Garrett Graff: “The role of Michael Flynn aide Peter Smith has long been unclear. Smith evidently tried to mount an effort in 2016 to find Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails through the dark web, and later apparently killed himself days after the Wall Street Journal reported on those efforts in 2017. Mueller makes clear that Smith’s actions were extensive, well-funded, and part of multiple initiatives by people connected to the Trump campaign to find Hillary’s emails—all of which were then overtaken by the Russian theft and email dumps of DNC and Clinton campaign emails.”

“There’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.”

— Rudy Giuliani, in an interview on CNN, defending the 2016 Trump campaign.

NBC News reports there was a second offer of help from the Russians “to provide negative information about candidate Clinton to the Trump Campaign,” included in the Mueller report, but the particulars are redacted because the matter remains under investigation.

“That may or may not relate to something that happened with Trump associate Roger Stone, who was absent from the report because he has been accused of lying to the FBI and the case is still pending.”

The Mueller report says that President Trump directed Gen. Michael Flynn to embark on an effort to find Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails in the summer of 2016, enlisting the help of a Senate staffer and a longtime GOP donor, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Trump “asked individuals affiliated with his campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails,” according the special counsel report. Mr. Flynn “recalled that Trump made this request repeatedly, and Flynn subsequently contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the emails.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at private lunch in New York not to forget what special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was about: cyber crimes, Bloomberg reports.

When the report finally comes out, Rosenstein said “a lot of what we see will deal with that” and it will “clear up questions about Russian election interference.”

Washington Post: “While much attention has focused on the question of whether the Trump campaign encouraged or conspired with Russia, the effort to target Sanders supporters has been a lesser-noted part of the story… That strategy could receive new attention with the release of Mueller’s report, expected within days.”

“Only recently, with the latest analysis of Twitter data, has the extent of the Russian disinformation campaign been documented on that social media platform… The Russian social-media strategy underscores a challenge that Sanders faces as he once again seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, this time in a crowded field.”

“I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It’s not my thing.”

— President Trump, quoted by The Hill.

Flashback: Here’s a video of Trump name-dropping WikiLeaks 141 times on the campaign trail.

Attorney General Bill Barr told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that he believes spying by law enforcement officials on the 2016 Trump campaign “did occur,” and that he plans on reviewing “both the genesis and conduct” of the Russia investigation, Axios reports.

Said Barr: “I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”

However, when pressed if he has any evidence of wrongdoing, Barr said: “I have no specific evidence that I would cite right now. I do have questions about it.”

Just Security: “If the report delivered by Mueller to Barr didn’t include the counterintelligence piece of Mueller’s investigation (or included only pieces of intelligence directly relevant to the potential criminal conspiracy), where is that body of counterintelligence analysis? How else might it get shared with Congress or the public?”

“One possibility emerged within 24 hours of Barr’s letter going to Congress. ‘Senior officials’ told news outlets that the FBI anticipates briefing congressional leaders on Mueller’s counterintelligence findings. Oral briefings, rather than written findings, provided in closed session may have been deemed by Mueller more appropriate given genuine classification concerns—especially if aspects of the investigation remain ongoing and transferred to a different part of the Justice Department with Mueller’s office winding down.”

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that 48% of Americans surveyed still say they believe that President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia — down just six points over the last week — despite a summary of the special counsel’s investigation that claimed there was no evidence to support that finding.

Wall Street Journal: “George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser whose barside comments to an Australian diplomat helped trigger what became Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, says in a new book he didn’t actually lie to investigators, contradicting what he told a federal judge under oath last year after pleading guilty.”

Garrett Graff: “Whatever happened to the extensive testimony Mueller sought and cooperation of would-be Middle Eastern power broker George Nader, dealing with questions of foreign influence related to the Middle East? What did Mueller mean with the various breadcrumbs he left scattered throughout his hundreds of pages of court filings, like how he appeared to single out that Russian hackers attacked Hillary Clinton’s email server ‘for the first time’ after Trump made his ‘Russia, if you’re listening’ comment? Was there any significance to the arrest of Russian spy Maria Butina and her ties to the National Rifle Association, which Mueller also appeared to be probing, or was that case totally unrelated?”

“What was Mueller’s interest in the political data firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked during the 2016 campaign with Trump’s then digital media director (and now 2020 reelection campaign director) Brad Parscale? What was the truth behind the efforts of Michael Flynn associate Peter Smith—who apparently committed suicide in the early days of Mueller’s probe—to contact Russian hackers during the campaign? Why was presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner trying to set up a secure communications backchannel with the Russian government that couldn’t be heard by U.S. intelligence?”

Philip Bump: “Why… wasn’t conservative author Jerome Corsi charged by Mueller’s team after being offered a plea agreement? … What happened when former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort gave poll data to Konstantin Kilimnik, who was believed to have links to Russian intelligence, an issue that in February a Mueller attorney described as getting at the heart of the Mueller probe? … Who were the Trump campaign staffers who were contacted by Russians working for the Internet Research Agency? Who was the Florida congressional candidate who sought and received hacked information about his or her opponent? Who was the senior Trump campaign official who asked Roger Stone to reach out to WikiLeaks after the initial document releases in July 2016 — and who told him to make that outreach?”

David Corn: “Barr’s note is clear that Mueller did not uncover evidence Trump and his gang were in direct cahoots with Russia’s covert operation to interfere with the US election and boost Trump’s odds. But the hyper-focus on this sort of collusion—as if Trump instructed Russian hackers on how to penetrate the computer network of the Democratic National Committee—has always diverted attention from a basic and important element of the scandal that was proven long before Mueller drafted his final report: Trump and his lieutenants interacted with Russia while Putin was attacking the 2016 election and provided encouraging signals to the Kremlin as it sought to subvert American democracy. They aided and abetted Moscow’s attempt to cover up its assault on the United States (which aimed to help Trump win the White House). And they lied about all this.”

“And, yes, there were instances of collusion—not on the specifics of the attack, but secret scheming between Trumpworld and Russia.”

“None of the evidence underlying this is in dispute. No matter what Mueller report contains, a harsh verdict remains: Trump and his gang betrayed the United States in the greatest scandal in American history.”

“When members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election arrived for work each day, they placed their mobile phones in a locker outside of their office suite before entering,” Reuters reports.

“Operating in secrecy in a nondescript glass-and-concrete office, the team of prosecutors and investigators since May 2017 has unearthed secrets that have led to bombshell charges against several of President Donald Trump’s aides, including his former national security adviser, campaign chairman and personal lawyer, who have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.”

“To protect those secrets from prying ears, the whole of the office suite in southwest Washington was designated a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), U.S. spy speak for an area that has restrictions to ensure secret information stays secure.”