The bottom line from the Mueller report: President Trump has been exonerated of charges that he colluded with Russia and that he obstructed justice.
First, Bob Mueller completely cleared the president of any and all charges of collusion. Collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia never existed. There is no evidence to the contrary, nada, zip, zilch.
Secondly, Bill Barr cleared the president of obstruction of justice charges. While Mueller left the question open, he made it clear that there was no evidence that would compel him (Mueller) to press charges against the president. So if not even the sainted Mueller would prosecute this case, regressives are left flailing while trying to grasp at straws.
So Mueller kicked the can down the alley to Mr. Barr, who agreed with Mueller that the “evidence,” such as it is, was almost entirely subjective and largely a matter of he-said, he-said type stuff. And so he essentially said no reasonable prosecutor would take this to court. I’m sure you remember the caterwauling from the left when James Comey said that about the criminal case against Hillary. (I don’t remember it either.)
This is the job of the attorney general, to look at the evidence and decide whether prosecution is warranted. That’s his job. He’s the only one who could pursue a criminal case against the president, and Barr closed that door for good.
Thus from a legal standpoint, it’s game over. Mueller exonerates Trump on collusion, Barr exonerates Trump on obstruction. Period. Over and out.
And as I just mentioned, James Comey said the same thing about Hillary. After taking 15 minutes to lay out a convincing criminal case against her, he took the football away at the last minute and said: “Never mind.” But that decision was not Comey’s to make. He was not the attorney general, Loretta Lynch was.
But she was apparently too busy hobnobbing with Bill Clinton about grandchildren in a private plane to do her job. That doesn’t mean Comey could step in and do her job for her. The head of the FBI has no legal authority to decide whether to indict - that’s for the AG’s office. The FBI investigates, the DOJ indicts. That’s the way we do things here.
The only possible play that Democrats have left is to impeach the president. But this is an effort doomed to fail. Democrat leaders such as Speaker Pelosi have said it’s a non-starter. There is not even a guarantee that the House would approve articles of impeachment despite a decided Democrat majority.
And there is not a chance that the Senate would vote to convict. Any Republican senator who voted to remove the president from office could never be elected to Congress again in his lifetime. It would be a suicide mission, which means it ain’t gonna happen. The only thing that matters to most politicians, after getting elected the first time, is getting elected again. And again. A vote against Trump would be a vote for self-immolation.
So Trump has been cleared on collusion and cleared on obstruction. And he will never be successfully impeached. From a legal standpoint, it truly is as over as it can get.
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald said, “[T]he reality (is) that (this report) was produced after an incredibly comprehensive investigation, a sweeping, invasive, powerful one, that was exactly what the Democrats said they wanted. And that evidence simply did not produce the evidence to substantiate the conspiracy theories we’ve been hearing for three years. And that reality will never, ever change.”
Tucker Carlson perceptively observed that the whole purpose of the investigation was to destroy President Trump. It didn’t work. But by hamstringing the president and dividing the country, it did a lot to destroy America.
We will not get a final verdict on the Mueller report until 2020. The entire presidential election that year will be a referendum on whether the American people believe the president and Bob Mueller or nattering nabobs like Adam Schiff. The electorate will serve as the jury in this trial of the century. If the charges do not fit, they must acquit. And they will.
