Schmidt S. - Donald Trump V. the United States - Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“again have confirmed”:Shane Harris et al., “New White House Security Clearance Policy Could Put ‘Bull’s Eye’ on Kushner,” Washington Post, February 16, 2018.

It was in 1883:“An Act to Regulate and Improve the Civil Service of the United States (Pendleton Act),” National Archives, January 16, 1883.

The stated reason:Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, “Andrew McCabe, a Target of Trump’s F.B.I. Scorn, Is Fired Over Candor Questions,” New York Times, March 16, 2018.

“FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe”:Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter, December 23, 2017, 3:30 p.m., twitter.com/​realDonaldTrump/​status/​944666448185692166.

Comey described Trump:James Comey, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership (New York: Flatiron Books, 2018).

ABC News aired an hour-long interview:“Transcript: James Comey’s Interview with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos,” ABC News, April 15, 2018.

“James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR”:Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter, April 13, 2018, 8:01 a.m., twitter.com/​realDonaldTrump/​status/​984763579210633216.

“was a fucking liar”:Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018).

On the day the White House:“Read the Powerhouse Politics Interview with Outgoing White House Lawyer Ty Cobb,” ABC News, May 2, 2018.

Later that same night:Amber Phillips and Callum Borchers, “Rudy Giuliani’s Revealing Interview with Sean Hannity, Annotated,” Washington Post, May 3, 2018.

At the Times : Matt Apuzzo, “Jared Kushner Gets Security Clearance, Ending Swirl of Questions Over Delay,” New York Times, May 23, 2018.

That afternoon on CNN:“Transcripts: Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” CNN, May 23, 2018, us.cnn.com/​TRANSCRIPTS/​1903/​01/​cnr.05.html.

shortly after 4:30 p.m.:“Kim Kardashian West Goes to the White House to Talk Pardon with Trump,” CNBC, May 31, 2018.

she had insinuated her way:Katie Rogers, “Trump Meets with Kim. Kim Kardashian West, That Is,” New York Times, May 30, 2018.

“Happy Birthday Alice Marie Johnson”:Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian), Twitter, May 30, 2018, 9:50 a.m., twitter.com/​KimKardashian/​status/​1001823217219129344.

President Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich:David Johnston, “U.S. Is Beginning Criminal Inquiry in Pardon of Rich,” New York Times, February 15, 2001.

When President George W. Bush commuted:Scott Shane and Neil A. Lewis, “Bush Commutes Libby Sentence, Saying 30 Months ‘Is Excessive,’ ” New York Times, July 3, 2007.

Instead of being wronged by the system:Richard Pérez-Peña, “Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Is Convicted of Criminal Contempt,” New York Times, July 31, 2017.

received a commutation of his sentence:Mitch Smith, “President Commutes Sentence of Iowa Meatpacking Executive,” New York Times, December 20, 2017.

Trump pardoned a former sailor:Matt Zapotosky, “Trump Pardons Former Navy Sailor Convicted of Retaining Submarine Pictures in Case That Drew Comparisons to Clinton,” Washington Post, March 9, 2018.

The following month:Peter Baker, “Trump Pardons Scooter Libby in a Case That Mirrors His Own,” New York Times, April 13, 2018.

he issued a posthumous pardon:John Eligon and Michael D. Shear, “Trump Pardons Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Boxing Champion,” New York Times, May 24, 2018.

“I would like to thank”:Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian), Twitter, May 30, 2018, 10:03 p.m., twitter.com/​KimKardashian/​status/​1002007628501934083.

“The White House counsel”:Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, “White House Counsel, Don McGahn, Has Cooperated Extensively in Mueller Inquiry,” New York Times, August 18, 2018.

“I allowed White House Counsel”:Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter, August 18, 2018, 6:12 p.m., twitter.com/​realDonaldTrump/​status/​1030940529037651968.

We wrote that at the time:Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt, “Trump Lawyers’ Sudden Realization: They Don’t Know What Don McGahn Told Mueller’s Team,” New York Times, August 18, 2018.

McGahn had watched the testimony:Carl Hulse, Confirmation Bias: Inside Washington’s War over the Supreme Court, from Scalia’s Death to Justice Kavanaugh (New York: Harper, 2019).

“Did I tell you that”:Ibid.

Bloomberg reported that Mueller:Chris Strohm, Greg Farrell, and Shannon Pettypiece, “Mueller Ready to Deliver Key Findings in His Trump Probe, Sources Say,” Bloomberg, October 17, 2018.

NBC News reported that Mueller:Pete Williams and Ken Dilanian, “Mueller May Submit Report to Attorney General as Soon as Mid-February, Say Sources,” NBC News, December 20, 2018.

CNN and NBC News reported:Evan Perez, Laura Jarrett, and Katelyn Polantz, “Justice Department Preparing for Mueller Report as Early as Next Week,” CNN, February 20, 2019.

CBS News said the report:Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy), Twitter, February 21, 2018, 7:33 a.m., twitter.com/​stevenportnoy/​status/​1098561308142829568.

At 4:00 p.m. that Friday:Katie Rogers and Katie Benner, “Where’s the Mueller Report? Washington Barely Handled the Anticipation,” New York Times, March 22, 2019.

“It was a complete and total exoneration”:Mark Mazzetti and Katie Benner, “Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy, but Stops Short of Exonerating President on Obstruction,” New York Times, March 24, 2019.

“Up to the attorney general”:“Remarks by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel After Bilateral Meeting,” White House, March 25, 2019, www.whitehouse.gov/​briefings-statements/​remarks-president-trump-prime-minister-netanyahu-israel-bilateral-meeting-4/.

Mueller sent a far more harshly worded letter:Robert S. Mueller III, “Re: Report of the Special Counsel on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election and Obstruction of Justice (March 2019),” Special Counsel’s Office, March 27, 2019.

Barr thought the letter:Peter Baker, “Barr Defends Handling of Mueller Report Against Withering Rebukes,” New York Times, May 1, 2019.

Barr later told Congress:Isaac Stanley-Becker, “ ‘I Don’t Know’: Barr’s Professed Ignorance Prompts Calls for His Resignation After Mueller Letter,” Washington Post, May 1, 2019.

“It was my baby”:Baker, “Barr Defends Handling of Mueller Report Against Withering Rebukes.”

“The Special Counsel found”:“Attorney General William P. Barr Delivers Remarks on the Release of the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” U.S. Department of Justice, April 18, 2019, www.justice.gov/​opa/​speech/​attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-release-report-investigation-russian.

the report contained stark new examples:Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” U.S. Department of Justice, March 2019.