No Exoneration

The 448-page Mueller Report was released yesterday with some redactions but there's plenty that was left intact to get a clear picture of a corrupt and incompetent presidency. The media coverage has been and will continue to be exhaustive, so rather than feature a lot of links, I'll just point out a few highlights today.

In summary, the report is devastating for Donald Trump and his presidency. He's pretending he's been exonerated because he was not charged now, but the report makes clear that indictment and prosecution after he leaves office would certainly be warranted. But even putting that aside for the moment, the report presents a long, long laundry list of Trump's monumental incompetence and corruption. The man doesn't have an honest bone in his body, as the report makes clear.

Three points about the report are worth mentioning here.

First, when the President learned a special counsel had been appointed to investigate him and his associates, per Robert Mueller's report, Trump "slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.'" Does that sound like something an innocent man would say?

Second, Mueller said it was difficult to determine if Trump actually committed actionable obstruction of justice because his staff repeatedly ignored him when he tried to get them to obstruct justice for him.

Although Trump ordered them to do so, "Comey did not end the investigation of Flynn, which ultimately resulted in Flynn’s prosecution and conviction for lying to the FBI. McGahn did not tell the Acting Attorney General that the special counsel must be removed, but was instead prepared to resign over the President’s order. Lewandowski and Dearborn did not deliver the President's message to Sessions that he should confine the Russia investigation to future election meddling only. And McGahn refused to recede from his recollections about events surrounding the President’s direction to have the special counsel removed, despite the President’s multiple demands that he do so."

So because Trump is so weak and incompetent and feckless and disrespected, he may technically not have committed obstruction of justice, although he tried damn hard to do so.

And third, ultimately, Mueller said that Congress should be the one to decide whether Trump committed obstruction of justice. To that end, the Mueller Report is clearly a referral for impeachment to Congress.

As Yoni Appelbaum at The Atlantic notes in his excellent piece yesterday (link here): "A basic principle lies at the heart of the American criminal-justice system: The accused is entitled to a fair defense and a chance to clear his name. Every American is entitled to this protection, from the humblest citizen all the way up to the chief executive. And that, Mueller explained in his report, is why criminal allegations against a sitting president should be considered by Congress and not the Justice Department. The Mueller report, in short, is an impeachment referral."

The House leadership has already said they will pick up the baton handed to them by Mueller. As they should. And must. Stay tuned.