Trump's written -- at times snarky -- answers to Mueller's questions revealed

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump communicated directly at one point during the long-running investigation into Russian election interference, when the president's legal team submitted written testimony in response to Mueller's questions on a variety of topics in November 2018.
And in some cases, Trump and his attorneys brought the sass.
One of Mueller's questions referred to a July 2016 campaign rally, when Trump said, "Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."
That was a reference to the slew of documents deleted from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server. Trump's comment prompted numerous frenzied accusations that he was openly sending a signal to Russian hackers.
Mueller's report noted that hours after Trump's remarks, a Russian-led attempt to access some Clinton-linked email accounts was launched, although there was no evidence Trump or his team directed or coordinated with that effort.
"Why did you make that request of Russia, as opposed to any other country, entity or individual?" Mueller's prosecutors asked.
Mueller's report noted that after Trump's statement, future National Security Adviser Flynn contacted operatives in hopes of uncovering the documents, and another GOP consultant started a company to look for the emails.
"I made the statement quoted in Question II (d) in jest and sarcastically, as was apparent to any objective observer," Trump, speaking through his attorneys, shot back. "The context of the statement is evident in the full reading or viewing of the July 27, 2016, press conference, and I refer you to the publicly available transcript and video of that press conference."
Separately, Mueller asked Trump why he previewed a speech in June 2016 by promising to discuss "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons," and what specifically he'd planned to talk about.
Trump didn't hold back.
"In general, l expected to give a speech referencing the publicly available, negative information about the Clintons, including, for example, Mrs. Clinton's failed policies, the Clintons' use of the State Department to further their interests and the interests of the Clinton Foundation, Mrs. Clinton's improper use of a private server for State Department business, the destruction of 33,000 emails on that server, and Mrs. Clinton's temperamental unsuitability for the office of the president," Trump responded.
After discussing other events, Trump concluded his reply: "I continued to speak about Mrs. Clinton's failings throughout the campaign, using the information prepared for inclusion in the speech to which I referred on June 7, 2016."
In all, Mueller's 448-page report included 23 unredacted pages of Mueller's written questions and Trump's written responses. The special counsel's team wrote that it tried to interview the president for more than a year before relenting and permitting the written responses alone.
An introductory note included in the report said the special counsel's office found the responses indicative of "the inadequacy of the written format," especially given the office's inability to ask follow-up questions.
Citing dozens of answers that Mueller's team considered incomplete, imprecise or not provided because of the president's lack of recollection — for instance, the president gave no response at all to the final set of questions — the special counsel's office again sought an in-person interview with Trump, and he once again declined.
Mueller's team said it considered seeking a subpoena to compel Trump's in-person testimony, but decided the legally aggressive move would only serve to delay the investigation.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Adam Schiff Cartoons

Karl Rove: Months of Democrats demanding redacted Mueller report ahead

Republican strategist Karl Rove doesn’t see Thursday’s Mueller report release as the end of a the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, he sees it as “the beginning of the next chapter”
“I wish I believed it was their last gasp. I think tomorrow is the beginning of the next chapter,” Rove said on “Hannity.”
Attorney General William Barr is set to hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference Thursday accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ahead of the Justice Department's planned release of a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election
“I think it is going to be first and foremost focusing on…  they want the entire document and that's going lead then to charges that he obstructed justice and then it's going to be ‘Katie bar the door.’”
Rove added, “It's going to be months and months in my opinion of demanding a completely unredacted copy of it.”
President Trump has reportedly prepared a retort and Democrats including Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are unhappy with roll out.
“AG Barr has thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else. The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin,” Nancy Pelosi tweeted Wednesday.
Rove noted that Democrats will not be satisfied with tomorrow’s redacted report and will continue to promote their narrative.
“People like Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler are going to be calling for the immediate and total release of everything. You see it in the language of Nancy Pelosi who says that Barr is usurping the responsibility of Congress. Congress is supposed to be the judge and jury, not our legal system,” Rove told Sean Hannity.

Nadler, Pelosi, other Dems blast DOJ ahead of Mueller report release

Democrats in Congress attacked Attorney General William Barr Wednesday evening ahead of the Justice Department's planned release of a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Barr is set to hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference Thursday accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the Mueller investigation after the special counsel's appointment in May 2017. Neither Mueller nor other members of his team will attend, according to special counsel spokesman Peter Carr. Democrats have criticized the timing of the news conference, saying that Barr would get to present his interpretation of the Mueller report before Congress and the public see it.
At a news conference Wednesday evening, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the panel was expected to receive a copy of the report between 11 a.m. and noon, "well after the attorney general's 9:30 a.m. press conference. This is wrong."
"The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report," Nadler told reporters. "Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation."
Hakeem Jeffries, another member of the Judiciary Committee and the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, accused Barr -- whom Jeffries dubbed the "so-called Attorney General" of "presiding over a dog and pony show.
"Here is a thought," Jeffries added. "Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut. You have ZERO credibility."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted that Barr "has thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect ⁦‪@realDonaldTrump⁩ above all else. The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "The process is poisoned before the report is even released."
"Barr shouldn't be spinning the report at all, but it's doubly outrageous he's doing it before America is given a chance to read it," Schumer added.
Democrats were further angered Wednesday by a New York Times report which said Justice Department officials have had "numerous conversations with White House lawyers" about Mueller's conclusions, which have aided the president's legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the special counsel's report. The Times report has not been independently confirmed by Fox News.
Late Wednesday, Nadler and four other Democratic committee chairs released a joint statement calling on Barr to cancel the Thursday morning news conference, calling it "unnecessary and inappropriate."
"He [Barr] should let the full report speak for itself, read the statement from Nadler, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. "The Attorney General should cancel the press conference and provide the full report to Congress, as we have requested. With the Special Counsel’s fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress’ responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly."
In court filings in the case against Roger Stone on Wednesday, the Justice Department also said it planned to provide a "limited number" of members of Congress and their staff access to a copy of the Mueller report with fewer redactions than the public version. Nadler claimed Wednesday evening that the Judiciary Committee "has no knowledge of this and this should not be read as any agreement or knowledge or assent on our part."
Nadler added that he would "probably find it useful" to call Mueller and members of his team to testify after reading the version of the report Barr releases.
The report is expected to reveal what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that fell short of criminal conduct. And, it likely will lay out the special counsel's conclusions about formative episodes in Trump's presidency, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey; his request of Comey to end an investigation into Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn; his relentless badgering of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his recusal from the Russia investigation; and his role in drafting an explanation about a meeting his oldest son took at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
The report is not expected to place the president in legal jeopardy, as Barr made his own decision that Trump shouldn't be prosecuted for obstruction. But it is likely to contain unflattering details about the president's efforts to control the Russia investigation
Overall, Mueller brought charges against 34 people — including six Trump aides and advisers — and revealed a sophisticated, wide-ranging Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. Twenty-five of those charged were Russians accused either in the hacking of Democratic email accounts or of a hidden but powerful social media effort to spread disinformation online.
Five former Trump aides or advisers pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in Mueller's investigation, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Stone is awaiting trial on charges including false statements and obstruction.
Fox News' Jake Gibson, Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ann Coulter says she’d consider vote for Bernie Sanders

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter said she could support Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, in 2020 and even floated the idea of working in his administration if he returned to his earlier stance on immigration.
In a preview clip of PBS’s “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover” released Wednesday, host Margaret Hoover asked Coulter how she viewed the progressive senator. She asked whether she would support him if he campaign on “getting rid of low-skilled workers” to ensure higher wages.
“If he went back to his original position, which is the pro-blue-collar position. I mean, it totally makes sense with him," she said. If he went back to that position, I’d vote for him. I might work for him. I don’t care about the rest of the socialist stuff. Just-- can we do something for ordinary Americans?”
Coulter was apparently referencing Sanders’ policy position from 2007 where he opposed an immigration reform bill that he feared would drive down wages for lower-income workers. He co-authored a restrictive immigration amendment with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA. The bill ultimately failed to pass the Senate.
Sanders rejected the idea of having open borders while speaking at a campaign event earlier this month.
“What we need is comprehensive immigration reform. If you open the borders, my God, there's a lot of poverty in this world, and you're going to have people from all over the world. And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point. Can't do it. So that is not my position,” Sanders said.
Coulter, who authored the book “In Trump We Trust” ahead of the 2016 election, was an early supporter of Donald Trump but has since become a vocal critic of the president for not keeping his campaign promise of building a wall at the southern border.

In Mueller report's release, Trump looks for vindication, but new fights loom

Nearly two years of fevered speculation surrounding Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe will come to a head in a dramatic television finale-like moment on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET, when Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are set to hold a press conference to discuss the Mueller report's public release.
It was not immediately clear exactly when on Thursday the DOJ would release the redacted version of the nearly 400-page investigation into Russian election meddling, but the document was expected to be delivered to lawmakers and posted online by noon. With just hours to go until that moment, hopes for finality amid a deep national divide -- and persistent accusations of far-flung conspiracies -- are all but certain to remain unrealized.
Although Barr has already revealed that Mueller's report absolved the Trump team of illegally colluding with Russia, Democrats have signaled that the release will be just the beginning of a no-holds-barred showdown with the Trump administration over the extent of report redactions, as well as whether the president obstructed justice during the Russia investigation.
FOX NEWS POLL: TRUMP POPULARITY HOLDING STEADY AFTER MUELLER SUMMARY RELEASE
Trump’s legal team is preparing to issue a comprehensive rebuttal report on Thursday, to challenge any allegations of obstruction against the president, Fox News has learned.
The lawyers originally laid out their rebuttal in response to written questions asked by Mueller’s team of the president last year, according to a source close to Trump's legal team.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller drives away from his Washington home on Wednesday. Outstanding questions about the special counsel's Russia investigation have not stopped President Donald Trump and his allies from declaring victory. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Barr has said redactions in the report's release are legally mandated.to protect four broad areas of concern: sensitive grand jury-related matters, classified information, ongoing investigations and the privacy or reputation of uncharged "peripheral" people.
Those individuals, Barr said, did not include Trump. "No, I'm talking about people in private life, not public officeholders," the attorney general said at a hearing last week.
In a filing in the ongoing Roger Stone prosecution on Wednesday, the DOJ revealed that certain members of Congress will be able to see the Mueller report "without certain redactions" in a secure setting. Stone, a longtime confidant of the president, is awaiting trial on charges including giving false statements and obstructing justice.
Barr and Rosenstein are expected to take questions at the Thursday press conference, which was first announced in a radio interview by Trump and confirmed by the DOJ, and they'll likely be pressed on the precise nature of the final redactions.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Democrat New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, has said he is prepared to issue subpoenas "very quickly" for the full report if it is released with blacked-out sections, likely setting in motion a major legal battle.
Grand jury information, including witness interviews, is normally off limits but can be obtained in court. Some records were eventually released in the Whitewater investigation into former President Bill Clinton and an investigation into President Richard Nixon before he resigned.

Attorney General William Barr reacts as he appears before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee to make his Justice Department budget request, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in Washington. Barr said Wednesday that he was reviewing the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. He said he believed the president's campaign had been spied on and he was concerned about possible abuses of government power. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Both of those cases were under somewhat different circumstances, including that the House Judiciary Committee had initiated impeachment proceedings. Federal court rules state that a court may order disclosure "preliminary to or in connection with a judicial proceeding," but prominent Democrats -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- have dismissed suggestions that Trump should face impeachment.
Another major area of scrutiny will be Barr's decision, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, that Mueller had not uncovered sufficient evidence to prosecute Trump for obstruction of justice.
In his four-page summary of Mueller's findings released late last month, Barr stated definitively that Mueller did not establish evidence that Trump's team or any associates of the Trump campaign had conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 election -- "despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign."
But on obstruction, Barr wrote that Mueller had laid out evidence on "both sides" of the issue, even as he acknowledged that it would be more difficult to prosecute an obstruction case without evidence of any underlying crime. That evidence, on Thursday, will go under the microscope.
The report may also contain unflattering details about the president's efforts to exert control over the Russia investigation. And it may paint the Trump campaign as eager to exploit Russian aid and emails stolen from Democrats and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The report's release will also be a test of Barr's credibility, as the public and Congress judge the veracity of a letter he released relaying what were purported to be Mueller's principal conclusions.
Barr, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to the role of attorney general in 1991 before reclaiming the role in February, has endured withering criticism from Democrats who say he is covering for the president.
After Barr announced plans for the Thursday press conference, Nadler quickly charged that Barr "appears to be waging a media campaign" on behalf of Trump.
In a statement joined by several other Democrat committee chairs late Wednesday, Nadler called for Barr to cancel the press conference.
"This press conference, which apparently will not include Special Counsel Mueller, is unnecessary and inappropriate, and appears designed to shape public perceptions of the report before anyone can read it," the Democrats wrote. "[Barr] should let the full report speak for itself. The Attorney General should cancel the press conference and provide the full report to Congress, as we have requested. With the Special Counsel’s fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress’ responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly.”
Mueller is known to have investigated multiple efforts by the president over the last two years to influence the Russia probe or shape public perception of it.
In addition to examining former FBI Director James Comey's firing, Mueller scrutinized the president's reported request that Comey end an investigation into Trump's first national security adviser; his relentless attacks on former Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his recusal from the Russia investigation; and his role in drafting an incomplete explanation about a meeting his oldest son took at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
But this week, Trump, who has long said that voicing his opinions about the "witch hunt" against him wasn't a crime -- showed no signs of backing down.
"Wow! FBI made 11 payments to Fake Dossier’s discredited author, Trump hater Christopher Steele," Trump wrote on Wednesday. "The Witch Hunt has been a total fraud on your President and the American people! It was brought to you by Dirty Cops, Crooked Hillary and the DNC.
On Monday, he wrote: "Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!"
Republicans, including House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, have pushed aggressively for answers into the origins of the Mueller probe, which began shortly after Trump fired Comey in May 2017.
Trump cited several justifications for terminating Comey, including what the president called his mismanagement of the Hillary Clinton email probe, and Comey's refusal to publicly announce that the president was not under investigation.
The former FBI head acknowledged in testimony in December that when the bureau initiated its counterintelligence probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government in July 2016, investigators "didn't know whether we had anything."
An op-ed in The Washington Post earlier in the week, entitled "Admit it: Fox News has been right all along," pointed to the role in the media in spreading the Russia collusion narrative.
Justice Department legal opinions say that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but Barr said he did not take that into account when he decided the evidence was insufficient to establish obstruction.
That conclusion was perhaps not surprising given Barr's own unsolicited memo to the Justice Department from last June in which he said a president could not obstruct justice by taking actions — like the firing of an FBI director — that he is legally empowered to take.
Overall, Mueller brought charges against 34 people — including six Trump aides and advisers — and revealed a Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Twenty-five of those charged were Russians accused either in the hacking of Democratic email accounts or of a hidden but powerful social media effort to spread disinformation online.
Five former Trump aides or advisers pleaded guilty to charges unrelated to collusion and agreed to cooperate in Mueller's investigation, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Fox News' Brooke Singman, Jake Gibson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democrats on Abortion Cartoons

Texas advances bill that would penalize doctors for not providing care to babies born after abortion try: report

The Texas House of Representatives has preliminarily approved a measure that says any doctor who does not care for an infant born alive after an abortion will be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly serve prison time in cases of gross negligence, a report said.

The “Born Alive” act passed 93 to 1 mostly along party lines, the Dallas Morning News reported and will now advance to the state Senate.
 Democrat Harold Dutton cast a “no” vote while 50 other Democrats voted “present, not voting.”