Attorney General William Barr's letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller probe sketches out the Russian effort to hack Democratic emails to try to influence the 2016 election.
The coordinated effort that U.S. intelligence determined was directed by the Kremlin resulted constituted 'crimes,' as Barr noted, and resulted in Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians.
The Russian effort was at the heart of why Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller in the first place.
It also coincided with repeated public statements Trump made during the campaign encouraging better ties with Russia – and a series of lies and omissions told by Trump associates about a sequence of Russia contacts that were uncovered throughout the course of Trump's improbable campaign.
Attorney William Barr's letter describes Russia's effort to influence the 2016 election and notes the indictment of 13 Russians charged with crimes. But it notes the Mueller investigation did not 'find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts'
The series of events left many Democrats and some investigators convinced that Trump or his subordinates may have been in on the extraordinary effort to try to disrupt the U.S. presidential election.
After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May of 2017, it was reported earlier this year, the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump was working for Russia.
The Barr letter includes an unequivocal assessment over whether there was in fact 'coordination' with the Russians.
'The Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign,' Barr wrote.
In brief comments at the White House Sunday, Trump said: 'I just want to tell you that America is the greatest place on Earth'
Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not 'find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government' efforts to influence the election, according to Attorney General William Barr
Attorney General William Barr described the outlines of the Russia investigation in his letter to Congress
As Mueller's earlier indictment of 13 Russian national reveals, the St. Petersburg-based Russian troll farm engaged in a variety of tactics to try to influence the election. These included inflammatory Facebook posts targeting specific slices of the American electorate, including African American voters.
Russian trolls amplified these messages on Twitter. One hashtag linked to the effort urged voters to 'Grow a spine and vote Jill Stein' – an effort to siphon off votes from Clinton and put them in the Green Party candidate's column.
Many of the posts disparaged Hillary Clinton and sought to undermine Trust in her from traditionally Democratic voters.
On the hacking side, the Russian-backed effort was able to use a spear-fishing tactic to obtain years worth of emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. Those emails made their way to WikiLeaks, which dropped them during key moments of the campaign for maximum impact.
Other emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee fanned a split among Bernie Sanders supporters and Democratic Party members, and resulted in DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's resignation hours before the start of her party's political convention.
Former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone arrives at Federal Court, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, in Washington. Stone was arrested in the special counsel's Russia investigation and was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe. However he was not charged with conspiring with Russia despite an investigative focus on his communications with WikiLeaks
In this file photo taken on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, a view of a Business center, believed to be the location of the new "troll farm" in St. Petersburg, Russia
Prosecutors say the Kremlin was behind the hacking effort to influence the U.S. presidential election
The Podesta emails provoked a stream of media reports about internal Clinton conflicts in the final days of the campaign.
During the course of the Mueller probe, several Trump associates, including former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn and foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, lied to investigators about their foreign contacts. Others linked to Trump, including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, failed to disclose Russia contacts on their
