JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Thursday [4-18-19], at least a dozen attorneys and staff members for President Donald Trump will plunge into special counsel Robert Mueller’s 400-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Their mission? Distill the document into a quick response for the waiting political world. The president and his advisers are getting ready for the release by the Department of Justice of the findings by the special counsel whose investigation Trump called a ‘hoax’ and a ‘witch hunt.’ Staff and lawyers will be assigned sections of the report to digest as the team looks to develop official statements and talking points. The descriptions of the Trump team’s preparations are based on interviews with five sources familiar with the plans. A summary of the report released last month by Attorney General William Barr said Mueller did not find evidence of collusion between Trump or his campaign and Russia, but the document will give a much fuller picture of the investigation. As of last week, Trump said he had not read the Mueller report, but he and his aides predicted its main takeaways: There was no collusion with Russia, no obstruction of justice and no basis for the inquiry to have begun in the first place.”
–David Jackson, “The Trump team’s Mueller report game plan: Read the report quickly and put out responses,” USA Today, April 17, 2019 4:54 pm