. While finding significant ties between Papadopoulos and Israel, the Office concluded that there was not enough to sustain a criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Volume 1.14

Charging Decisions: Accepting Information from Foreign Officials (campaign finance law)

(pp. 183-190*)

By Paul Seamus Ryan

The Office’s investigation examined efforts or offers by foreign nationals to provide negative information about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to the Trump Campaign or to distribute that information to the public. The Office considered whether two of those efforts in particular—a June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower in New York and an effort related to an ongoing DOJ matter that is consequently redacted from the Report—constituted prosecutable violations of campaign-finance laws. The Office determined that the evidence was insufficient to charge either incident as a criminal violation.

The U.S. government has a compelling interest in limiting foreign national participation in, or influence over, the U.S. political process. Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from making contributions in U.S. elections, and prohibits anyone from soliciting, accepting, or receiving such contributions.

“Contribution” is defined in law to include any gift of money or anything of value for the purpose of influencing an election. The term “expenditure” is defined to include any purchase or payment for the purpose of influencing an election. And “foreign national” is defined to include foreign governments and individuals who are not citizens or legal permanent residents of the U.S.

To establish a criminal campaign-finance violation, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted “knowingly and willfully”—i.e., that the defendant knew generally that his conduct was unlawful. A criminal violation of the foreign national contribution prohibition requires proof of an aggregate value of $2,000 or more.

The Office considered whether to charge Trump Campaign officials with crimes in connection with the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. On June 3, 2016, Robert Goldstone emailed Donald Trump Jr., to pass along from Emin and Aras Agalarov an “offer” from Russia’s “Crown prosecutor” to “the Trump campaign” of “official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to [Trump Jr.’s] father.” The email described this as “very high level and sensitive information” that is “part of Russia and its government’s support to Mr. Trump-helped along by Aras and Emin.” Trump Jr. responded: “if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” Through follow-up conversations, Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov scheduled a meeting with Russian representatives that was attended by Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner.

These email communications and the meeting that followed could implicate the federal law ban on foreign national contributions to U.S. candidates. Trump Jr. received an offer purportedly from a Russian government official to provide “official documents and information” to the Trump Campaign for the purposes of influencing the presidential election. Trump Jr. appeared to have accepted that offer and to have arranged a meeting to receive those materials. The email chain also suggests that Kushner and Manafort were aware of that purpose and attended the meeting anticipating receipt of information helpful to the Campaign from Russian sources.

The Office considered whether this evidence would establish any of several possible crimes: a conspiracy to violate the foreign contribution ban, the illegal solicitation of a foreign contribution, or the acceptance of a promise to make a foreign-source contribution.

There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a “thing of value”—i.e., a “contribution” under the law. Federal Election Commission regulations recognize the value to a campaign of at least some forms of information including, for example, membership lists, mailing lists and polling data, even when the value of these materials may be nominal or difficult to ascertain. Candidate-related opposition research given to a campaign could constitute a “contribution” under the law. Political campaigns frequently conduct and pay for opposition research. However, no court decision has treated the provision of uncompensated opposition research or similar information as a thing of value that could amount to a contribution under campaign finance law and such an interpretation could raise First Amendment questions.

Even assuming that the promised information constituted a “thing of value” subject to the foreign national contribution ban, the Office determined that the government would not be likely to obtain a conviction for two other reasons. First, the Office lacked evidence likely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted with knowledge that their conduct was illegal. Second, the government would have difficulty proving that the value of the promised information exceeded the $2,000 threshold for a criminal violation and/or the $25,000 threshold for felony punishment. Evidence of the value of the offered information would likely be unavailable, especially given that the offered information apparently was not produced.

Taking into account the need to establish that the meeting participants knew their activities were illegal, combined with the difficulty in establishing the monetary value of the offered information, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges for the events culminating in the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting.

The Office’s analysis of an effort by foreign nationals to distribute information harmful to Clinton to the public is redacted from the Report because it relates to an ongoing DOJ matter. However, the Office determined that the evidence was not sufficient to charge either incident as a criminal violation.

* Some of these pages are heavily redacted due to harm to an ongoing matter.

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Volume 1.15

Charging Decisions: False Statements and Obstruction of the Investigation

(pp. 191-196)

By Barbara McQuade

The Special Counsel determined that individuals associated with the Trump Campaign lied to investigators about contacts with Russia and took other actions to interfere with

the investigation. The Special Counsel charged George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen with false statements.

George Papadopoulos

Under federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2)) it is a crime to knowingly and willfully “make[] any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” “in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive … branch of the Government,” such as an FBI investigation. The statute also applies to an investigation conducted by a congressional committee.

In January 2017, investigators interviewed Papadopoulos. He lied about the timing, extent, and nature of his communications with Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese national who was a professor in London. Papadopoulos acknowledged that Mifsud told him the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” but Papadopoulos stated that those communications occurred before he joined the Campaign. He told investigators that it was a “very strange coincidence” to be informed of the dirt on Clinton before he started working for the Campaign. In fact, these communications occurred in April 2016, more than a month after Papadopoulos had joined the Campaign. Mifsud showed interest in Papadopoulos only after learning of his role on the Campaign.

Papadopoulos also lied to minimize the extent and importance of his communications with Mifsud. In fact, Papadopoulos engaged in extensive communications over months with Mifsud about foreign policy issues, including efforts to arrange a “history making” meeting between the Trump Campaign and Russian officials.

In addition, Papadopoulos failed to inform investigators that Mifsud had introduced him to Ivan Timofeev, a member of the Russian International Affairs Council, despite being asked if he had met with Russian nationals or “[a]nyone with a Russian accent” during the campaign.

Papadopoulos also falsely claimed that he had met Olga Polonskaya before he joined the Campaign, and told the FBI that he had no relationship with her. In truth, Mifsud introduced Polonskaya to Papadopoulos as a student with connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 24, 2016, after he had joined the Campaign. During the campaign, Papadopoulos emailed and spoke with her over Skype numerous times about a foreign policy trip to Russia.

Papadopoulos’s false statements hindered investigators when Mifsud was interviewed in a Washington, D.C., hotel on February 10, 2017. Mifsud denied having advance notice of the Clinton emails, falsely denied seeing Papadopoulos since introducing him to Polonskaya, and omitted that he had drafted a message that Polonskaya sent to Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos’s lies prevented investigators from challenging Mifsud’s inaccurate statements.

As a result, the Special Counsel charged Papadopoulos with false statements. On October 7, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment, a $9,500 fine, and 200 hours of community service.

Michael Flynn

The FBI interviewed Michael Flynn on January 24, 2017, four days after he had become national security advisor. Flynn made false statements regarding his communications with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn told agents that he did not ask Kislyak to refrain from retaliating against the United States for imposing sanctions against Russia. In fact, on December 29, 2016, Flynn called Kislyak to request Russian restraint. Flynn also made false statements regarding a resolution of the United Nations Security Council. Flynn stated that he did not request that any country take any particular action on the resolution. In truth, on December 22, 2016, Flynn called Kislyak and requested that Russia vote against or delay the resolution.

Flynn’s false statements impeded the investigation. The Special Counsel charged Flynn with making false statements. On December 1, 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty and also admitted to making false statements to the Department of Justice in his filing under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen was the exec