BuzzFeed News Publishes ‘The Mueller Report’s Secret Memos’

(Bloomberg) -- BuzzFeed News published the first tranche of FBI documents related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the 2016 election and Russian efforts to aid Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The debunked theory that Ukraine had meddled in U.S. matters was featured in some of the roughly 500 pages of documents -- in a package BuzzFeed called “The Mueller Report's Secret Memos” -- posted online Saturday related to interviews with FBI agents. Various email correspondence is also included.

BuzzFeed and CNN sued for access to Mueller's witness interview notes. In October, a judge ordered the Justice Department to release new tranches of the notes monthly to the two news organizations.

The documents are heavily redacted and feature some of the headline names from the two-year Mueller investigation, including Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer, and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, both of whom are currently serving federal prison sentences.

In one document, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon refers to Manafort in an Nov. 5, 2016, email to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, days before the presidential election and months after Manafort supposedly parted ways with the campaign.

Manafort ‘Plague'

“We need to avoid this guy like the plague,” Bannon wrote to Kushner. “They are going to try and say the Russians worked with WikiLeaks to give this victory to us. Paul is a nice guy but can't let word get out he is advising us.”

Manafort had started the email string on the subject of “Securing the Victory,” telling Kushner that he was “really feeling good about our prospects.” Sean Hannity was also mentioned in Manafort's note and in other documents, showing how closely the Fox News host was allied with Trump's political apparatus.

Another revelation from the cache was a reflection made to the FBI by Rick Gates, Trump's former deputy campaign chair, about then-candidate Trump's infamous comment about Russia in July 2016.

“Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said, referring to Hillary Clinton's deleted messages.

The remark was an ad lib, Gates contended. The same document showed Gates remembering staff conversations that “someone out there” must have the missing Clinton emails.

DNC Server

Gates also said Manafort had offered the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind a June 2016 hack on Democratic National Committee computers. That idea, which has been discredited by U.S. intelligence agencies, is still pushed by Trump and others and has become central to the current Democratic impeachment inquiry into the president.

The president's allies are likely to ignore the information contained in the FBI documents, Representative Maxine Waters of California said on Sunday. They change their story, but not their support for the Trump as new information is reported, she said.

For Republicans, “this president can say whatever he wants to say and it does not mean he is condemned in any way that would cause him to be impeached,” Waters said on MSNBC. “It's another lie. They just keep lying.”

‘For What Country?'

In another document posted by BuzzFeed, drawn from the summary of Bannon's interview with the FBI, the former Goldman Sachs investment banker recalled having first met Trump in 2010. Conservative activist David Bossie, president of Citizens United, was also present, and said that Trump was thinking of running for president in 2012. According to the recap, Bannon asked, “for what country?”

After making requests through the Freedom of Information Act, BuzzFeed and CNN sued the U.S. government for the right to see the primary-source information that Mueller's team didn't disclose when it published its 448-page report in March. Justice Department lawyers say the material could run to 18 billion pages.

The process of releasing all the documents monthly will probably take eight or more years.

--With assistance from Laura Davison.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Matthew G. Miller, Mark Niquette

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