The campaign, the investigation and the struggle over what its findings meant. Follow the Mueller report back to the events, witnesses and documents behind it.
Russia interfered. The campaign expected to benefit.
Mueller documented Russian social-media interference and hacking. The campaign expected electoral benefit from stolen information. The investigation did not establish a campaign agreement with Russia’s government over its interference activities, but it documented senior campaign figures welcoming an offer of damaging information on Clinton presented as Russian government support. Mueller stressed that failing to establish a fact did not mean there was no evidence for it.Related passages: What the investigations establish →︎
The special counsel investigated presidential conduct but made no traditional charging decision. DOJ policy against charging a sitting president shaped that approach; the evidence did not allow the office to clear Trump, and Mueller documented ten episodes of potential obstruction—including efforts to remove the special counsel, curtail the investigation and influence witnesses.Related passages: Mueller explains why the report did not clear Trump on obstruction →︎ · Mueller’s obstruction findings →︎
PBS NewsHour introduces the investigation’s central findings. The chapters that follow trace the evidence, the public dispute over the report and the cases it produced.
The proposed Trump Tower Moscow development continued during the campaign. Cohen contacted the Kremlin press office about it. The report traces negotiations, proposed travel and communications with Trump.Related passages: Cohen admits lying to Congress about Trump Tower Moscow →︎
Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort attended the Trump Tower meeting after an offer presented as Russian-government support against Clinton. The report examines both the meeting and the reasons prosecutors declined campaign-finance charges.
The investigation’s origins: the Steele dossier and its fallout
A side note · opposition research and its aftermath
The dossier. The allegations. The fallout.
BuzzFeed published the Steele dossier in January 2017, warning that its allegations were unverified and it contained errors.
Who commissioned it—and why?
Fusion GPS hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele in June 2016 to investigate Trump’s Russian ties and possible election interference. This was private opposition research, funded through Perkins Coie for the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee.Related passages: The law-firm orders →︎
The conservative Washington Free Beacon had previously commissioned separate research into Republican candidates. It said it neither commissioned nor paid for Steele’s dossier, and none of its research appeared in it.
The inspector general found that Crossfire Hurricane opened on July 31, 2016, following information about George Papadopoulos. Steele’s reports played no role in that opening; the investigating team received them later.
The FBI used Steele’s reporting in Carter Page surveillance applications. The inspector general found serious errors and omissions, uncorroborated allegations and contradictions from Steele’s principal source that the FBI failed to disclose.
The dossier’s sexual allegations were unverified. The inspector general recorded that Steele’s principal source described some sexual claims as talk heard in “jest” and said Steele’s presentation was more conclusive than warranted.
“word of mouth and hearsay”
The principal source’s description, as reported to the inspector general by an FBI interviewer.
BuzzFeed’s DocumentCloud archive holds the 35-page collection of disputed and unverified allegations, with a download option. Its publication made the dossier part of the public controversy over Russia, alongside the investigations that tested specific claims.
The report describes Trump directing White House counsel Don McGahn to contact Rosenstein and have Mueller removed over alleged conflicts. McGahn prepared to resign rather than carry out the instruction.
After reporting exposed the episode, Trump pressed McGahn to deny it. McGahn refused. Investigators assessed the pressure to create a false record against the elements of obstruction.
Resistance inside the White House became part of the obstruction record: aides’ accounts showed both what Trump demanded and what they refused to do. Publication brought those accounts into the open.
The Senate Intelligence Committee published its fifth volume in August 2020. Explore that investigation and later government assessments in the Russia archive, with their dates and evidentiary status kept alongside them.Related passages: Senate publishes its campaign-contacts report →︎
The investigation produced cases involving Russian interference, financial crimes, false statements and obstruction. Their outcomes show what prosecutors proved, what defendants admitted and which allegations remained untried.
Paul Manafort
A Virginia jury convicted him on eight financial counts in August 2018. He separately pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiracy and witness-tampering conspiracy. Trump pardoned him on December 23, 2020.
Michael Cohen
He pleaded guilty to lying to Congress on November 29, 2018. The special-counsel case brought a two-month sentence; this was separate from his other New York charges.
Rick Gates
He pleaded guilty on February 23, 2018, to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements. The archive includes his agreement and statement of offense.
George Papadopoulos
He pleaded guilty to making false statements and received 14 days in prison in September 2018. Trump pardoned him on December 22, 2020.
Michael Flynn
He pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Trump pardoned him on November 25, 2020, before sentencing.
Roger Stone
A jury found him guilty of obstruction, false statements and witness tampering in November 2019. He received a 40-month sentence in February 2020 and a presidential pardon on December 23, 2020.
These are selected cases from the investigation. The charges against Russian defendants are listed separately from the convictions and guilty pleas.
The charges, convictions and pardons form the legal aftermath. The broadcast and report index below preserve the public account as it unfolded, including the gap between delivery of Mueller’s report and its release.
This special examines the origins and course of the investigation immediately after Mueller delivered his report to Barr. It aired before the redacted report’s public release on April 18.
The broadcast captures the argument before the public could read the report. Its later release made Mueller’s own account available for comparison.
