Justice Department releases more Mueller documents to CNN and BuzzFeed

The Justice Department has released another 300 pages of notes from major witness interviews in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The documents, include memos — called 302s by the FBI — from Andrew McCabe, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen and Steve Bannon. This is the fifth time CNN has gotten documents like these from the Justice Department regarding the Mueller investigation, as part of a lawsuit in conjunction with BuzzFeed News.

So far, the previous releases have fleshed out details that Mueller summarized in his final report regarding the actions of President Donald Trump and his campaign. The memos have revealed, for instance, how top Trump campaign officials witnessed the President and other Trump campaign officials pushing for the release of stolen Democratic emails and supported a conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked the Democrats in 2016.

The memos were typed up by agents or prosecutors after they questioned each witness. The Justice Department has kept many of the memos heavily redacted as they continue to release them this year.

Highly redacted Kushner memo reveals nothing

The Justice Department released, for the first time, notes from Mueller’s team of their interview with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. But the five-page document is almost completely redacted, revealing nothing more about Kushner’s role in the Russia scandal.

There are a few snippets of text visible in the memo.

“A few weeks after the election Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak met together at Trump Tower,” an apparent reference to the December 2016 meeting between senior Trump aides and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The rest of that section is fully redacted, even though several pages of the Mueller report delve into the details of the meeting.

Another snippet says, “Kushner vaguely remembers Flynn handling Russia on the issue.” The rest of the section is redacted, but it could refer to the efforts within the Trump transition team to reach out to diplomats from around the world, as they moved on from their unexpected election victory and prepared to take the reins of government in 2017.

Nothing else is revealed in the memo, which describes the interview Kushner did with Mueller’s team in November 2017. At the time, CNN reported that investigators primarily asked about former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to a lying charge weeks later. This was one of two voluntary interviews that Kushner, who now serves as a senior White House adviser, did with Mueller.

Five sentences from Spicer

A 17-page memo from an October 2017 interview with Spicer was almost entirely redacted, with the exception of five sentences or partial sentences of information that Spicer provided investigators.

The interview covers the former White House press secretary’s knowledge of a number of Trump’s interactions with or views on former FBI Director James Comey, including the private dinner where Trump demanded Comey’s loyalty, Comey’s March 2017 congressional testimony and Comey’s firing.

An “Administrative note” at the top of the Spicer memo seems to indicate that, after an earlier interview, investigators felt compelled to remind Spicer not to lie.

“This interview followed a separate interview conducted on the same day by FBI Special Agents and Attorneys from the Special Counsel’s Office. During the separate interview, SA (REDACTED) informed Spicer of his duty only to provide truthful information,” the memo states.

A behind-the-scenes look at Comey’s firing

The latest batch of documents includes memos from interviews with former FBI official James Rybicki, who was chief of staff to Comey, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

The 20 pages of memos are almost entirely unredacted, a stunning contrast to the heavily censored memos from the FBI’s interviews with Trump’s top officials and close allies. Trump has repeatedly attacked Comey and McCabe, who is now a CNN contributor, as corrupt criminals who tried to overthrow his presidency.

The memos reveal new details about McCabe’s experience on the day of Comey’s firing in May 2017.

McCabe told investigators that he was summonsed to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ office, and that when they met, Sessions told him, “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve had to fire the director of the FBI.”

In an intense scene that wasn’t described in Mueller’s wide-ranging report, Sessions told McCabe that “they” wanted McCabe to be the acting director of the FBI, and “they” would “let him know” if McCabe would be named Comey’s permanent successor. Sessions instructed McCabe not to tell anyone, not even his wife. McCabe recalled that the phrase “oh my god” was going through his head, nonstop, as he returned to his office.

When McCabe finally connected on the phone with Comey, after the firing was announced by the White House, Comey was in good spirits. McCabe said Comey told him: “It’s all on you now. Don’t screw it up.”

McCabe told investigators that he saw FBI staff “bawling” in the hallways in the wake of Comey’s dismissal.