Mueller report documents links between Trump campaign and Russia, steps to thwart probe; finds no conspiracy

Members of President Donald Trump's campaign showed interest in benefiting from Russian government efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election in his favor, but investigators did not find evidence that their conduct amounted to a crime, special counsel Robert Mueller said in a long-awaited report revealed Thursday.

Investigators found that some of Trump’s aides engaged in contacts with people linked to the Russian regime even as the Kremlin was carrying out a wide-ranging effort to intervene in the election using hacked documents and phony social media campaign, carried out because the Russian government thought it would benefit from a Trump presidency.

“Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian Government in its election interference activities,” Mueller's report concluded.

Some of Trump's aides then “lied” to the special counsel and Congress about their interactions. “Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference,” the nearly 400-page report stated.

The report also detailed steps by the president and those around him to thwart the investigation that shadowed the first two years of his administration. Mueller’s office did not conclude that Trump's actions were illegal, but also pointedly refused to clear him of wrongdoing, stating "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”

Trump, in a Game of Thrones-themed tweet, declared the report a vindication, saying, "No collusion. No Obstruction. For the haters and the Radical Left Democrats – Game Over."

The startling portrait of the Trump campaign showed his operatives had expressed interest in pursuing questionable contacts with Russians amid the heated 2016 election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. At the same time, they failed to recognize that a deft intelligence operation directly tied to the Kremlin was actively manipulating the American electorate.