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I was up until about 1:00 in the morning reading the report and now have a migraine, so this is going to be a fairly brief post. I just want to share a few thoughts.
1. The 148 page report is split into two volumes. The first deals with conspiracy/collusion, the second, obstruction of justice. While I agree there’s not enough evidence to prove that Mr. Trump and his campaign conspired with Russia to steal the election, they had much too cozy a relationship for my comfort. The report is clear that the Russian government attempted to help Trump win; the Trump campaign was all too willing to embrace hacking that targeted Clinton and the Democrats; the campaign had many concerning ties to Russia.
2. In the second volume Mueller looked at ten instances of possible obstruction of justice. Three of the more troubling of these were: Trump directing then White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, which thankfully McGahn refused to do; Trump attempting to get AG Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself so he could diminish the investigation; Trump’s efforts to prevent the disclosure of emails relating to the June 9, 2016 meeting between Russians and senior campaign officials. This includes dictating Don Jr’s response to inquiries by reporters. Mueller ultimately refrained from pressing charges, and left it up to Attorney General Barr. There are a couple of quotes that really stand out however. First, “If we had any confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. He added that Mr. Trump’s “efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.”
So, as to the question over whether the Mueller Report “exonerates’ Mr. Trump I can unequivocally state “Absolutely not!” But don’t take my word for it. Actually, don’t take anyone’s word for it, no matter what “side” they’re on. Read it for yourselves and come to your own conclusions. I cannot stress how important this is. Don’t be apathetic and have the attitude that this is just the same old, same old, dirty politics. If you’re planning to vote in 2020, you need to read this report in order to make an informed choice.
One more thing that Mueller added was “Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.” In other words, this is far from over.
