Frankly, nothing in Mueller’s 448-page report should surprise anyone who knows anything about Trump’s presidency. I skimmed enough to know that he merely substantiated what the mainstream media had been reporting, and some of us had been asserting, for years. I finally delineated my assertions in “Mueller Report: No Collusion Conclusion. But Our Long National Nightmare Is Far from Over,” March 25, 2019.
Therefore, I shall suffice to paraphrase what CNN published as the “11 key lines from the Mueller report,” which Attorney General Barr (a.k.a. Trump’s new fixer) finally released today:
- Trump campaign ‘expected’ help from Russians but did not conspire.
- Trump asked campaign aides to find Hillary Clinton’s emails.
- Mueller ‘does not exonerate’ Trump on obstruction.
- Aides refused to help efforts to obstruct.
- Mueller says Congress can pursue investigation of Trump obstruction.
- Trump’s written answers to Mueller’s questions were ‘inadequate.’
- Could not prove Trump Jr. ‘willfully’ broke law with Trump Tower meeting.
- Ivanka and Hope Hicks knew Don Jr. was seeking dirt on Clinton.
- Trump misled the public on the Trump Tower meeting, but it wasn’t criminal.
- Sarah Sanders misled the media about the firing of the FBI director.
- Trump dropped F-bomb after Mueller got the job.
Ironically, the most newsworthy thing about this report was the way Barr channeled Trump to mis-characterize it before releasing it. Most notably, he parroted Trump’s “big lie” about no obstruction. This, even though he knew full well that Mueller cited at least 10 counts.
If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.
(“Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election,” Volume II, March 2019)
Barr should be holding his head in shame. But, like Trump, he clearly has none.
In fact, Mueller made clear that he felt obligated to honor the DOJ’s ban on indicting a sitting president. In other words, but for that ban, Mueller would have indicted Trump. This is why he also made a point of exhorting Congress to use its “Article I powers” to hold this rogue president to account.
Except that this is like a parent telling two two-year-olds to clean up their own mess, which will only result in a bigger mess: Democrats who control the House could easily file articles of impeachment against Trump. But they would need Republicans who control the Senate to convict him. And Republicans now worship Trump like such a Golden Calf, the report could have indicted him on 10 counts of murder and they would still spin themselves into pretzels to exonerate him.
This means that they’re just going to treat us to sound and fury signifying nothing like nobody has ever seen before. And it will be thus until the 2020 presidential election either finally exonerates Trump or condemns him to a post-presidency purgatory.
Apropos of which, there’s no denying the damning indictment Mueller lays out against Trump. But the far more consequential indictment is the way the American people have normalized all manner of political lies, obstruction, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
I would be remiss, however, not to note the way Mueller documents Trump repeatedly scheming to get aides to lie and fire people … to protect him. After all, Trump makes a bullying pretense of being a tough guy. Granted, his notorious cowering in the presence of strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un betrayed that pretense long ago. But, given the cowardice he displays in this report, Trump should have a capital “C” for coward etched on his forehead.
That said, enjoy the circus! Trust me, we’ll never see another like it in our lifetime, especially with the inimitable Trump as ringmaster.
Related commentaries:
No collusion conclusion…
Golden calf…