Mueller: Trump campaign 'expected it would benefit' from Russian interference

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report does not establish that President Trump's campaign illegally conspired with Russia but says the campaign expected to benefit from Russia's interference.

The redacted report released on Thursday states that Trump's campaign "showed interest" in WikiLeaks' release of stolen Democratic emails and "welcomed their potential damage to candidate Clinton."

It also says that the Trump campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." It goes on to say, however, that the investigation "did not establish" that members of the campaign "conspired or coordinated" in these efforts, as previously quoted in Barr's summary of the report.

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Barr said on Thursday in a press conference that the publication of WikiLeaks' stolen emails "would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy."

Mueller's report does, however, outline instances of members of the Trump campaign discussing the release of hacked emails with WikiLeaks. For example, Mueller says that in October 2016, WikiLeaks messaged Donald Trump Jr. asking "you guys" to help disseminate a link, to which Trump. Jr responded he had "done so." Mueller also says the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016 planned a "press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks."