George Stephanopoulos and former Robert Mueller lawyers discuss Russia collusion claims: 'It wasn't a hoax'

"Good Morning America" co-host George Stephanopoulos interviewed former special counsel Robert Mueller’s top deputy Aaron Zebley and former prosecutor Andrew Goldstein on Tuesday about their new book on the current dangers of election interference. 

Mueller led the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in a report that was released in 2019. Trump repeatedly said that the investigation was a "witch hunt" and claimed that he was "totally exonerated" by then-special counsel Mueller's finding that there was no evidence of collusion. 

When Zebley was asked why they wrote a book about the Mueller investigation, Zebley responded that election interference was also a concern for the 2024 presidential election. 

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"Good Morning America" co-host George Stephanopoulos interviewed lawyers involved in Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between former President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.  (ABC)

"We thought it was important right now because there are two key messages in the book," he said during the media appearance. "One is that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. And, with recent public reports, we think they’re continuing to do that now. And then, it’s also very important that there be a mechanism to investigate presidents and the book describes how we did that."

"That’s the story you want to tell," Stephanopoulos said. "One of the things we’ve heard from former President Trump and his allies for the last several years — and it’s become almost a cliche — they call this the Russia hoax." 

"It wasn’t a hoax," Goldstein said. "Russia interfered in the election in 2016 in sweeping fashion. We document that both in the report and in the book. And we know that it is happening now and it’s important for American elections to be decided by Americans and not by foreign adversaries." 

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Special counsel Robert Mueller concluded the Russia investigation in 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Zebley also criticized former Attorney General William Barr.

"What happened when we delivered the report is that the attorney general did not release our report immediately and instead released his own summary, which we think mischaracterized the full extent of our work," he said. "And we think that led to some confusion about what we had actually done and what we had actually found."

"What exactly did you document about the ties between Donald Trump and Russia?" Stephanopoulos said. 

"We did not establish that there was a conspiracy, but the report — in our book, we document the many links and the outreach that the Russian government made while they were conducting their interference campaign," Goldstein said. 

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Mueller released his final report in April 2019 after a years-long investigation, ultimately concluding that there was no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.