i can t answer that question. well, on page 89 in your report in volume 23 you said and i quote, substantial evidence indicates that the president s attempt to remove the special counsel were linked to the special counsel s oversight of investigations that involve the president s conduct. and most immediately to reports that the president was being investigated for potential obstruction of justice, closed quote. director mueller, you found evidence as you lay out in your report that the president wanted to fire you because you were investigating him for obstruction of justice, isn t that correct. that s what it says in the report. and yes i standby the report. director mueller, that shouldn t happen in america.
york times reported that quote, the president had ordered mcgahn to have the department of justice fire is that correct? correct. that story related to the events you testified about today. the president s calls to mcgahn to have you removed, correct? correct. after the news broke, did the president go on tv and deny the story? do not know. in fact, the president said, quote, fake news, folks. fake news. a typical new york times fake story. end quote. correct? correct. but your investigation actually found substantial evidence that mcgahn was ordered by the president to fire you, correct? yes. did the president s personal lawyer do something the following day in response to that news report? i d refer you to the coverage of this in the report. on page 114, quote, on january 26, 2018, the president s personal counsel
called mcgahn s attorney and said that the president wanted mcgahn to put out a statement denying that he had been asked to fire the special counsel. end quote. did mcgahn do what the president asked? i d refer you to the report. communicating through his personal attorney, mcgahn refused because he said quote, that the the times story was accurate in the president wanted the special counsel removed. isn t that right? i believe it is, but i refer you again to the report. okay. so mr. mcgahn told the president that he was not going to lie, is that correct? true. did the president drop the issue? i refer to the write-up of in in the report. okay. next the president told the white house staff secretary rob porter to try to pressure mcgahn to make a false denial, is that correct? that s correct. what did he actually direct porter to do?
own ties to fusion gps, why some view your report as a pretty one-sided attack on the president? i ll tell you it s still outside my purview. all right, and i would just note finally i guess it s by chance and convince the nings left out of the report tended to be favorable to the president. my time has expired. thank you. director mueller, i d like to get us back on track here. your investigation found that president trump directed white house counsel don mcgahn to fire you. isn t that correct? true. and the president claimed he wanted to fire you because you had supposed conflicts of interests, isn t that correct? true. now, you had no conflicts of interests that required your removal. isn t that a fact? correct. and in fact don mcgahn advised the president that the asserted conflicts were, in his
no. if no on page 180 of volume 1 of your report you wrote collusion is largely synonymous of conspiracy and that crime is set forth in the general conspiracy statute. you said at your may 29th press conference and here today you choose your words carefully. are you sitting here today testifying something different than what your report states? well, what i m asking is if you can give me citation i can look at the citation and evaluate what it is. well, let me just clarify. you stated in your report i just stated your report back to you. and you said that collusion and conspiracy were not synonymous terms. your answer was no. that s correct. in that page 180 volume one of your report it said collusion is largely synonymous with conspiracy as that crime is set forth. now, you said you chose your words carefully. are you contradicting your