2016 ELECTION/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Special counsel Robert Mueller was able to complete his investigation because President Donald Trump let him, the president asserted Thursday [4-18-19] afternoon, in his first public reaction since Mueller’s report was released hours earlier…Trump was initially mum after Mueller’s report into Russian interference during the 2016 election went public Thursday morning, declining to answer questions from reporters as he left the White House for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. His supporters stayed on message throughout the day, however, asserting that the report exonerated the president of any malfeasance. The redacted report does not establish that Trump coordinated with Russia to win the election, but it did reveal multiple instances where the president tried to thwart investigations into 2016. Trump has long decried the probes as an illegal, partisan ‘witch hunt’ against him. Following Attorney General William Barr’s March 24 release of a four-page summary of the 448-page report, Trump heralded the investigation as a total exoneration, wanting to flip the script by investigating Democrats and federal officials who advanced the probe.”
–Matthew Choi, “Trump: I could have shut it all down,” Politico, April 18, 2019 8:59 pm