Posted on 03/24/2019 6:50:08 PM PDT by jazusamo
There was relief for the White House and frustration for President Trump’s foes on Sunday when a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings was released by Attorney General William Barr.
The 22-month probe is over. Here are the main takeaways.
A big win for Trump
The president could hardly have hoped for a better outcome than the one delivered in Barr’s letter to Congress.
“No collusion,” the president has always insisted. Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team now agree.
“The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia” regarding the 2016 election, according to the letter.
The exoneration on the central question of the investigation has to be taken seriously given the resources Mueller brought to the task. He employed 19 lawyers, had the assistance of about 40 FBI agents and issued more than 2,800 subpoenas.
On the question of potential obstruction of justice, Mueller was equivocal, saying he had neither exonerated Trump nor concluded that he had committed a crime.
Instead, Mueller punted that question to Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who concluded that the “evidence developed…is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”
Democrats will want to know a lot more about that.
Meanwhile, the president boasted that he had received “a complete and total exoneration” when he spoke to reporters briefly before boarding Air Force One in Florida.
Congressional allies were just as forceful.
“Attorney General Barr’s statement today should end the debate,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of the most fervent Trump loyalists on Capitol Hill. “There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. It’s over.”
Meanwhile, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley characterized the president as in buoyant spirits as Air Force One flew back to Washington.
“He’s in a really good mood,” Gidley said, according to pool reports. “He’s just very happy with how it all turned out.”
Democrats face uphill battle
Democrats were quick to note on Sunday that they would continue their own investigations on Capitol Hill, empowered by their healthy majority in the House.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter that his panel would be seeking testimony from Barr himself, as it sought to explore what Nadler characterized as “very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department.”
House committees on Intelligence and on Oversight are conducting their own investigations into Trump-related matters.
Democrats will argue they are engaged in the important business of holding the executive branch accountable. That’s true as far as it goes — but it doesn’t solve their larger problem.
The Mueller probe has been the main event of Trump investigations since its inception. It seems likely that voters who don’t have strong partisan loyalties will see his findings as the final word.
That makes it hard for Democrats to justify further probes and easier for Trump and his allies to cast them as politically-motivated smears.
The chances of Democrats being credibly accused of over-reaching just went up sharply.
Questions remain on obstruction
Trump’s biggest problem in the Barr letter — by some distance — is the uncertainty that hangs over what exactly Mueller found in relation to alleged obstruction of justice.
The letter is strikingly opaque on this point — and Democrats instantly seized on that lack of specificity, demanding to know more.
In a joint statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that the letter “raises as many questions as it answers.”
They have a point.
The letter says that, on obstruction, Mueller “determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment.” It adds that he “did not draw a conclusion — one way or another — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.”
That seems to indicate Mueller found evidence of behavior that was at least in the general ballpark of obstruction — even if Barr and Rosenstein concluded the evidence was not strong enough to sustain a criminal case.
CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin told The Hill that he found it “very strange” that Mueller went so far as to state that the evidence does not “exonerate” Trump.
“Prosecutors don’t usually talk in terms of exoneration,” Zeldin said, suggesting this could point to disagreements between Mueller’s team and top figures at the Department of Justice.
For Trump, the danger remains that Mueller may have uncovered information that will be politically damaging, even if it does not rise to the level of alleged criminality.
The chances of impeachment fall
Pelosi created a stir earlier this month when she pumped the brakes on impeachment in an interview with The Washington Post.
She noted then that she was not in favor of an impeachment push.
Explaining her reasoning, she said: “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country.”
It’s impossible to make a case that the Barr letter reaches that threshold. It lacks the heft that would be required to win over independents or soft Trump voters to the need to try to oust the president.
It’s now more certain than ever that Trump’s political fate will be decided at the 2020 election — and not before it.
Egg on the face of talking heads
It’s undeniable that the most feverish anti-Trump figures in the media — including some supposed legal experts — let their hopes outrun the facts on the Russia story.
Anyone who turned on their television in the immediate aftermath of the Barr letter would have been struck by the amount of attempted face-saving underway.
Mueller’s findings make the confident predictions that he was about to lower the boom on Trump and members of his immediate family look foolish, plain and simple.
Expect Trump and his allies to beat their anti-media drum even louder in the days and months ahead. It’s a good bet they will still be using the Mueller episode as an example of media excess as Election Day 2020 looms.
In a Sunday evening statement, Vice President Pence exulted in “a great day for America.”
He made a point to include unnamed “members of the media” alongside Democrats as those whom he said had leveled “reckless accusations.”
Stupid headline. Mueller tried everything he could to destroy President Trump.
No they haven’t lost. They lose when someone has the backbone to arrest those involved, try them and put them in prison (or, preferably, hang them for treason). Then, they will have lost.
That seems to indicate Mueller found evidence of behavior that was at least in the general ballpark of obstruction — even if Barr and Rosenstein concluded the evidence was not strong enough to sustain a criminal case. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Obstruction like PDJT calling the Mueller Investigation a witch-hunt? The president was telling the truth.Thats not obstruction.
“On the question of potential obstruction of justice, Mueller was equivocal, saying he had neither exonerated Trump nor concluded that he had committed a crime.”
That statement was unnecessary and unethical on Mueller’s part. It was probably a parting gift to Trump in return for his criticism of the investigation.
I agree, it's still a win for President Trump and one the Rats are not going to overcome in my view.
How about "Mueller's failed attempt at framing the President delivers a win for Trump — Five Takeaways"?
Never forget that just because Mueller couldn’t make a case out of thin air does not mean he is our friend. He is a swamp rat to the end and couldn’t care less about justice.,.
Sadly, we are so divided as a nation that there are many on the left who will always believe the President was elected because of some dark cooperation with Russia.
That is a fact so to some extent the damage has been done. However, the good news is that those folks were unlikely to support Trump no matter what.
The win for the President is the mushy middle.... many of whom will accept the report at face value despite the negative spin that surely follows. The dems have to be very careful now with how far they go in the house investigations because it WILL appear to be harassment to most of the country.
The million dollar question now is what does Trump do next? We know he is a counter-puncher and he has certainly taken their biggest punch with a special counsel investigation. Does he do more than give lip service and tweet about investigating the investigators or does he leave it alone?
Questions remain on obstruction only in the minds of sick Trump haters
I’d say it’s a good thing to “collapse” that hill - while they attempt the climb.
The freak show that is now the hard left Dem Party will continue with acts of subversion, until some patriot has had enough of the bullsh*t, and reduces several of its members to room temperature.
I think so too...and as for collusion, it’s meaningless. People “collude” to commit a crime, but if there’s no crime, nobody is colluding. Stating your opinion or wish or aspiration is not a crime (yet, at any rate).
He wasn’t exonerated? Well, duh! He was never accused of a crime. LOLOL
The best defense is a good offense. I pray that AG Barr will re-establish the rule of law and prosecute those who perpetuated this whole witch hunt.
Only 2 of these things are true. Trump wins and media have egg on their face.
Bob got the Big Boy Boot
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