Mueller report says Trump campaign figures hindered the investigation when they 'deleted relevant information'

Reuters

FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Mueller testifies at a security threat hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington

• The redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's final report said the nearly two year-long investigation was hindered by subjects of the probe deleting "relevant communications."
• They added that the deletion of those records actively undermined investigators' ability "to corroborate witness statements" and "fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts."
• Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump frequently attacked Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email account and for deleting emails off her private server.
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The redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's final report said the nearly two year-long investigation was hindered by subjects of the probe - including members of the Trump campaign - deleting valuable information to the investigation.

The report said certain subjects, who did they did not name, "deleted relevant communications or communicated during the relevant period using applications that feature encryption or that do not provide for long-term retention of data or communications record."

According to the report, the deletion of those records actively undermined investigators' ability "to corroborate witness statements through comparison to contemporaneous communications or fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts."

The report further indicated that the deleted information could have altered the course of the investigation, saying that Mueller's team "cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report."

Read more: Mueller outlines key Trump-Russia contacts and potential instances of obstruction of justice in final report

Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump frequently attacked Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email account and private server in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York, while she served as secretary of state - often leading chants of "lock her up" at campaign rallies.

At a campaign event in the summer of 2016, Trump also publicly encouraged Russia to find 30,000 Clinton emails that had been deleted - which he later claimed was a joke.

To this day, Trump occasionally tweets outrage at the FBI for ultimately finding she had not broken any laws. In the hours leading up to the Mueller report's release, Trump extensively re-tweeted posts from the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch claiming they had uncovered 756 previously-deleted Clinton emails.