The New Civil Rights Movement reports that President Donald Trump’s former White House Communications Director, Hope Hicks, thought that the 2016 emails between his son Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian agent looked “really bad.” According to the Mueller report , Hicks made the comments during a White House meeting in late June 2017 with herself, Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his daughter Ivanka Trump.
Hicks reportedly encouraged Trump to release Trump Jr.’s emails — in which he said that he would “love it” if Russia leaked dirt on Hilary Clinton — but Trump instead told her to keep them secret. The report states that Hicks believed that releasing the emails would get ahead of the story, and told Trump he could then claim that nothing came from the meeting.
“But the President was insistent that he did not want to talk about it and said he did not want details.”
According to the The Los Angeles Times , Trump also “dictated a statement” that Trump Jr. issued in which he claimed that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss adopting Russian children — not harmful material regarding Clinton.
But the report concluded that Trump’s action was not obstruction of justice because he didn’t try to prevent evidence of the meeting from getting into the hands of Mueller’s team or other lawmakers.
“The evidence does not establish that the President took steps to prevent the emails or other information about the June 9 meeting from being provided to Congress or the Special Counsel.”
Hope Hicks thought Trump Jr’s emails looked ‘really bad’ — and Trump told her to cover them up: Mueller report https://t.co/WRkD3cgU3q
— Raw Story (@RawStory) April 18, 2019
Trump Jr.’s emails eventually began leaking from The New York Times , and he ultimately posted the emails to his Twitter account. The emails revealed that Trump Jr. didn’t set the meeting to discuss adoptions, but to review “official documents and information” that the Russian lawyer promised him would “incriminate” Clinton “and be very useful to your father.”
The redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his 22-month investigation revealed that President Trump reacted in a panic to the initial discovery that a special counsel was appointed to the investigation, per The Inquisitr .
“Oh my God. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f****d.”
Afterward, Trump reportedly went into a rage at then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not protecting him. He then suggested that once an independent counsel is appointed, “it ruins your presidency.” Trump later demanded Sessions’ resignation, but when Sessions submitted it, he had a change of heart and refused to accept it. Eventually, on November 7, 2018, Trump fired Sessions and replaced him with current Attorney General William Barr.