Donald Trump

(AMI) paid $150,000 to model in August 2016, paid $130,000 to in October 2016. regarding their alleged affairs with Trump between 2006 and 2007. AMI admitted paying McDougal to prevent publication of stories that might damage Trump's electoral chances. Court documents showed that the FBI believed Trump was directly involved in the payment to Daniels, based on calls he had with Cohen in October 2016. The closure of the federal investigation into the matter was announced in July 2019, subpoenaed the Trump Organization and AMI for records related to the hush payments

Russian interference

In January 2017, American intelligence agencies – the , the , and the , represented by the  – jointly stated with "" that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election to favor the election of Trump. In March 2017, FBI Director told Congress that "the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts."[761]

The connections between Trump associates and Russia have been widely reported by the press. One of Trump's campaign managers, , had worked for several years to help pro-Russian politician win the Ukrainian presidency. and political consultant , have been connected to Russian officials. Russian agents were overheard during the campaign saying they could use Manafort and Flynn to influence Trump.[767]
Members of Trump's campaign and later his White House staff, particularly Flynn, were in contact with Russian officials both before and after the November election. about sanctions that had been imposed the same day; Trump later fired Flynn for falsely claiming he had not discussed the sanctions. and Sergey Kislyak in May 2017 he was unconcerned about Russian interference in U.S. elections.[770]

Trump and his allies have promoted that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered in the 2016 election – which has also been promoted by Russia in an effort to Ukraine.[771]

Special counsel investigation

On May 17, 2017, former appointed , a former , to serve as for the (DOJ) investigating "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation", thus taking over the existing FBI investigation into the matter. Trump repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Russian government.[775]

Trump sought to fire Mueller on several occasions – in June 2017, December 2017, and April 2018 – and close the investigation, but backed down after his staff objected or after changing his mind.

On March 22, 2019, the special counsel concluded his investigation and gave his report to Attorney General . to Congress summarizing what he said were the "principal conclusions" in the report. He said the report did not conclude the President had committed any crimes, although it did not exonerate him for obstruction of justice. Trump interpreted Mueller's report a "complete exoneration", a phrase he repeated multiple times in the ensuing weeks. Some legal analysts said Barr's description of the report's contents was misleading.[782]

A redacted version of the final was released to the public on April 18, 2019, with the first volume finding that Russia interfered to favor Trump's candidacy and hinder Clinton's. The report states that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was illegal and occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion", and it details how Trump and his campaign "welcomed and encouraged" foreign interference believing they would politically benefit.[790]

The second volume of the Mueller Report dealt with possible obstruction of justice by Trump. Investigators decided they could not "apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes", as they could not indict a sitting president per an (OLC) opinion, and would not accuse him of a crime when he cannot clear his name in court.

Associates

On August 21, 2018, former Trump campaign chairman was on eight felony counts of false tax filing and bank fraud., Trump's personal attorney, Trump had sought advice about pardoning Manafort but was counseled against it.[796]

On November 29, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump's 2016 attempts to reach a deal with Russia to build . Cohen said he had made the false statements on behalf of Trump, who was identified as "Individual-1" in the court documents.[797]

The five Trump associates who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted in Mueller's investigation or related cases include Paul Manafort, deputy campaign manager , foreign policy advisor , Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen. On January 25, 2019, Trump adviser was arrested at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and indicted on seven criminal charges;

2019 congressional investigation