The Mueller Report

The tame prosecutor serving President Donald Trump did not disappoint him. William Barr, the new attorney general, in charge of Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, did what he could.

In this space I describe how, upon receiving the final document, Barr inserted himself into the process, publishing a letter with his conclusions, and exonerating Trump of any crime. Still, on Thursday morning — before delivering the edited version of the report to Congress and the public — he gave a bizarre press conference, reaffirming the innocence of his boss. And I say it was bizarre, because hours later, when the Mueller report became public, Barr’s statements were clearly discredited. Why would one go out and say things that one knows will be shown to be lies? To buy Trump a few minutes of narrative? Trump took advantage of them, reiterating his total exoneration, but it was of little use.

The most surprising thing of all was that the version of the Mueller report that was released did not contain the redactions and edits that many of us expected. The level of detail and corroboration of the facts remained intact, and ended up painting an unflattering portrait of Trump.

The Mueller report is divided into two major chapters. The first one describes the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 electoral process and explores the possibility of a conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign. While Mueller found multiple contacts between Russian officials and the Trump team, he could not establish them as crimes. Any reasonable person who reads the report will think that, of course, there were agreements between the campaign and the Russians, but Mueller does not have the hard evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, which is what is required for a formal indictment.

The second chapter refers to the possible obstruction of justice committed by Trump. Here, after reading the report, it is clear that Mueller had more than enough to bring charges against the president. It describes at least 10 episodes that leave no room for doubt, including the president’s efforts to end the investigation.

Despite the above, Mueller has decided not to press charges. He says he is prevented from doing so by the internal policy of the Department of Justice, which states that one cannot bring a criminal proceeding against a sitting president. And here comes a key paragraph: Mueller states that there are two ways to call the president to account. The first is to wait until he leaves office, and then start the process. For this, Trump would have to lose the 2020 election, since if he is reelected, the five-year statute of limitations runs on the crime of obstruction of justice, and by 2024, Trump would could not be tried on obstruction charges. The other way to hold Trump accountable would be for Congress to subject him to a political trial and initiate impeachment proceedings.

Americans who have read the report tell me that they were disgusted to see the way Trump operates. Lies, deceptions, emotional outbursts, total nepotism, personal interests, undesirable collaborators; in all, garbage. But the Democrats, despite all the above, are undecided and cautious. Why?

Everyone remembers the impeachment of Bill Clinton. The Republicans were sure that if they did not take him down in the process (they could not), they would destroy him at the polls (they did not). Clinton managed to turn himself into a victim, and turned public opinion in his favor, even though it was proven that he committed a crime and paid a fine, in addition to losing his law license for five years. They fear that the same thing could happen again.

It appears that the strategy Democrats will follow is to continue with the multiple investigations that are ongoing in the committees of the House of Representatives and hope that the investigations produce new information beyond that covered in the Mueller report. There are also 14 open investigations, in different federal courts, which resulted from the investigation, and we have information on only two. The other 12, probably have to do with financial crimes of Trump, his organization and his family, which are investigations that were outside the mandate of Mueller.

The Democrats will have patience because they have the advantage of a Trump who is under pressure and who knows that if he loses, he goes straight to jail.