“Total Bullshit”: Trump Lashes Out at Mueller Report

The president also warned against people who take notes.

Ting Shen/Xinhua/ZUMA

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Less than a month after declaring “total exoneration,” President Donald Trump on Friday attacked the findings of the Mueller report as “total bullshit” and claimed that the redacted version released to the public Thursday contained false allegations aimed at harming him.

The president also asserted, without evidence, that witnesses had fabricated notes they used to document conversations with him. “Watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes,’ when the notes never existed until needed,” Trump tweeted, a reference to those in his inner circle who recorded events involving the president as they happened. The special counsel relied on such notes, including one document from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ then-chief of staff that recorded Trump saying “I’m fucked” upon learning of Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.

Trump’s denunciation of note-takers also underscores an account in the Mueller report that the president once complained to former White House counsel Don McGahn that he had been taking notes of their conversation. “I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes,” Trump said, according to the report.

Shortly after the president’s angry tweets on Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D) subpoenaed for the full, unredacted Mueller report.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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