1/ The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for access to Robert Mueller’s full report, including grand jury testimony and other material not made public. “My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice,” Chairman Jerry Nadler said in a statement. He added that the redactions in Mueller’s report “appear to be significant.” Nadler gave the Justice Department a May 1st deadline to provide the report and “all documents obtained and investigative materials created by the Special Counsel’s Office.” Attorney General William Barr will testify to the House Judiciary Committee on May 2nd. (NPR / Bloomberg / NBC News / New York Times / Politico / The Guardian)

2/ The White House called the House Democrat subpoena for the unredacted version of Mueller’s report “more political grandstanding.” Meanwhile, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of issuing a “wildly overbroad” subpoena to Barr. (Washington Post)

3/ The House Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department to allow Mueller to testify next month. Nadler said he wants Mueller to testify “no later than May 23.” Barr said he has no objection to Mueller testifying before Congress. (Politico / CNBC)

4/ Trump claimed that statements about him “by certain people” in Mueller’s “crazy” report are “total bullshit,” made by people trying to make themselves look good and harm him. Close White House advisers said Trump’s rage was aimed at former White House counsel Don McGahn, who blocked several attempts by Trump to interfere in Mueller’s investigation. Trump continued tweeting: “This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened, a
” He never finish the statement. (Politico / Bloomberg / Washington Post / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

5/ Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed the Mueller report contains “no evidence substantiated by any facts” that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and that Moscow rejects any such accusations. Peskov also claimed that Putin has repeatedly denied any interference “because there was none.” Mueller’s report, however, documents multiple efforts by the Russians to meddle in the election. (Politico / NBC News)

6/ A militia group in New Mexico has been detaining groups of migrant families at gunpoint and then handing them over to Border Patrol. Several videos taken at the border appeared to a group of men from the United Constitutional Patriots approaching migrants, ordering them to sit down, and calling federal agents on them. At one point, they misrepresented themselves by saying they were “border patrol” as they approached. The ACLU called the group “an armed fascist militia organization” made up of “vigilantes” trying to “kidnap and detain people seeking asylum” by making illegal arrests. (New York Times / The Guardian)

👀 Portrait mode.

A collection of in-depth reporting on the Mueller report with all the context you need to understand wtf just happened. If you don’t know where to start with the Mueller report, start here.

  1. The White House emerged from more than 400 pages of Mueller’s report to a hotbed of conflict infused by a culture of dishonesty — defined by a president who lies to the public and his own staff, then tries to get his aides to lie for him. Trump repeatedly threatened to fire lieutenants who did not carry out his wishes while they repeatedly threatened to resign rather than cross lines of propriety or law. (New York Times)

  2. The portrait painted by Mueller is one in which, again and again, Russian officials and busi­ness executives offered assistance to Trump and the people around him. The campaign was intrigued by the Russian overtures, which came at the same time that the Russian government was seeking to tilt the outcome of the race in Trump’s favor. (Washington Post)

  3. The most concrete takeaway from the Mueller report is its damning portrait of the Trump White House as a place of chaos, intrigue and deception, where aides routinely disregard the wishes of a president with little regard for the traditional boundaries of his office. (Politico)

  4. Mueller’s report documented Trump’s obsession with an investigation he believed could ruin him, eagerness to test the limits of the law to stop it, and willingness to mislead the nation to cover his actions. The report shows Trump’s attempts to conceal his behavior and suppress the probe, showing that his actions and words left some top administration officials and White House attorneys deeply alarmed, adding to drama and deception in the West Wing. (Bloomberg)

  5. Mueller’s report is of a presidency plagued by paranoia, insecurity and scheming — and of an inner circle gripped by fear of Trump’s spasms. Again and again, Trump frantically pressured his aides to lie to the public, deny true news stories and fabricate a false record. (Washington Post)

  6. The Mueller report showed Trump unwilling to take on tough tasks, deal with personnel moves, follow-through to execute his decisions, and an indifference to fact. (Wall Street Journal)

  7. Trump evaded criminal charges, but Mueller’s report is an indictment of his campaign and his presidency. The report details how Trump and his allies solicited, encouraged, accepted and benefited from Russian assistance, and then lays out evidence that Trump may have obstructed justice through what Mueller described as a “pattern of conduct” that included firing James Comey, trying to remove Mueller, publicly praising and condemning witnesses, and seeking to limit the scope of the probe. The report also made clear why Mueller didn’t pursue charges and why contacts with Russians by the Trump campaign didn’t amount to a criminal conspiracy. (NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

👑 Portrait of a President: An on-going list of various articles and essays to make sense of Trump. Curated by the WTFJHT community!

🔩 What we’ve learned from the Mueller report.

Clarifying news and events that emerged from the Mueller report.

  1. Putin convened a meeting with Russian oligarchs after Trump was elected, encouraging them to make contact with the Trump transition team and establish backchannel communications. U.S. sanctions against Russia was one of the main issues at hand for Putin and his gathering of oligarchs. The Mueller report didn’t establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but it did reveal how important it was to Putin to set up a line of communication, and how receptive members of the Trump’s inner circle were to Putin’s overtures. (Politico)

  2. Eight key figures resisted Trump at critical moments: Jeff Sessions refused to unrecuse himself after Trump repeatedly bullied him privately and publicly. White House counsel Don McGahn refused to fire Mueller. Rick Dearborn, who worked for Sessions in the Senate, refused to relay Trump’s message for Sessions to limit Mueller’s jurisdiction to future election interference, rather than look backward on the 2016 election. Staff Secretary Rob Porter refused Trump’s request to call Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand in an attempt “to find someone to end the Russia investigation or fire the Special Counsel.” Chris Christie refused to “call [James] Comey and tell him that the President ‘really like[s] him. Tell him he’s part of the team.’” Rod Rosenstein refused to put out a statement saying it was his idea to fire Comey. K.T. McFarland refused to “draft an internal email that would confirm that the President did not direct [Michael] Flynn to call the Russian Ambassador about sanctions.” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats wouldn’t put out a statement saying no link existed between Trump and Russia. (Washington Post)

  3. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Mueller’s investigators that she lied to the American public that “countless” FBI agents told her they were thankful that Trump fired James Comey. Sanders, who made similar claims on multiple occasions, told Mueller’s office that she simply made “a slip of the tongue” and the claim was made “in the heat of the moment,” and that it “was not founded on anything.” When asked about it , Sanders tried to avoid admitting that she lied saying, “I’m sorry that I wasn’t a robot like the Democrat Party.” (CBS News / CNN / NBC News / Daily Beast / The Guardian / Politico)

  4. Erik Prince, brother of Betsy DeVos, helped finance the effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails in 2016. After Trump privately asked Michael Flynn and other campaign officials to obtain the deleted emails, Flynn reached out to Barbara Ledeen, a onetime GOP staffer on Capitol Hill, for help. In September 2016, Ledeen claimed to have actually received “a trove of emails” that belonged to Clinton, but wanted to authenticate the. Prince then “provided funding to hire a tech advisor to ascertain the authenticity of the emails.” (CNN)

  5. Russian hackers were able to breach “at least one” Florida county government through a spearphishing campaign. While Mueller’s team “did not independent verify that belief,” DHS and the FBI were already investigating the intrusions. (Politico)

💡 Analysis and commentary.

Some of the more interesting and relevant analysis to emerge following the release of the Mueller report. What are you seeing that should be included?

  1. Mueller report takeaways: 14 things (Bloomberg), 10 things (CNN), 9 things (CNN, again), 7 things (New York Times), 7 things (Axios), 5 things (ABC News)

  2. 7 times the Mueller report caught Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders lying to press. From Comey to Trump Tower, the report documents — without even trying — how easily Trump’s press secretaries lie for him. (Vox)

  3. The Mueller report, explained. What the special counsel’s 448-page report reveals — and conceals. (Vox)

  4. How Barr’s letter compares to the findings in the Mueller report. Here’s a look at what the letter Barr sent to Congress last month said vs. what the redacted version of the full report says. (New York Times / Washington Post)

  5. Nearly two-thirds of the section on Russian hacking is blacked out. Those redactions raise a series of fresh questions about the conduct of Trump and his aides. Roughly 10% of the Mueller report is blacked out with redactions. (The Guardian / New York Times)

  6. The Mueller report confirms that Trump runs the government like a criminal enterprise. (New York Magazine)

  7. Don McGahn may have single-handedly saved Trump’s presidency by refusing to fire Mueller. (CNN)

Last year today: Day 455: Clean up the mess.
Two years ago today: Day 90: The sword stands ready.