most important questions the special counsel asked Trump was whether he had participated in a money-for-policy quid pro quo with the Kremlin: “Did you intend to communicate … at any … time during the campaign a willingness to lift sanctions and/or recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea if you were elected? What consideration did you give to lifting sanctions and/or recognizing Russia’s annexation if you were elected? Describe who you spoke with about this topic, when, the substance of the discussion(s).”46 Trump refused to offer any answers to these questions at all, one of the few cases in which he did not even attempt a reply.47
In his written answers to the special counsel’s interrogatories, Trump also denies any knowledge of pre-election conversations his family or anyone connected to his campaign may have had establishing a quid pro quo with nations other than Russia—for instance, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or Israel—telling the special counsel, “I have no recollection of being told during the campaign that any foreign government or foreign leader had provided, wished to provide, or offered to provide tangible support to my campaign.”48 By his answer, Trump expresses that not only did his son Don conceal from him any information about his June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting with Kremlin agents for the entirety of the 2016 campaign, but that Don took the same tack with respect to his meeting with Nader, Prince, Miller, and Zamel at Trump Tower on August 3, 2016.
Trump offers the same response with respect to whether his friend and longtime adviser Roger Stone ever told him, during any of their numerous phone calls during the campaign, about the critical information he had received regarding the timing of WikiLeaks’ release of stolen Democratic materials: “I have no recollection of being told that WikiLeaks possessed or might possess emails related to John Podesta before the[ir] release.… I do not recall being told during the campaign that Roger Stone or anyone associated with my campaign had discussions with [WikiLeaks, Guccifer 2.0, or DCLeaks] … regarding the content or timing of release of hacked emails.”49 In fact, Trump told Mueller he had “no recollection of any of the specifics of any conversations I had with Mr. Stone between June 1, 2015, and November 8, 2016. I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with him, nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign.”50 Trump’s answer to another question indicates that, just as he claimed his son had never told him about his June 9 or August 3 meetings at Trump Tower, Don Jr. also had withheld from his father—despite discussing it with other members of the campaign—his September 2016 contacts with WikiLeaks, with Trump telling Mueller, “I do not recall being aware during the campaign of any communications between [Stone, Don Jr., Manafort, or Gates] … and anyone I understood to be a representative of WikiLeaks.”51
Michael Cohen’s voluminous testimony to the contrary, Trump tells Mueller—under penalty of a federal felony—that he “do[es] not recall being aware at the time of any communications between Mr. Cohen or Felix Sater and any Russian government official regarding the [Trump-Rozov] Letter of Intent.”52 Just so, despite his years-long relationship with the Agalarov family, whose patriarch has received one of the highest civilian honors the Kremlin can bestow—and indeed received it directly from Putin’s hand—Trump tells the special counsel that he has “no meaningful relationship with people in power in Russia.”53 Nor was Trump, by his own account, in any way advised by Paul Manafort on issues relating to either Ukraine or Russia, despite Manafort’s expertise on these topics being a key part of the job application he sent to Trump in late February 2016, and Trump and Manafort having stayed in contact for months while Manafort was discussing Ukraine and sanctions relief with a former Russian intelligence agent: “I do not remember Mr. Manafort communicating to me any particular positions Ukraine or Russia would want the United States to support.”54 Trump’s insistence that he never spoke to Manafort about either Ukraine or Russia, contradicted by major-media reporting, would leave open, if true, the question of why Trump was so concerned by the possibility of Manafort “flip[ping]” on him in the Russia investigation.55
Despite eighteen of his family members and closest political aides and associates having direct pre-election contact with Russian nationals—Manafort, Flynn, Gates, Trump Jr., Kushner, Papadopoulos, Page, Sessions, Gordon, Stone, Caputo, Prince, Cohen, Hicks, Sater, (Avi) Berkowitz, social media director Dan Scavino, and even his