Mueller report: Trump was horrified after being informed of special counsel appointment
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump was horrified after being informed that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate potential collusion between members of his campaign and Russian officials, according to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s final report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Sessions’ chief of staff, Joseph Hunt, and then-White House Counsel Don McGahn II attended an Oval Office meeting with the president in May 2017 to discuss FBI director candidates, the report says. Hunt took notes documenting the meeting.
“Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m [[f—d]],” Trump said in the meeting, using an expletive, according to Hunt’s notes, the report states.
The president then proceeded to lambast Sessions for having recused himself from the investigation, according to the report.
“You were supposed to protect me,” Sessions recalled the president saying — or words to that effect, according to the report.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller on May 17, 2017. The appointment came after the intense political fallout that ensued after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey eight days earlier.
The Justice Department released a redacted version of Mueller’s report on Thursday. The report is the product of a 22-month-long investigation.
Mueller said in his report that he did not find any evidence of collusion. He did not make a determination as to whether obstruction had occurred.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.