The Mueller Probe

Published in El País
(Spain) on 26 March 2019
by Editorial (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Megan Smith. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Everything that made Donald Trump an unsuitable president still stands following the report on the Russian conspiracy.

The result of the 22-month investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged collusion by Donald Trump or members of his campaign and the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election proves the strength of American democracy and its institutions and how important an independent justice system is in a democracy. It has absolutely not been an embarrassment, as Trump recently claimed. It has been quite the opposite. In his conclusion, Mueller, who is respected by both parties and enjoys an unquestionable professional reputation, states he has found no evidence of a conspiracy in which the current president of the United States influenced the election results, although Mueller warned of the existence of Russian interference in the process.

The investigation, which has directly focused on the most powerful elected political office on the planet, has successfully brought to light a series of crimes which would otherwise have been ignored. As a result, 32 people have been indicted. Six of Trump’s former advisers are among the highlighted cases. The sentences of Michel Cohen, the president’s former right hand man, and his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, are included in this legal cascade. The former will serve three years in prison for fraud and deceit, while the latter will spend 7 1/2 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.

Naturally, Trump has claimed a political victory for the closure of a process that has dogged him since he entered the White House. It has forced him to reshape his cabinet more than once, and has led to an unpublished confrontation between him and some of the country’s security agencies. But conveniently, he can’t see the forest for the trees. What made Trump an unsuitable candidate and now inadequate president is his unacceptable understanding of immigration, his aggressiveness with Mexico, his contempt for European institutions, his degradation of NATO, his disdain for the United Nations, his denial of climate change and his provincial understanding of America’s role in the world. All of these factors remain, even after Mueller’s report.

With a year and a half to go until the next presidential election, the Democrats must now focus on a strategy to choose a solid candidate. They must choose somebody who starts talking about issues that Americans are concerned about and that Trump hasn’t been able to resolve in spite of his grandiloquent speeches.


Todo lo que hacía de Trump un presidente inadecuado sigue en pie tras el informe sobre la trama rusa

***beneath image***
El presidente Donald Trump. el pasado domingo en la Casa Blanca. ERIC BARADAT AFP

El final de la investigación que durante 22 meses ha realizado el fiscal especial Robert Mueller, en torno a una presunta connivencia de Donald Trump o de miembros de su campaña con el Gobierno ruso para vencer en las elecciones presidenciales de 2016, es una prueba de solidez de la democracia estadounidense y de sus instituciones y de la importancia que tiene la justicia independiente en los regímenes democráticos. En absoluto ha sido una vergüenza, como aseguraba anteayer Trump. Todo lo contrario. En sus conclusiones, Mueller, quien es respetado por ambos partidos y goza de una reputación profesional indiscutible, señala no haber encontrado pruebas de una conspiración en la que participara el hoy presidente de EE UU para influir en el resultado electoral, aunque advierte de la existencia de injerencia rusa en el proceso.


La investigación, que ha puesto sin cortapisas el foco directo sobre el cargo político electo más poderoso del planeta, ha servido para sacar a la luz una serie de delitos que de otro modo hubieran quedado ignorados con un total de 32 personas imputadas. Entre los casos derivados destacan los de seis exasesores de Trump. De esta cascada legal destacan las condenas derivadas de Michel Cohen, quien fuera mano derecha del mandatario, y de su exjefe de campaña Paul Manafort. El primero tendrá que cumplir tres años de cárcel por fraude y por mentir, mientras al segundo le corresponden siete años y medio de prisión por fraude y conspiración.

Como no podía ser de otra forma, Trump ha cantado victoria política por el cierre de un proceso que le ha seguido desde que accedió a la Casa Blanca, que le ha forzado a remodelar su Gabinete más de una vez y que ha llevado a un enfrentamiento inédito entre el presidente de EE UU y algunos de los servicios de seguridad del país. Pero conviene que el árbol no impida ver el bosque. Lo que hizo de Trump un candidato inadecuado y ahora un presidente inadecuado es su inaceptable concepción del fenómeno migratorio, su agresividad con México, su desprecio hacia las instituciones europeas, su minusvaloración de la OTAN, su desdén por Naciones Unidas, su negacionismo sobre el cambio climático o su provinciana concepción del papel de EE UU en el mundo. Todos esos factores siguen ahí tras el informe de Mueller.

Cuando queda año y medio para las elecciones presidenciales, el Partido Demócrata ha de centrarse ahora en su estrategia para elegir una candidatura sólida que comience a hablar de los problemas que preocupan a los estadounidenses y que Trump no ha sido capaz de solucionar pese a los discursos grandilocuentes.
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