Trump-Mueller report: President retreats to Mar-a-Lago as Democrats issue subpoenas and talk impeachment

Document paints damning picture of a White House torn apart by lies and mistrust

Donald Trump says he's 'having a good day' following Mueller report release

Donald Trump has flown to his private resort in Florida for the Easter holiday, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill issue subpoenas and discuss impeachment proceedings in the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The president exploded on Twitter the morning after the report’s release to the public, calling statements included in the nearly 450-page document “bulls**t.”

“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” he tweeted Friday. “Watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes,’ when the notes never existed until needed. Because I never agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the ‘Report’ about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad).”

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Chairman has suggested the possibility of impeaching Donald Trump in the wake of the explosive Mueller report.

“A lot of people keep asking about the question of impeachment. We may very well come to that very soon,” Elijah Cummings said in an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

He added, “But right now, let’s make sure we understand what Mueller was doing, understand what [Attorney General William] Barr was doing, and see the report in an unredacted form, and all of the underlying documents.”

Mr Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which the president directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel’s appointment in May 2017.

The report says those efforts “were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests”.

The attorney general said on Thursday a version of the report with fewer redactions will be made available to a small group of lawmakers.

He said all redactions would be removed from that version of the report except those relating to grand-jury information.

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Key Points

• Trump rails against perceived enemies in overnight tirade
• Democrats call of president's impeachment
• Pelosi refuses to comment on potential Trump impeachment proceedings
• President launches astonishing tirade against 'bullshit' probe in morning tweets

[19 April 2019 12:20 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Another takeaway from the Mueller report:

Mueller chose not to subpoena Trump

The report states that the written responses by the president to questions from investigators were “inadequate”, including that  possible questions over obstruction of justice being left unanswered.

However Mr Mueller said that due to the “late stage” of the investigation at the time, calling the president for testimony would cause a “substantial delay” and therefore one would not be issued.

[19 April 2019 12:33 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Sarah Sanders is making her way around the morning news shows attempting to defend the misleading statements she made to the public, which has been exposed by details revealed in the Mueller report. 

Here she is on CBS This Morning: 

And here she is on ABC News: 

[19 April 2019 12:41 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Opinion: Donald Trump tried to get his version of events out first. Typically, it consisted of a single word, in a tweet, in capitals: “EXONERATED.” Today we finally got to see the authorised version and, to no one’s surprise, it consists of the direct opposite, but in a long report, in lower case, and hedged about with qualifications. 

Robert Mueller, the independent counsel, did not conclude that the president committed a crime, but he also did “not exonerate him”. 

The picture painted by the report is not a flattering one of the president. The verbatim account of his response to the appointment of Mr Mueller to investigate links between Russia and the Trump election campaign is colourfully plausible: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency.” 

Read more...

[19 April 2019 12:56 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Donald Trump has tweeted for the first time this morning, furiously railing against "certain people" who provided written documentation to the special counsel investigation. 

A follow-up tweet is incoming, but Trump is highly unlikely to provide evidence for the claim.

[19 April 2019 13:15 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Donald Trump, the president of the USA, is now swearing in tweets - surely the first time ever a President has sworn in a public statement - to attack the Mueller report. 

It's a follow-up to his tweet below, in which he cautions against people who take notes. It appears to be a thinly-veiled swipe against his former White House counsel Don McGahn. The report detailed how Mr Trump was perplexed at the time about McGahn's note-taking.

[19 April 2019 13:29 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Donald Trump has come a long way in less than four weeks with his Mueller report messaging. From "total exoneration" to "total bullshit".

24 March 2019: 

19 April 2019: 

[19 April 2019 13:31 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Fox News appears to be going down a conspiracy hole, with one guest questioning whether the US government used an "asset" to feed misinformation to a former Trump campaign aide in a ruse to later launch an investigation against the president.

[19 April 2019 13:40 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller what many of her critics have long claimed: she misled the American public while working for Donald Trump. 

The White House press secretary revealed in her conversations with prosecutors that she inaccurately claimed to have received from FBI members in the wake of the president’s decision to fire ex-FBI Director James Comey. 

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[19 April 2019 13:43 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Sarah Sanders is taking to morning TV to claim her only slip up was to misleadingly use the word "countless" when discussing the number of FBI officials who wanted to see the firing of James Comey. 

[19 April 2019 13:53 · Tom.Embury-Dennis]

Opinion: “Oh my God. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f***ked,” Donald Trump said when he learned about the appointment of a special counsel, we found out after the release of the Mueller report today. Considering this, it’s incredible how the president and his fellow Republicans managed to turn the narrative around after William Barr’s initial statement.

After the release of the minimally redacted report today, it will be more difficult for triumphant crows to echo round Congress (not that the Trump-backing members of the Republican Party won’t try.) But because of its nuance – something which we should always have expected from the tight-lipped, leak-proof, anti-sensationalist Robert Mueller – it will be equally difficult for Democrats to use this report as fodder for impeachment or meaningful sanction.

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