The public release of the Mueller report reveals President Donald Trump worried the investigation would paralyze him domestically and abroad.
Notes in the 400-page document show that when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump a special counsel had been appointed for the probe, Trump reportedly “slumped back in his chair.”
“Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked,” Trump said, according to the report, which Attorney General William Barr released Thursday.
In meetings with former FBI director James Comey “against the advice of senior aides,” the report states Trump said he needed Comey’s loyalty.
“The day after learning about the FBI’s interview of Flynn, the President had a one-on-one dinner with Comey, against the advice of senior aides, and told Comey he needed Comey’s ‘loyalty,'” the report reads. “When the President later asked Comey for a second time to make public that he was not under investigation, he brought up loyalty again, saying ‘Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal, we had that thing, you know.'”
Barr reiterated that special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence that Trump or any members of his campaign colluded with the Russian government to impact the 2016 presidential election. (RELATED: AG Barr: ‘Bottom Line’ From Mueller Report Is ‘No Collusion)
Trump, according to the report, said the Mueller probe was damaging to his ability to address “foreign relations issues.”
“The President told Comey that the ‘cloud’ of ‘this Russia business’ was making it difficult to run the country,” the report said. “The President told Sessions and McGahn that foreign leaders had expressed sympathy to him for being under investigation and that the perception he was under investigation was hurting his ability to address foreign relations issues.”
U.S. Attorney General William Barr, flanked by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, speaks at a news conference to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Trump allegedly said Sessions, as his attorney general, had “let [him] down,” unlike what Eric Holder or Robert Kennedy had done for their respective presidents.
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