That may not have been illegal, but it didn’t do right by the American people.
Mueller didn’t find that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russian intelligence operatives to influence the outcome of the 2016 election — but this is something less than definitive, because Trump was never interviewed.
Mueller’s investigation did find that “Russia sought to interfere with our election and made ‘multiple offers to assist the Trump campaign’ through intermediaries.” And “the Trump campaign never reported those offers. Those failures and … the campaign and candidate’s apparent willingness to explore those offers do not have to be charged as crimes to be anathema to us.”
It strikes me that being willing “to explore those offers,” if not collusion, comes very close to collusion. The Trump Tower meeting, and Donald Jr.’s pursuit of Hillary’s stolen emails, were not innocent behavior. If there wasn’t collusion, it wasn’t for want of intent or effort on the Trump gang’s part.
Barr, not Mueller, decided not to prosecute Trump for obstruction, and we know from Barr’s past statements that he was predisposed against prosecuting for obstruction. Veteran prosecutors tell us there’s no way he could have reviewed all the evidence and made a law-based decision within 48 hours.
Barr argues Trump isn’t guilty of obstruction because there was no crime to cover up. (E.g., no Watergate burglary.) But legal experts point out you don’t need an underlying crime to convict someone of obstruction. The act of obstructing is a crime in itself.
Meanwhile, Mueller barely stopped short of calling Trump guilty of obstruction when he said his report “does not exonerate” Trump. Prosecutors usually don’t say such things, and some legal observers called that statement “damning.”
If there was nothing to hide, why did Trump fire Comey to kill the investigation, then attack the special counsel? Is he just a raving paranoiac?
The bottom line is that Mueller “uncovered many disturbing issues about the President, his inner circle and the leadership of our country.” He didn’t exonerate Trump. And Trump is not innocent. If he’s not actually hiding something, then at the very least he’s weak and paranoid.
Read the entire commentary here. Opinions in this article not within quote marks are the author’s own.