"A senior Justice Department official said that Mr. Mueller would not recommend new indictments,"
This is not the time for unnamed sources. We are supposed to believe the unnamed senior Justice Department official? Because the NYTimes is certain? This is an irresponsible use of an unnamed source.
3
Just because a no further indictments are recommended by Mueller, its not beyond doubt that the fat lady hasn't sung. What is not said is more threatening than what is said.
2
With all respect to Mr. Mueller and his life experience, I find it difficult to trust the judgement of a man who was duped into fighting a corporate-driven war against the Vietnamese people and their quest for freedom from French imperialism. A man so lacking in understanding about Ho Chi Minh's desire for free elections in Viet Nam that he would travel across the world to kill on behalf of western imperialists, and having not come clean about that, is already of dubious integrity. Mr. Mueller remains a follower of fascist precedent, rather than a defender of democratic principles, law or decency. He is a perfect representative of the gutless suckups that have allowed the Trumpolini crime family to usurp the public trust.
3
Lots of fear, deeply held opinions and foregone conclusions, blaming, and even prognosis — and yet we haven’t even seen anything yet.
One must wonder if seeing the report will make any difference to those on any “side” that claims to be waiting for it. They don’t seem to need the contents of the report to believe what they want to believe.
4
All of the report must be released. And we also need to hear from Mueller what he's learned in a congressional hearing. Anything less would be a travesty of justice against the American people. The gov't works for us, remember? Maybe we need to remind Mr. Barr of this since we pay his salary.
3
What is the point of an independent investigation, if a hand picked selectee can bury it to protect an investigation’s subject?
7
Wonderful. Since there never ever was any collusion we will be seeing the full report soon. I expect to fall asleep in the first few paragraphs as it will be boring boring boring with nothing related to securing or saving what is left of our democracy.
3
On this day, after the release of the Mueller report, it appears the Twittering Trump perhaps spent his day twittering his thumbs together in conference with his lawyers rather than tweeting his infamous tweets. His High Potard issued zero tweets.
Often silence says more than words (or tweets). I hope in this case since nothing would bring me greater relief than learning that Mueller's report, while not indicting Trump because of DOJ policy, documents high crimes and misdemeanors that Trumpblicans can not dismiss.
4
"...that has consumed the nation..."
No, not really. More like half the nation.
It does not matter what Barr has to say.
He is only there, to protect Trump.
Congressman Adam Schiff must have Mueller appear before the House Intelligence Committee.
If Mueller says that Trump is innocent, I will be shocked and stunned - but I will accept it.
2
So, even thought we all know that individual #1 is deep in #2 nothing will happen...
So the special counsel doesn't recommend new charges... Yet...
Trump has said that this is a "witch hunt", but most of the witches, or the accused, will be indicted and not executed by burning at the stake or hanging...
So, is it a "which hunt" or not?
What about the sealed indictments? When the press reports that there are no new indictments from Mueller does that include the sealed indictments that we have heard about?
2
This does not necessarily mean an exculpatory conclusion for Trump. Mueller could have found reason to indict the President, but did not do so out of respect for DOJ protocol, as well as the tremendous political upheaval it would cause. This would be consistent with the demeanor of a prudent and ethical investigator.
8
Another kabuki theater piece, where no one is what he or she appears to be, and what he or she appears to be is only a phantom. We The People should have been on the streets a long time ago, the Mueller investigation notwithstanding. The President's crimes are a multitude with which we're all by now quite familiar, from simple racism to complex knotting of our political system to consorting with Russian prostitutes to paying off women whose testimonies would have savaged Trump's campaign midstream. Not to mention his kids' security faux pas and his own felonious financial dealings. But we sat politely and quietly after electing a Democratic majority in Congress, expecting something more to happen than a few Trump nebishes being sent to prison as sacrificial lambs while the Chief Mafioso in the White House continues to erode our civil rights, our livelihoods, and our general equality in America ... and brings us precariously close to war, all to satisfy his narcissistic, traumatic mental handicap. What kabuki. And we're still nowhere as a nation.
19
@Bob Jacobson My civil rights, livelihood and overall general equality seem to be doing great. My AA co-workers, too. We're making out like bandits, with overtime of course. Where is this coming from? Take a deep breath and a break from the political strife.
He should not release the report, but only summarize its key points. The Dems will complain no matter what anyway because they’re looking to second-guess Mueller’s findings in order to get their preferred outcome. They’ll also want to see all the underlying documentation too so if they don’t get that they’ll still be complaining. It’ll all go up and down the court system, but that was going to happen anyway. The American people can see this game for what it is.
11
I’m crossing my fingers and toes. Either way, vote blue everyone in 2020. This will be small potatoes if the misfit gets re-elected.
17
I guess it's time to move on from this caper. Our top henhouse fox just made another successful raid. By the way, did anyone pick-up that China made a downpayment on its purchase of Italy? People, we've got plenty of domestic and international worries to capture our attention. I hope our U. S. Senators and Representatives include them in their respective work plans.
6
Unless sealed indictments pertain to administration officials or Mueller decided he had the evidence but not authority to indict a sitting President, the President can fairly call this a victory.
4
It seems that most people think that the present lack of indictments from the Mueller report means that there can and will be no indictments. However, I am waiting for the other shoe. It is impossible, impossible that Mueller found nothing on Trump or family members, given all those surrounding them that have been indicted and convicted, and all that we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears. Rather, the implications of the Mueller report are being handled very gingerly. This is not like Watergate, with a little robbery, all within the American family. No, this is interference by an enemy nation, who even at this moment has glommed onto the social media outlets at a minimum, and surely has operatives who have infiltrated the government, along with spokespeople on the propaganda TV and radio stations, and all the witless, deplorable, nationalist, Libertarian supporters, dupes, and wishful thinkers. We can only hope that there are sane, clear, and pragmatic heads that will somehow effect changes in the White House leadership while preventing all violence or invasions. Lord help us.
12
This headline and some of the statements herein are NOT ACCURATE.
"the news that no more indictments are expected" is false; Mueller simply said that HE himself will not be presenting them.
There are at least other investigations right now into Trump, and indictments likely will follow.
Plus, Mueller issued several sealed indictments earlier, which we'll find out about soon enough.
17
I have no idea why anyone is thanking Mueller for a fair and just report when no one has been able to see the report yet. If Trump and ilk walk away from their crimes with nary a mention, justice is dead in this country and the courts and lawyers should be ashamed of themselves.
6
Something is rotten. Mueller has left too many threads dangling. Why wasn't Trump compelled to answer questions in person, Bill Clinton had to answer Ken Starr's questions. Was Mueller forced to shut down the investigation prematurely? There's something fishy about Barr coming onboard to protect Trump.
16
We all want to see the full report and we want to see it now!
8
Trump should explain the truth, in detail. about why the keeps taking the side of Russian intelligence over U.S. intelligence. It is not the job of the general to take the side of the opposing troops against our troops. ((intelligence agents are specialized troops in perpetual secret warfare, and the Russians have nuclear missile aimed at the USA. and tracked into our electoral systems.) "Putin strongly denied it" is not an explanation. Republicans should have already removed Trump from office for this repeated, public act of treason.
If Trump refuses to explain this bizarre behavior, and the Mueller report does not, then the rest of us will have to investigate until a true account is found.
Committing High Crimes in public does not mean they are not High Crimes. Trump keeps committing and confessing to crimes in public. Republicans need to stop trying to cover up mountains with table cloths. Maybe, the Party of Trump wants to see what they want to see, but the country cannot survive the depths to which Trump is dragging down to.
If it's not unlikely that Trump created this "hoax" as he calls it, to invite an investigation he knows he'll be cleared of. (I have said this for almost two years.) Contrary to the wishful thinking of many Democrats Trump is not stupid. He may be unread, but he is a genius at manipulating media, with six decades of practice. He is very dangerous because he cares about no one but himself.
Choose country over Trump.
12
So now we know what Democrats have to do: find their own hostile foreign power to hack into US email servers and have the Democratic nominee address that nation on television and cheer them on with the hopes of finding the goods on likely Trump...again, and hold meetings with power brokers from that country, and lie about the reasons for the meetings, then proceed to praise the corrupt leader of that country and favor him over American generals, intelligence, and law enforcement, and then, if he/she becomes president, fire anyone who doesn't interfere with the inevitable Republican investigations by demanding they end...while also attacking US combat veterans, dead patriots, parents who've lost children fighting for this country, entire races of people...EXCEPT for the non snowflake Trumpers, who can't take any criticism and get pretty angry about it....doesn't sound quite as awesome now, does it, republicans and Trumpers?
11
@Virginia There is no evidence for what you are implying - you do believe in facts and evidence, don't you? Or you just want things to be according to your desires and whims?
3
Gee, I thought “corrupt leader,” went beyond implication. And as for evidence, are you kidding.
Mueller has charged 34 people and obtained guilty pleas or convictions for seven, with one person (Roger Stone) still to be tried. Six people connected to Trump have been charged. I feel I got some results for my tax money...
12
Everyone is going to be disappointed, if not angry. Barr will not be divulging information the way Comey did. He will not incriminate those who haven't been indicted.
Of course, one significant difference is that Mueller actually indicted those he believed had committed a crime and didn't excuse them based on the laughable "no intent".
If only Comey had behaved as professionally, he wouldn't have been compelled to unofficially indict someone.
10
If Attorney General Barr found what he considered evidence of misdoing and even possible treason on the part of Donald Trump in the Mueller Report, even though Mueller did not recommend new indictments, does Barr have the authority to issue subpoenas and institute some kind of proceedings against Trump?
It is doubtful that Barr would do that, but could he?
5
Calling Daniel Ellsberg! Calling Daniel Ellsberg! Come in Please.
4
I bet Mr. Mueller and his colleagues are going to go home and take very long showers to wash away the foul odor of corruption surrounding those folks whom they have been investigating.
8
I’m really disappointed with the news coverage of this very important release. No clever reporter could have gotten Mueller to pass over a scale upon entering and leaving to at least know how much the report he dropped off weighed? Based on that alone, forensic experts at MSNBC could have had it completely analyzed for us by now, giving Barr’s team Sunday off.
3
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Winston Churchill
9
No new charges could be due to DOJ policy of not indicting a sitting president. We'll see!
6
@snm
OK, but play that out. Unless you think that Trump did all of his conspiring with himself, then there would be other parties subject to charges. And those other people would not benefit from DOJ policy that says the Pres. can't be indicted, so they would have been charged. But there are no such new indictments.
5
So will Mueller and or Barr say that Trump was "extremely careless" or reckless in his disregard for all American norms, safeguards, national security concerns--even if, like Hillary Clinton, he is not indicted?
Three guesses and the first two don't count.
3
President Trump has been the loser ever since the investigation began. During the course of the investigation, Democrats used the fact of the investigation to suggest that he was guilty of crimes all along. When charges and indictments were pressed, Democrats used those charges and indictments to suggest that President Trump was the mastermind. Now that the report is filed, Democrats are saying that anything less than a full, unabridged report proves that Trump is guilty of all crimes. If the report goes unreleased, Democrats will say that Trump is covering up his crimes. If the report gets released, Democrats will misconstrue even the most minute detail to prove that Trump is guilty of something totally unrelated.
Unfortunately, Trump is not guilty of any crimes. He just has a penchant for hyperbole and exaggeration. The thing that started this whole thing might as well have been this sentence to his campaign managers, "I want my poll numbers to be higher than Hillary's. Do anything and everything to achieve that. Higher poll numbers will help me win this election." His only sin was trust - he didn't specify to his campaign managers to not venture into gray or black zones when trying to increase his poll numbers. That statement in and of itself contains no conspiracy or collusion, and that might as well was candidate Trump's intention all along. Now, the misdeeds of those who took that vague statement too far are burdening Trump with unnecessary and undeserved criticism.
1
What a sham. We paid for the report. We want to see it. ALL of it!
10
@RCJCHC Manafort's confiscated million$ paid for most the investigation...
2
Trump won because Hillary Clinton was one of the worst candidates in history. She inspired no one and the Dems didn't get the hint when she lost to the "community organizer" in 2008.
At some point early on in this investigation, Trump and his merry band of grifters floated the story that they couldn't have colluded with Russia, they were too incompetent. That is one story that you can believe and given the way the government is run explains it all.
4
Was she really the worst candidate ??
Or is she just an extremely competent bright woman who has more smarts than most of the men around ? Why is it that American men usually the ones without school and college education are always scared of smart intelligent women ?
And you make “community organizer” sound as some sort of an insult .
And only in this country can a college education and smarts can be derided as elitist.
4
Hopefully this will not be a waste of tax money!
2
@Think bout it, Manafort's holdings paid for the entire investigation twice. So, though it didn't cost the taxpayers a cent, waiting in hope for justice to show that no crook is above the law, may have proved to be waste of our time. We shall see.
2
If there was no collusion (conspiracy) why did so many lie to congress about it? (many have pleaded guilty or been found guilty for these lies). We need to see the complete report before concluding trump did or did not get involved with Russian influence. Also Mueller has referred numerous findings to the appropriate federal prosecutors implicating Trump and his family. Trump has paid off prostitutes illegally, paid off victims of his sham university, and the Trump Foundation was shut for, in effect, being a money laundering operation. He is also a suspect in dozens of obstruction of justice instances. Worse for Trump, the State of New York is investigating a wide range of criminal issues involving the Trump family. Trump cannot pardon state convictions, only federal convictions. Folks, this is just the beginning of Trump's legal problems.
10
@pro-science You are pro-science so please check your facts and evidence! Make sure to do this with cool head and no partisanship. Try to be impartial. This is what science is about! No one was found guilty for collusion or for lying about it. That's reality - whether you like it or not.
No new charges? Yup. Because The Southern District of New York has its own comprehensive charges coming regarding a litany if other matters.
No mr POTUS asking Whitaker to “appoint a loyal person in those matters” isn’t happening. This is the corruption, abuse of power and illegal acts that need to be brought out! Trump family is a red line to him with his menacing wrath however the United States of America and law are more important!
6
Exactly. Not above the law. Only his right wing base could support his crimes. Saudi, Russian investments through LLCs and even through American companies. Chinese corruption? Shocking lol. You can almost smell North Korean money amidst the love fest. Think they don’t have international money? Switzerland going back to Kim Jong college years abroad. They’ve all got it in France, London and guess what- right here in the USA. Trump family crimes are in the table. Political - yup -when the corruption is at the top our reps and law enforcement must do their jobs! They respect they’d oath to the American people.
5
What happened to Special Counsel's recent investigation of Roger Stone and what were the decisions of the grand jury regarding the indictment made of Stone?
4
Mr. Stone goes to trail in November, 2019.
3
Only the future will tell how the media's coverage of the Mueller investigation will go down in history.
3
I'm sitting here watching the Front Line Mueller Investigation film, and wow if there's no evidence then there was a huge coverup. Can some lawyer somewhere start a class action lawsuit against the Trump family for stress and pain and suffering of over one half of America. I want my part of the money to go to the kids who were separated from their families at the border, toward the FBI agent who was fired one day before he got his pension, and any women Trump has assaulted. I hate to say this but I would also like the suit to include the national tv networks that have the Hollywood Access tapes, cut footage of the Apprentice that show Trump saying racist things, and the National Enquirer. One last thing someone post a list pro Trump companies/ advertisers, I want to boycott their products...
17
In addition to those listed above , I also want my award to go to the people of Puerto Rico to rebuild after they were denied, the people of Hawaii who thought they were getting nuked by N. Korea when a false siren went off after Trump tweeted his mouth off again, to anyone beat up by racists that now think this is ok to get away with because our "president" says it is, to our school children who won't get a good education thanks to the inept person Trump picked to run the dept of education, to all of the people who will die of cancer because of terrible policies in part to radioactive things leaking, water pollution, air pollution , and to all of the American taxpayers that pay for Trump's golf courses, hotels and family traveling first class around the world on our dime.
12
The goal must be a gentleman’s agreement between congress, Justice Dept. and Trump: don’t seek a second term and we won’t go after you, in the interest of keeping our country from polarizing even further.
7
It is almost certain that Mr. Barr's spin off report from that of Mr. Mueller's will be presented as an apology for Trump as this is the role for which he was picked. It is a tragedy not only as a miscarriage of justice, but a kick in the face to Mr. Mueller a seeming friend to Mr. Barr, who has done his work his work so diligently. The host of questions outstanding which could fill a book in themselves will be swept under the table as if the corruption by a president were just a pile of dust.
So the battle for justice will need to continue and a Democratic House will need to represent the voice of the American people and do everything possible in an environment where the SC has been stacked with Trump sympathizers and the Senate is ruled by a man with no soul or conscience. McConnell. But the truth will come out no matter how many time bleats and tweets his innocence which only confirms his guilt in every denial.
5
Before anyone clears, cheers, bemoans or belittles the Mueller Report, please note, nothing has changed in the last week:
-no new indictments does not mean that the a president or other are cleared;
-there are reportedly 30 sealed indictments; we do not know and may not know for long time the individuals and the related charges in those indictments.
-we still do not have ALL the facts;
-we still do not know what Mueller and team determined.
-we still do not know any more than we did 3days ago, before the report was submitted.
ALL we know is that Mueller has completed his report.
13
For Mueller's sake, he did the right thing. He made his conclusion in the report ambiguous, deciding not to pursue further indictments and to file a confidential report. Mueller handed over the hot potato to the Justice Department. From Mueller's perspective, this is the wisest decision. Now, Mueller can maintain his claim of impartiality and neutrality. Unless the Democrats subpoena him for a testimony in Congress, he can walk away saying that he did what he was told to do and nothing else. Now the Mueller political hot potato will be handed around back and forth among the President, the President's advisers and lawyers, the Democrats in Congress, and the Republicans in Congress. Judges and lawyers in district courts will now parse every line of the Mueller Report to frame Trump as guilty. I don't deny that Trump dealt some bad deeds in the past, but the time already passed for any charges. Charges that occur after the fact of the Mueller Report are, in short, politically motivated. These charges are, and I cannot say it any more aptly, the results of a "witch hunt."
2
@Anna-
We do not have ANY FACTS as to the contents of Muellers report.
No new indictments does not mean that the president or others in his orbit have not been indicted- there reportedly are 30 SEALED indictments-the facts/charges contained therein are not know.
I just wish we could all be patient and wait on the actual facts.
5
Please God, return America to where it was before Trump was president. We are sorry for our sins. As for Trump, too many sins to count, Mueller or no Mueller. However, give us the report in its entirety so we can endeavor to end his presidency. Amen.
19
A President or his administration that has been investigated can not claim Executive Privilege to hide the report without creating the appearance that high crimes were committed. If the report is not released in it's entirety, the public will rightly claim it was covered up along with crimes.
7
If the report is rightly released in it's entirety, this situation will last as long as the Trump Presidency. If it is not, the mystery will last forever.
5
How can we observe DOJ of the US to be considered doing anything but obstructing justice and our democracy, if they do not reveal all of the entire content of the Mueller report publicly now!
8
We need to let this go and quick - the electorate is not a bunch of rubes who are slurping up this notion of palace intrigue.
Are progressive policies so bad that we need to use investigations to even the playing field with Trump? Our political leaders are in danger of looking like fools with the release of this report. This fantasy of blaming the nightmare of Trump's victory on Russian bots is hurting the politics of Democracy and Democrats. If you want to look at the culprit, check out rural counties across the midwest and see how they voted in 2008 & 2012 v. 2016. They were blue by 10-20 points for Obama and swung 10-20 points to Trump in 2016. These people don't think they were brainwashed by Russian programmers.
Perpetuating this myth is just a way to give Trump a win on a meaningless issue, when he could be losing on far more substantive issues (like using an emergency declaration to build a border wall). Figure it out Democrats - the issues that matter are public policy in substance. Doesn't Trump give us enough material with which to bash him without relying on tiresome, specious claims that offend common sense???
79
@Ricardo
When you're talking about:
1) Trump winning the electoral college by a total of 60000 votes between a few swing states
2) Millions of people who believe that Hillary Clinton ran a child prostitution ring out of a pizza place
3)Millions who believe other lunatic conspiracy theories
3) Obvious Russian trolling
I think you need to rethink some of what you believe.
But yes, we still need good policy and Trump provides plenty of bad policy to bash him with.
32
@Ricardo Hey, what if the specious claims aren't specious? Unless you have a personal crystal ball...? The guy obviously was and probably still is involved in international money-laundering. Let's start with the Russians but by no means leave it at that.
21
@Ricardo
I have no comment on most of your post except that Democrats aren't 'figuring it out.' My view is that Democrats are, and in recent times, challenged to figure it out. They are splintered in so many ways they become ineffective in doing what they were elected to do. The biggest game in Democratville is the one being played by a field of wanna be presidents! I'm discouraged that the Party cannot put it together enough to be an antidote to their "friends on the other side of the aisle."
2
The appetite of the American people is just plan not there for endless investigations and going after a President for stiffing plumbers 30 years ago in Atlantic City. The Great Mueller has spoken, the Fat lady has sung, time to move on. Democrats need to start talking in detail about what they are going to do with the White House come January 2021. Parsing and re-parsing Trump crimes is a loosing strategy.
8
If this president (in name only) gets a get out of jail free card and isn't going to be held accountable for anything, then should we really care if wealthy parents get their daughter into USC on a FOOTBALL scholarship?...
Wealthy people basically can do as they wish without consequences.....They have a completely separate system of justice from the typical common folk, who would probably be doing 3-5 yrs for buying marijuana...
13
It ain't over 'til it's over!
4
Before I make any judgements on the Mueller report, I'm waiting for the transparency phase of the investigations to kick in.
2
So for two years now the alt-left media including CNN and the NYTs have been telling the world how there was Trump Russia collusion. How can it be that there never was any? What facts did the media have that Muller never found? What evidence was there other than the fake Russian dossier peddled by McCain, Ohr and others? It is the same type of hoax as Jussie Smollet and the Covington kids only the Trump Russia collusion stories ran on the front page of the NYTs and 24/7 CNN for two years. This is the definition of fake news, slander and libel.
9
There’s no such thing as an “alt left”, sir (or madam or comrade). No one on the left calls themselves that and there is no equivalency whatsoever with the alt right, something that people who fancy themselves in it prove is real. The only opposite of white supremacy, jingoistic nationalism and “we’re hapt to welcome an autocrat as leader and autocracy as a preferred form of government” is a democrat, whether small d or capital D.
3
I was very disappointed to find the Saturday NYT front page (web) loaded with Mueller report this, that, the other...when there is nothing to report yet. Please get back to reporting what's going on in the rest of the world and the rest of the country. When the report is made public..or not..then you can tell us what is says. Meanwhile, chill!
4
l do not think Mr. Mueller showing all his hands, because he does not know and trust our hand pick by Mr. Trump new Attorney General Mr.Barr, because all most the whole world knows that RUSSIA interference in our our last election, Mr.Trump and his family and his followers are not good for USA, specially his followers are white-nationalist wants him stay on power so they can do their dirty work, violence killing and burning, plainly distroy our country, GOP must open his/her eyes and see this, they should see that Mr.Trunp is not good for our country,
2
So Donald Trump is only *unofficially* a criminal.
5
From this Canadian`s point of view; that for all the endless statements of how even the President of the U.S.A. is NOT above the law; my observation is "Oh Really."The very fact that it has been stated over and over again that a sitting President "CANNOT" ever be indicted proves that is a lie. Trump was right when he said "I could shoot someone on Fifth Ave. and get away with it!" While we do not yet know what Mueller`s report may ultimately say about this whole sordid affair; some facts are absolutely uncontradictable. Russia and Putin did interfere with the 2016 election; in favor of Trump. Putin wanted nothing to do with Clinton and saw Trump as a man he could manipulate. The Trump campaign knew in advance that the Russians had hacked the D.N.C. and wanted them desperately to send the dirt. The low lifes Trump surrounded himself with all had multiple contacts with Russian Oligarchs to make themselves rich; breaking laws all over the place to do so. Trump and associates have done everything in their power to throw dirt on both the Mueller investigation and the media (excluding of course the Trump/ FOX propaganda machine)in attempts to pathetically portray Mueller as somehow biased. It is both fascinating and damning how NOW that has all gone away when it looks like the report has not indicted him. This whole sordid affair still stinks to high heaven. That is not going away no matter what is revealed in this report. The world is watching; and we have our own judgement.
6
@Greg Hodges
Really? From someone whose Government is shutting down an Investigation? We did a two year long, unfettered Investigation leaving no stone unturned. Your Justice Committee is sweeping Trudeau's crime's under a rug and doing it in plain view and you are here? Wow!
I only hope that a prim and proper legal system will be sufficient to combat the rise of a dictatorial Right willing to flirt with foreign tyrants and criminals to hold power. History (Nazi Germany), a gutless GOP, religious fanatics, Australian news moguls, and mendacious C-suite corporate bosses remove my optimism about our democracy's future. The safe guards do not look very safe. Trump is toxic to our survival as something that remotely reflects the Founders.
4
So is it still considered a possibility that Trump the racist and misogynist is an all American product .Or are you still hoping to blame the Russkies for this very nasty piece of work becoming President.
3
Don Jr skates after meeting with the Russians in Trump tower?
10
So Trump’s Campaign Manager giving detailed internal Midwestern polling data with an explanation to a Russian intelligence dude owned by Putie and his oligarchs while the GRU attacked our election is A-OK? And lying to Congress about all things Russian is A-OK? And Commander Collusion’s dirty trickster pal Stone directing Assange and Gucifer 2.0 is A-OK? Got it.
6
So, report proves nothing indictable happened. And liberals are furious. And now they are attacking their savior Mueller. And now they’ll open investigations to try for indictments Mueller did not deliver. Shocking! Never could have predicted this!
Look the president is a lout and a clown, arrogant and ignorant, and still better than Hillary....which is why he is President, not because people like him. Democrats should start to govern and stop trying to win past losses.
3
Imitating what you right wingers do when things don’t go your way. First call for investigation and if it doesn’t go your way, accuse the prosecutor of being biased (ie Hillary Clinton investigation). Fight fire with fire.
3
Let’s make the findings and ALL of Mueller’s conclusions PUBLIC nothing BARR-ed by the AG, not even due to executive privilege or otherwise.
Let the chips fall where they may.
And those still complaining about this being a ‘witch-hunt’ by the LEFT, time to WAKE UP or soon you’ll be living in fascist Russia (formerly USA) on this side of the Atlantic.
Flynn, Cohen, Manafort were ALL charged with lying to the FBI about their dealings with the Russians. This isn’t ALL just a HOAX. Time to get your head out of the sand and face the music.
8
We don’t need to see the report as long as the present government is overthrown and replaced with Chairman Schiff. We all need to pray to Chairman Schiff!
1
How do we know yet if Mr. Mueller hasn’t already charged all the members of a Russian/Trump conspiracy that he can reasonably indict? Perhaps the final indictment would be Mr. Trump’s, but we don’t indict Presidents. So it goes to the Congress.
We just have to wait and see, but no more indictments by Mueller at this time may be neither here nor there.
7
Mueller was a member of the law firm -- Wilmer, etc. -- which had represented clients Manafort and Kushner before he was appointed special counsel. Two other lawyers from the same firm also left the firm to become members of Mueller's investigative team.
Does this all represent a conflict of interest for Mueller and possibly explain why he didn't indict Jared Kushner?
7
@Underdog - Move on, the fat lady has sung.
6
The unredacted report except when protecting informants lives identities has to be released. A President who has been investigated can not claim executive privilege without appearing to abuse his power to cover up his crimes. That is how it will appear.
5
Wow. Wow. What a giant waste of my tax money, your tax money and countless amounts of wasted effort and time. 2 years for this dope and all his "special" counsel to say, basically, uh, uh, uh, nothing. Unreal. Only in the United States. Only in 2019...
I have never been less proud to be a citizen of these Untied (spelling on purpose) States. Thanks Mueller for wasting our time, our money and our democracy. You, sir, you, need to be prosecuted for misappropriation of public funds. Awful. Just awful.
47
@Paxinmano
199 charges brought so far. We haven't seen the report yet. Nor have you.
81
@Paxinmano. I don’t think any rational person is surprised by this.although I notice there is very little reporting by the media about Ukraine’s investigation into possible attempts by the Clinton campaign to in fluency the election. Wonder of wonders. But I digress. I believe the fines Mr Mueller and his team levied more than offset the cost of his Star Chamber. Your government at work.
8
Best post of the day here sir....l.your right.
4
Given the fact that the Republicans investigated themselves, already a reason to lack confidence in the honesty of the Mueller report, and if the Republicans in the Justice Department excessively cleanse the report, it will indicate an effort to minimize the importance of it, even possibly appearing to be a cover up. If the report is not released in it's entirety with the minimum redactions needed to protect informants lives, the Trump administration and the Justice Department will no longer be viewed as credible in all future matters. An absence of the report will indicate a presence of crime and corruption covered up. Release the full report. Is our government "Of The People"?
4
Trump et. al. can be found guilty of collusion without and evidence of a specific crime. Trump and his people colluded with the Russians - in plain sight.
As for obstruction of justice of which he is also guilty, that was not part of Mueller's investigation.
So, it is up to Congress to uphold the rule of law and impeach and remove him from office. His fate is up to politicians who have swearn to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. We shall not hold our breath.
But lets face it; we live in a country where the wealthy are often above the law.
7
Say we took the politics out of it and had two unnamed individuals. One was a Republican, a former Marine, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who did a job he did not seek and made no attempt to inflame the public or draw attention to himself.
The other guy? A Republican, used to be a Democrat, used to be quite friendly with lying Hillary, avoided the draft, hides his taxes even though he works for the public, multiple bankruptcies, has told more lies than all other presidents combined, has a plan to make America great by encouraging one group of Americans to hate other Americans, obsesses over money despite having more than he can ever spend.
Soon, we'll be asked to decide which one of these men we believe.
4
"Republicans immediately seized upon the news that no more indictments..."
Of course, Meuller's report contains no more indictments.
It was said seemingly hundreds of times over the last two years: The Justice Department policy is that a sitting President cannot be indicted.
That means any remedy for whatever crimes Mueller's team has –or has not– unearthed resides solely in Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution and it is upon the Congress of the United States to perform.
7
The DOJ policy of “a sitting president cannot be indicted” IS a...policy, not law. Let’s wait and see.
4
@Jose Pieste The other party, could have taken a plea to a lesser charge, ie Gates or Flynn, rather than be convicted of conspiracy(collusion).
This could be the end to the horror that is the Trump presidency or it could be the reason he wins re-election. If we take our eye off the ball, if “The Media,” who has a vested interest in fostering divisiveness tell people that no indictment is no collusion, we are sunk. Please, the judgment of this being the worst presidency, most incompetent White House, in my lifetime is that they are so wrong and incompetent, 90% of the time, and most know it. God I’m glad they are so grotesquely inane. The worst is the GOP leaders who have, literally, sold their souls to the idle that is “The Donald.” Sorry...
4
For those commentators expressing the belief that Trump will now win a second term...just how many Hillary voters do you think have had their minds changed vs the numbers of Trump voters whose dreams were never met with reality?
Not to mention the number of new voters who adore AOC.
5
@RonRich The 50 mostly inexperienced jr senators and ideologues running in 2020 will fracture and shatter what remains of the Democratic party...all DJT has to do is gleefully watch from the sidelines at the circular firing squad of candidates one upping each other and demanding ideological purity.
2
We need to let this ago and quick - the electorate is not a bunch of rubes who are slurping up this notion of palace intrigue.
Are progressive policies so bad that we need to use investigations to even the playing field with Trump? Our political leaders are in danger of looking like fools with the release of this report. This fantasy of blaming the nightmare of Trump's victory on Russian bots is hurting the politics of Democracy and Democrats. If you want to look at the culprit, check out rural counties across the midwest and see how they voted in 2008 & 2012 v. 2016. They were blue by 10-20 points for Obama and swung 10-20 points to Trump in 2016. Figure it out Democrats - the issues are in policy. Doesn't Trump give us enough material with which to bash him without relying on specious claims that offend common sense???
2
@Randy mo
You made some great points ro release the full report. I couldn't have said it better myself. I would further that releasing the full report will exonerate many others you did not mention.
The republicans released the entire Ken Star report and it led to Clinton’s impeachment. We need this Mueller report released, Republicans. But, we all know the truth about this incredibly corrupt regime, even with no report.
You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows
6
Make the Mueller report public, the entire report. Did everyone forget who paid for it? We did. We want to know what almost two years of investigating work is worth. This is our report. Any Attorney General should know that hiding the report will only bring about distrust for his office and department but worse those hackers are waiting to crack it. I will wait for the Dark web or maybe the corporate bought media (a journalist might know how to do his/her job) to leak it on the web. Barr won't topple his masters. Who would of thought, the Internet is our friend, this time.
2
After Macbeth got away with a crime he started seeing ghosts and acting paranoid. Even as king he wasn't happy because he knew he won through corruption. If Trump has gotten away with something in regards to Russia and the election, because it was not provable by Mueller's standards, no smoking gun, Trump's paranoia will ramp up even more -- if that is possible. As his tweets snowball in gloat and braggadocio, he will become more pathetic, vulnerable, weak and exposed. And look for Don Jr. and Eric to start with the gloating, too. With corruption, it's right after you think you "win" when the downfall comes slowly but surely. There is just too much dirt surrounding Trump for this temporary win to wash Trump's hands. Lady Macbeth tells Trump, "Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks, be bright and jovial among your guest to-night." Here comes the bright and jovial at Mar-a-Lago, but the play is not over, ghosts are looming in SDNY.
4
@PE
Who do you suppose is being haunted by the ghost of Seth Rich?
I’m really enjoying watching Trumpists cheer for the notion that whatever Trump may have done, the Special Counsel and DOJ have declined to prosecute.
I mean, leave aside the fact that they “know,” this entirely on the basis of exactly the sort of anonymous source they’ve spent years howling about. The really hilarious part is that they’re cheering for Trump’s ending up in the same category as Hillary Clinton’s dimwit e-mail server put her: somebody who behaved like a total doofus for some weird reason and probably did something illegal, but who likely couldn’t be successfully prosecuted.
2
This entire debacle embarrasses me to be an American. Just look what the Democrats have done. CNN beams this nonsense all over the world. Our shining example of Democracy, attack a new president like a pack of wild dogs, make up lies about him and try to get him impeached over nothing. Not a lot to be proud of.
4
@Minnie Mouse
What excellent points to release the full report. It is the only way to tame those wild dogs. Thank you!
1
Trump attacked Obama right after his election repeatedly, claiming that he had information which would prove Obama wasn't born in Hawaii. It made him so popular among the Republican base that he was able to ride the wave to the presidency, all because he lied and said the first black president wasn't really American, something every Trump voter apparently was more than OK with. Why do all the hand-wringing Trump apologists so concerned over the "treatment of the president" seem to forget that obvious piece of recent history?
4
@Minnie Mouse you're talking about what the Republican campaign against Obama, right?
1
Only for Trump supporters can “no further indictments” be seen as some sort of a victory. He can’t lead (anyone other than white supremacists); has no idea how to govern; he can’t even speak coherently and he appears to be borderline illiterate—and clearly mentally unwell. But at least no further indictments of his associates.
Trump supporters: “Big win for us!!”
(slow clap)
5
If the Attorney General is committed to as much transparency as possible then just release the full, unedited report, as you can get any results you want by what you leave in, or out, of a report. If you don't release the full, unedited, version of the report then the public will just lose it's trust in government and conspiracy theorists, theories, will run riot; and hey presto! some nut case will commit an act of terrorism because they think the nation is being overtaken by communists and Russians.
lol, nothing there folks. 2 years of liberal garbage and wasted taxpayer money on absolutely NOTHING. now the media will be wanting the report released. not all of it can be released. redaction in national security items prevent it. as for trump. he wins again. egg on the face of dems and the fake news media.
5
@jeff
The only way to shut the liberals up for good will be to release the full report. That will show those liberals no collusion!
1
keep this in mind, all of you who wanted a definitive answer! The Mueller Report was like a “root canal”- a specific look.The Democrats in the House will do a “ colonoscopy”- much more information.The SDNY will do a full body CTScan- everything will be revealed.The examination has jut begun!
4
No indictment no provable collusion. Time for NYT’s readers to move on.
4
@Kerby
Yes the report should be released. As conservatives looking to finally put liberal conspiracy theories to rest the full report must come out. Thank you!
1
It's not another freaky Friday, for a change.
What a great weekend, for a change.
Whatever is disclosed, I'm ready.
2
This head,into, New York Times, is speculation! The report has not been seen by anyone other than AG Barr, Rod Rosenstein and Mr. Mueller. The media keeps saying “ no indictments” but you do not know that for sure. Also, it’s been reported that there are a dozen SEALED indictments in the DC court.
Before I jump to conclusions, I will wait for the Mueller Report to be read by Congress’ judicial committees,and eventually by all of us. The Mueller Report MUST be released to the American people who paid for the report!
In a democracy, we MUST have transparency and respect for the rule of law, truth and justice!
5
By not offering any further prosecutions, Mueller is also not offering Trump the opportunity to pardon anybody. If the evidence does not give an ironclad charge, the court battle would not be in the interest of anyone.
Mueller's more important accomplishment has been to feed the appropriate evidence to New York. Prosecutions there will stick and pardons will not be possible.
5
It's a little ironic that barring (no pun intended) any information coming out as it relates to the president's alleged collusion with Russia, in the final analysis the public may be left with only conspiracy theories that are built upon the full-throated, non-stop, bizarre ramblings of Trump himself. If he had just kept quiet, this would now all be over. It will never be over.
1
Thinking people realize the Mueller Report will exonerate President Trump from democrat and media allies political collusion witch hunt propaganda. It has always been fraudulent. This is no longer an issue. The only important matter is to investigate how the utterly corrupt obama administration weaponized American intelligence agencies to spy on the Trump campaign and attempt to overthrow a duly elected president. This is undoubtedly the greatest criminal assault on the Constitution and will of the American people. Sadly, the American political system has become perverted beyond recognition. Those responsible for the assault need to be investigated, indicted, brought to justice. Absent justice for all, America cannot endure. This cannot be allowed to happen..
5
Ah, finally the NYTs can move on to other social programming efforts now that this one is over. The NYTs knew there was no collusion, but as long as the investigation was open it was able to promote the certainty that it was real, programming Americans (yes, that's you) to believe it on a daily basis. One of my favorites was a calendar view of all the days Trump publically attacked the Mueller investigation, nearlly all. And now it must print in its pages that there is no evidence of collusion. How professionally disdainful, you might think. But subscribership is way way way up, so its a win for NYTs. The sychophants will keep coming to the trough.
5
@Jason
"The NYTs knew there was no collusion"
Oh really? And how did it know that?
2
@GS
Because the NYT's is reputed for its pulitzer prize winning investigative reporting. So it's fair to conclude it knew based on the lack of any conclusive evidence that collusion was real. Counterweight that with the volumuos print it produced to convince its readership collusion was real and it looks very manipulative.
1
So that's it huh. A couple of"lying to the FBI" charges and the indictment of a bunch of Russians that will never see a trial. DJTJ is offered a meeting with Putin's goons and says"bring it on" and-nothing.Letting Trump off the hook about testifying in person. I know of more crimes by just watching TV. Color me disappointed.
3
Now the whitewashing if treason begins. If you're expecting justice you're going to be disappointed. The ruling class looks out for it's members and trump is hust such a member.
1
What do you call 39 indictments (including 26 of Russian nationals working for Putin), putting Trump’s campaign manager and NSA rep and personal lawyer and about six staffers in jail, trials for Roger Stone and others, and investigations into Trump’s businesses, charity, and inauguration committee?
A good start.
I wouldn’t break out the Fizzies and balloons just yet, boys. And you may want to work on bringing to the table a little better than screams about no collusion, reliance on the anonymous sources you told us couldn’t be trusted, bizarre gaslights about how Mueller didn’t find anything about Russians, and screeches about TDS.
5
Maybe this is the difference between a special prosecutor like Robert Mueller who is professional and nonpartisan, and one like Ken Starr and Robert Kavanaugh (now sitting on Supreme Court) who were blatant partisans spending years sifting through Bill Clinton's affairs leaking salacious details every day and impeaching him for lying about sex. Meanwhile Clinton was a fine President with an otherwise clean record and Trump is a dangerous joke whose record is as filthy and conniving as a mob boss. Let us hope the professionals in New York can finger him because Fox News crowing and Republican hypocrisy is sickening.
13
No indictments for Russian collusion. Wonder if this means we'll be treated again to an excuse a day from Hillary why she lost.
Oh if only the Dems would rerun the most qualified candidate ever* what fun that would be!
*How laughable. After reviewing the qualifications of the founding fathers (the guys who wrote the declaration of independence and constitution) FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, LBJ, and Bush 1 please get back to us on Bill Clinton's wife. Though it was Obama who called Hillary the most qualified. Given his tissue thin resume the comment makes sense.
4
@Reader In Wash, DC
"No indictments for Russian collusion."
You do realize that, even if there was no collusion, there was definitely interference by the Russians in our election - whether or not it actually changed the outcome? Once upon a time, people might have cared about that.
3
COLLUSION!! At least we don't have to listen to trump saying "no collusion" anymore. The final scoreboard:
139 Criminal charges.
64 Criminal indictments.
8 Convictions (or guilty pleas)
$53 million returned to our treasury - stolen by trump associates NOW IN JAIL.
Witness Tampering, Conspiracy Against the United States (Collusion!!), Obstruction of Justice, Wire fraud, tax fraud bank fraud.
The most productive corruption investigation in our nation's history. SIX trump campaign officials, including the Trump campaign manager IN PRISON.
13
@Wayne Gregersen
There were 14 convictions in the Whitewater investigation.
I'm still wondering why the brats and others weren't indicted. Perhaps the DOJ policy of not indicting a sitting president means not indicting his fellow conspirators lest the finger point at the principal bad actor.
I'm also wondering why, if trump thought he wasn't going to win, he kept pursuing trump tower moscow. I'm sure the russians had no interest in dealing with a loser.
So trumpian that the mattter as it stands now leaves me with a palpably bad taste in my mouth.
4
I think Mueller sold the country down the river.
But I am also suspicious of the Democrats-by not opposing Kavanaugh strongly, we have a conservative religious supreme court. Those nuts will do untold harm.
2
No interview of trump, of Kushner, Of Prince, of Ivanka!
Something is woefully wrong here! Perhaps we’ve gotten the Ray-Rice Mueller and not the John-Gotti one!
5
So many wishful commenters act as if Mueller is the Second Coming because he keeps his mouth shut and seems like a straight shooter. Talk about lowered expectations! Before you build a temple to him, can you wait to see what he's really done for US? I am pessimistic so far when I consider the short prison terms his convicts have received for very serious offenses against our nation--reassuring me that justice in our Republic is in short supply and that the ruling class can act with impunity.
47
@Hector: Mueller did not determine the actual sentences. And he did suggest a longer one for Manafort. And Mueller is quite intelligent. I don't think this is over.
16
@Hector
The sentences are short because all the crimes attributed to Trump campaign or administration are "process crimes." Process crimes are crimes agains the judicial system, such as contempt of court, failure to appear or making false or misleading statements to investigators.
Michale Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and Roger Stone weren't charged with engaging in criminal activities or covering up crimes; they were charged with making false statement about legal activities.
Michale Cohen was charge with Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, but there was nothing unlawful about the project. He was also charged with making an excessive campaign contribution, but the normal punishment for that is a fine.
The sentences against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have northing to do with Trump, the Trump administration, the Trump campaign, or the 2016 election.
3
@Anne, Sorry Anne, but when I consider the long term history of FBI leadership, I feel even worse--J. Edgar Hoover was very intelligent too, I hear, but he let mobsters and rich criminals run free for decades. No this is not over but I hope we see justice.
4
Let's not forget what the investigation proved about Facebook and its lack of oversight.
4
Given DOJ policy, the announcement of no recommendation for indictments does not exculpate Trump. Mueller cannot recommend what he is barred from doing. Be patient.
9
@Jackbook
"Mueller cannot recommend what he is barred from doing."
Wrong. Of course he can. There is no policy against saying that someone should be indicted.
Whether you love or hate Trump, why can’t we agree it’s actually good news that the President didn’t conspire with Russia to sell out the nation?
11
Can you imagine if John Mitchell had been the one to decide whether Jaworski's findings would see the light of day?
6
Maybe I'm overly suspicious, but I think it's possible that Bill Barr told Mueller to wrap up his investigation before it was totally concluded. In his letter to Congress, Barr said he never had to intervene to keep Mueller from taking an unwarranted action. He never said he hadn't ordered him to just wrap it up --and do it quickly.
4
Hopefully the Barr top-line-conclusions from the Mueller report will include (1) Trump/Russia Collusion/Conspiracy charged without evidence by the Democrats (2) Obstruction of Justice for firing Comey fostered by Comey himself who is BFF with Mueller (3) Russian attempted/inference in the 2016 Presidential election. Those were the three top items. We already know the answer to number (3) which has been known for the past 2 years. Russia did interfere or attempt to interfere with the 2016 election. Obama told us that before he left and even levied sanctions against Russia for doing it and told them to stop.
1
The angst expressed in these comments demonstrates the existence of Trump Derangement Syndrome still thrives in the wake of the Mueller Report. Democrats have an incredible deniability.
9
Beyond wondering about the OLD charges that are out there under seal, I think it’s hilarious that if Trump and Trumpists are right, they’ll be celebrating having their boy in the same camp as Hillary Clinton—somebody who acted irresponsibly, but whom the FBI and AG have declined to prosecute.
Break out the Fizzies and balloons, I guess.
Oh, well, doesn’t really surprise, given the way Javanka just got busted for a private e-mail server.
1
@Robert
Javanka did not get busted for having a private e-mail server. Instead, they used private email accounts. Still bad, and probably illegal, but not nearly as bad as using a private server.
I think most anti-Trump Americans were waiting for Mueller to do the dirty work for us. But Trump was too smart it seems to get his hands caught in the collusion cookie jar. So it's up to the voters to elect a new president.
3
I don't think the OLC opinion is why Mueller didn't indict trump. If that were the case, we'd have seen indictments of trump jr and Kushner. It was also puzzling to me that there wasn't a conspiracy indictment against Manafort. I do hope his report connects all the dots though, and tells us all the ways in which trump is compromised and a continuing national security threat.
3
One thing your superiors don't want you to know is that American business folks have been colluding with Russian business folks since the early days of the Soviet Union.
2
We are witness here to the decomposition of truth.
America is gaslighting itself.
2
Just now watching Wolf Blitzer on fake news CNN.
In absence of any news on Mueller, he us speculating that before heading to DOJ this morning, the AG had scrambled eggs for breakfast.
CNN thinks it is very significant as to the guilt of POTUS.
The AG typically has a granola bar on Saturdays.
So, scrambled eggs is very relevant.
Wolf is saying that his sources from Mar a Lago say that POTUS decided to tee off on the 9th hole this morning. Thus is extremely critical info.
All of this is so significant- that fake news HQ have hired Democrats to figure out does all this mean something?
Many sources say this has nothing to with each other.
But Wolf is rejecting this theory.
Stay tuned until they have 10 more panelists discussing this significant breakfast and golf development.
Wolf thinks that POTUS will be gone by Monday.
The White House agrees, he will be gone but just to Wisconsin.
Stay tuned.
7
Does it really matter what is in the report or whether it is released? The media will propagate their biased views. The Congress is demanding report be fully release. But if they are disappointed they will start something or the other. I think as a country we have borne this for too long. Don’t you think it is time to look neyond?
5
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
when first we practice to deceive.
Walter Scott
2
It used to be that every boy and girl would dream of becoming President of the United States. Well, NO THANK YOU !!
Trump's political reckoning its just beginning. Soon we'll know the Mueller findings regarding Russian election tampering but Trump's MANY crimes, which everyone in NYC has always known about, are just beginning to surface - and he cannot be pardoned for them.
What Mueller finds out about Russia should scare every American but it pales in comparison to having a criminal enterprise at the head of our government. Sorry Republicans, but facts are facts - you'll just have to take your licks like the grownups you claim to be.
6
Now the house majority will start to villainize the former saint Mueller because his investigation didn't find the dirt they so badly needed. And there is no doubt that parts of the still secret report will be leaked, but only in little pieces so that they can be taken out of context and used to smear opponents. Adam Schiff the shiftless dem from California can be counted on for this, he has no scruples about lying and making things up. So this is the kind of government you will get if you vote democrat, endless investigations and persecution, and much like the French Revolution no one is safe and it will eventually consume itself with hatred.
7
Where is the “Trump exonerated of collusion” headline? An apology is due. On the front page. Signed by your cast of pathetic copy cat columnists and know nothings who parroted the lies of the Chuck Todd’s, Trappers, and CNN. BTW. Watch a few minutes of MSNBC. It’s hard, but try. I noticed that TV gives off an odor now! Well, at least MSNBC does. It smells like desperation. 😉 Not teen spirit. Although most of the commentators are mere children. Went to the best schools. Possibly, they were all “athletes”. Lastly, Times, have you NO shame?
8
@Tim Dowd Hillary was exonerated by the FBI. Right wingers snd Trump never accepted that.
4
NY Times , no mea culpa on two years of obsessive conspiracy theory ?
11
Closer to the facts:
The entire "Russian collusion hoax' was master-minded and paid for by Hillary with the participation and complicit involvement of the intelligence agencies. "The evidence is clear: Barack H. Obama, John O. Brennan, James R. Clapper, Hillary R. Clinton, John D. Podesta, Michael J. Morrell and other US officials and Democratic Party operatives colluded to prevent a Trump victory and now conspire to commit sedition."
The FBI and DOJ (James Comey, Jim Rybicki, Andrew McCabe, Jim Baker, Michael Kortan, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr etc.) were part of the 2016 Hillary Campaign through a leak strategy that was coordinated with the MSM Media. When Trump won the group ratcheted up their leaking and their Russian propaganda, paid for by Hillary and 0bama, in an attempt to impeach the duly elected Donald Trump.
Obama tried to do his part. As Charlie Kirk pointed out this weekend: “He picked his successor, weaponized the FBI, DOJ, & IRS against his opponents. Controlled 90% of the media. Had double the ad budget. Colluded with foreign powers against the challenger. Yet they lost to a billionaire they claimed was beneath them.”
https://aim4truth.org/2017/03/06/obama-administration-colluded-with-intelligence-agencies-to-frame-trump/
-------------------------
10
I want to know why all the trumpfans got to read the report before Congress? They get all the inside information! Pizzzagate, Benghazzi, the birth certificate, Vince Foster, and now Mueller's report, which fully exonerates, nay, beatifies, dear leader! Meanwhile, the rest of us just have to wait for boring old evidence and facts.
9
I’m troubled by a conundrum: the difference between what prosecutors know and what they can prove in court.
Mueller’s report is an internal DOJ document, designed to help make decisions about further investigations and prosecutions.
That’s a very different function than the reports from the Warren Commission, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, and the 9/11 Commission, all of which were written to inform the American people.
A key value of previous public commission reports was their presentation of events and actions that proved (or were likely) to be of limited relevance.
It would be highly inappropriate for the DOJ to publicly discuss charges *not* filed. (That treatment was very unfair to HRC.)
So that leaves us, the American people, with the truth - what can be proven in court - but not the whole truth.
3
We could all stand a little Desmond Tutu-style reconciliation right now.
1
Good idea. Let’s have Trump start.
2
Mueller issued criminal charges against 34 people, including six former Trump associates and advisers.
That alone speaks very poorly for the amoral administration of Donald Trump and his Russian friends.
13
Now we know why RM’s investigation wasn’t leaking. Because , he wasn’t doing much other than wasting the public’s resources for two years.
4
Let’s wait until the report is made public before judging its value.
4
Those attacking Trump in the name of the rule of law should realize that existing "rules" applicable to the current special counsel law do not allow the entire report to be released. Only its broad conclusions (e.g., no Trump collusion with Russia, no Trump obstruction of justice). No less important to remember, DOJ policy prohibits releasing the details of a criminal investigation that did not yield prosecutable proof of criminality by that person. Instead, the AG is required to provide congress with a succinct summary of the special counsel's major conclusions, whether any of the special counsel's investigative requests were blocked, and whether there are new indictments forthcoming.
Problematically, the media as stoked an intense desire on the part of many Democrats to believe that Trump actually conspired with Putin to fix the 2016 election. Otherwise, how could "that man" beat the well qualified woman who the media assured them even 24 hours before the election had a 95% chance of winning?
Now, the Democrats in congress will spin their wheels as long as Trump is in office (and I am predicting four more years after 2020). What as sad waste of time on daily "impeachment porn" on CNN, MSNBC and in these pages.
6
If Trump has been vindicated by this report, why is it so long?
5
Barr needs to release the report NOW ! The American people will accept nothing less
A partial release of the report is unacceptable, and will be broadly seen as a cover up.
1
No collusion - end of story.
Perhaps a few of those suffering from TDS can now move on.
11
I am thankful that the slow but exact grinding of the wheels of Justice continues.
1
I hope the Left realizes its mistake and apologizes to the president. Collusion Delusion was always just that
10
Time will tell what the effect of the Mueller's report will be on DJT and the country. The effects of the DJT presidency on the Office of the President and governance are history now for all to contemplate. While Mueller and his team investigated the DJT campaign and the Comey firing early in his presidency DJT has delivered almost nothing except executive orders and has run aground on North Korea, NATO, trade, budget, immigration. Throughout DJT idiotic tweeting and flag hugging, SHS and an administration full of dissemblers maintain a fevered pace of carnival barking. Meanwhile McConnell and the Senate shamelessly used DJT to enact a fading tax-cut and populate the federal courts with the likes of B Kavanaugh and a host of other openly partisan lower court judges. The ballot box in 2020 is the unassailable opportunity to end of the DJT presidency and the Republican apologists in the Senate, not the Mueller report.
3
Don't fall for the squirrels! It is not about collusion for Trump; he is clearly guilty of obstruction of justice.
3
This report should be made public. We have a right to know what Trump did. Trump will attack anyone and everything so we have to know the truth. Other probes are now starting including why Deutsche Bank kept lending millions to Trump, a well know serial bankruptcy filer who never paid his bills. New Yorkers were aware of Trump, his lack of paying bills, his overt racism, his love of Russia. We demand to see the report.
1
Gods plan going splendidly!
1
We already know that Mr. Trump surrounded himself with a bunch of criminals, and the Mueller report may not reveal any more damaging information to this presidency than what we already know. Unfortunately if the rules of the justice department that a sitting president cannot be indicted sticks, we will continue to have a criminal at the head of our republic. Like so many other foreign countries, the US is now one more country ruled by a despicable individual who lies, enriches himself and his family, abuses families at the border by separating children from their parents, has passed laws and put individuals in charge who will destroy the environment. We didn’t need Mueller to tell us all that! It’s in the news every day. So what if a few criminals have been indicted, there is still a bunch of them helping Trump “stick it” to this Democracy.
2
The Trump campaign is maligned as a criminal organization primarily because it hired Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. But Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, George H. Bush and John McCain also hired them.
George Papadopoulos was not a member of the Trump campaign when he made false statements about his lawful but unsuccessful attempts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Roger Stone was not a member of the Trump campaign when he allegedly contacted WikiLeaks and lied about it to Congress.
Michael Cohen was never a member of the Trump campaign. He got a two-month sentence for making an excessive campaign contribution and lying to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, but he testified that Trump did not ask him to lie to Congress.
3
The White House has leaked the last line of Mueller's Report.
"No Collusion. No Collusion!"
2
So now we have something other than tweets and tv broadcast clips that will be part of the Trump Presidential Archives someday.
2
For two years Democrats have been violently beating their chests in outrage over Trump. Republicans now are spared the agonizing self abuse as now all they have to do on their part for the next two is just simply gently pat the report. Serenity now.
5
Nothing can be done when people are convinced someone is a criminal. NO evidence, No charges yet. It is unbelievable the power of media to shape minds. If someone has personality issues,that does not make her or him a criminal. Please, stop the hate.
8
I look forward to the actual words and facts.
Remember what 99% of the GOP and the conservative "news" and talk shows said after Hillary was declared to be extremely careless but not worth prosecuting? And they are STILL chasing Hillary for ... something.
How many indictments DID come from that investigation?
But now Rush and Sean can say it's those weak Democrats who are crying because the the liberal and drive by media couldn't get what "they wanted" to do to Trump. And this proves that Trump is the best and most flawless President ever, and maybe the greatest leader of any country in the world, ever.
1
Ummm, I suppose it abides by DoJ policy that sitting presidents cannot be indicted so that doesn't say much about Trump's position, does it?
If the president can't be indicted, then it's not true that "no one is above the law."
1
I hope the no new charges is a feint by Mueller. Then again, since he can't indict individual-1, what is the point in charging Jared, DJTJ or Ivanka? They are all above the law because daddy will reflexively pardon them all of any past, current and future crimes. Massive bug in the US Constitution.
There’s a lot of triumphant yelling that now, AG Barr will simply shut down any further investigation at the State level.
Beyond the fact that it’s pretty dumb to prance about cheering that your guy’ll just have finding out the truth stopped (way you handle that is to welcome the investigations that will of course exonerate Trumpy), there’re a couple little technical problems here.
1. Trump has one power over US Attorneys. He can fire them.
2. He’d have to order Barr to carry this out—and sorry, but he doesn’t seem to be the sort, and has already ruled that out.
3. Briefly, Barr isn’t Whittaker—and even WHITTAKER found such meddling too ripe.
4. If you think there’s a witch hunt now, let Trump try anyway.
5. Trump still has zero power over various state investigations in New York, Virginia, LA, and DC.
6. That Report is coming out. Period. This White House leaks like a sieve, half the Justice Department hates Trump for his behavior, and Barr is going to have to report to Congress.
I wouldn’t break out the Fizzies and balloons just yet, boys.
I've always thought the campaign was too incompetent to have a coordinated institutional arrangement with the Russians, although the contacted parties may have thought they were developing one. What I believe we will have discovered is more ordinary crime, as much for financial gain as political. Naturally the Republicans are saying Trump is off the hook -- witch hunt! -- as if the absence of treason absolves him of running a gang of ordinary crooks.
2
At some point we should probably review the difference between the words “unethical” and “illegal.”
2
The investigation was about "Russian interference in the 2016 election".
I want to know the degree of interference and what the president and his republican followers plan to do about it.
Up to now all they have done is deny it.
Our simple minded president will probably claim "no collusion" and carry on with business as usual. Are republicans so venal and treasonous? Probably.
I am probably one of the few Americans who is not slathering all over to hear what is in the report. If there are impeachable offenses, Congress will no doubt take them up and we will hear the charges made against Trump. If there aren't, well I already know that Trump is incompetent, perhaps pathological, and unethical so I don't need a report to tell me that. I am far more interested in the various investigations going on against Trump by Congress since those are not constrained as Mueller was in his mandate as special counsel.
89
@Scott Werden
The problem is, what is considered "impeachable" in the current political climate? As Speaker Pelosi 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,” she added. “And he’s just not worth it.”
As it is, the Americans, particularly the Republicans, have not revolted with the various scandals and wrong doings from his top aids and top administrative officials.
What were the Republicans' reaction to top security clearances being ordered to be given to Jared and Ivanka? Now we are talking not just about money corruption but risks to our national security.
I think there is no reaction because Trump is exactly the kind of person majority of Republicans have become -- victory for oneself by any means regardless of the costs to others and country.
12
@Scott Werden
The problem is there apparently were no offenses attributable to Trump.
1
@William Case
“Russia if you’re listening....”
“...if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
“Only the best people....”
5
I hope for good news, but here is my guess: No matter what the report says, Trump will claim that it proves he is innocent. His followers will believe him. They will use the phrase "nothing-burger" repeatedly. So will Trump.
Meanwhile, Mueller will hand off a number of side investigations to numerous other agencies, and Trump will probably be indicted by the New York Attorney General as soon as he leaves office. In the meantime, I imagine we are stuck with Trump, because McConnell is deeply compromised, his wife has a cabinet position, and he will never, ever bring an impeachment up for a vote, because he doesn't care about his country and has no moral compass.
Trump will probably be re-elected, but it depends who the Democrat is. That's what will happen. There goes our government. I fear that we are a banana republic now, regardless of what the report says. And it only took two men -- Trump and McConnell -- to achieve that.
938
@RVC Fortunately, our world will be uninhabitable in ten more years so get over it.
34
"because McConnell is deeply compromised, his wife has a cabinet position, and he will never, ever bring an impeachment up for a vote, because he doesn't care about his country and has no moral compass."
Also, because Pence and said cabinet would never DARE oppose their immediate boss, let alone invoke A25—not when he helps them impose their perverse policies, and not when their ultimate boss pays (or blackmails) so well.
Seems we'll be stuck with the loser. Pelosi won't prevent that, not when she's went full Bloomy and too thinks impeachment talk is absurd. I hope fellow voters will prevent it, and won't let dubious jobs and job numbers buy their votes and America's soul.
51
@RVC
If Trump wins reelection you can forget about him being indicted by the NY Attorney General or anyone else. If you think he is running wild now just imagine him without the specter of a campaign looming.
He will gt legislation passed that will make him untouchable.
65
I've been active in the so-called Resistance since the beginning. When Mueller was appointed, I was dismayed to see much of the urgency and energy go immediately out of the movement. It was as if everyone suddenly said to themselves, "Oh, okay, the Special Counsel will eventually make it all right," and relaxed. I thought that was a terrible mistake at the time, because I knew, based on Watergate -- that Nixon had been allowed to resign, and then pardoned -- that any governmental response would likely be weak, deferential, too polite, and too focused on "healing" and preserving institutions.
Today's news that Mueller has recommended no indictments is even worse than I feared. People really need to take to the streets, throw bricks and get their hands dirty, if we're to have any hope of getting our democracy back.
22
@lkhjl
So basically you know more of the facts than Mueller?
18
@lkhjl First, "Mueller has recommended no indictments" is not the same as "Mueller has not recommended new indictments." So be careful of that. There are many, many prosectors still pursuing aspects of this whole mess, as sort of spinoffs from Mueller's work, as another story in the NYT today points out.
It is up to Mueller to recommend for or against indictments to those prosecutors once the matters are in their hands.
Second, journalists, including the writer of this piece, I am afraid, are way over-interpreting what the unnamed senior justice official supposedly reported.
Here's what the reporters write "A senior Justice Department official said that Mr. Mueller would not recommend new indictments, a statement aimed at ending speculation that Mr. Trump or other key figures might be charged down the line."
The second part of the quoted sentence is PURE speculation. I'm surprised an editor would let that pass.
Apparently the exact quote... though I can't put my finger on it right now ... was that Mueller (himself) would not be issuing any news indictments.
That leaves it COMPLETELY open whether any other the other prosecutorial offices involved, included possibly Main Justice itself, would be issuing indictments.
Pretty sloppy and breathless reporting going on. Hold off on taking it at face value.
1
@lkhjl throw bricks? Yikes people could get seriously hurt you can’t be ok with that
To publish or not to publish. Doesn't matter. Donald Trump is damned if it's published and damned if it's not published because otherwise he cannot claim innocence. The possibility that the full report totally exonerates him is not conceivable with what we now know.
2
When the public sees and hears the willingness of the leader of the free world to collude, collaborate or cooperate with the enemy to defeat a political opponent, and it happens, that to me is wrong and has to be dealt with.
2
We just had another foot of snow and the Rikert Center at Breadloaf has great cross country skiing and they will treat you like the honest and forthright individual with the utmost level of integrity that you are and you and the rest of the incredible gang most definitely deserve a vacation. So come to Vermont. The air is clear and the snow is beautiful.
1
@Steve Beck
Did anyone notice that yesterday was the first day of Spring in Vermont ?
1
@Blank, that is by the calendar. We first go through Mud Season, and maybe, if we are fortunate will have two weeks of spring in late June! A town on the eastern side of the state, Rockingham I think has closed 35 miles of its dirt roads because they are impassable. I will go cross country skiing!
2
As Glen Greenwald, the famous constitutional lawyer turned journalist pointed out writing over a year ago for the Intercept, it was a legal, strategic and democratic error for the Democrats to attempt to impeach Trump on the basis of public opinion.
No matter how people feel about the evolving calvacade of Trump misdeeds, it's a waste of time and ethically damaging to one's own individual authority to try to rescue our democracy from the Trumpian assault without evidence required in courts of law.
Trump and the Republicans, fully cognizant of their waning demographic advantage, realize this is their last chance to manipulate our shared democracy to their own personal ends, and in that vein have abandoned in certain areas all respect for law and tradition ( for instance, stripping the incoming governor in Wisconsin of historic ordinary powers of the office, intentionally disenfranchising as many democratic-leaning voters as possible through gerrymandering and enacting of vote-denying laws).
So as these pyromaniacs excitedly set dozens of ground fires at the bases of our sacred institutions, the people need to fight all these individual fires and forget about Trump's distribution of the matches. He will eventually burn up his own house. There's no law against the executive branch failing to lead and corrupting the government in legal ways. We need to outlast this regime at a 1,000 points of resistance. The head of it will eventually fall on his own.
6
Knowing the Mueller report has been sent to the AG answers very little. It is significant that no additional indictments will be coming from that office, but that doesn’t exclude a number of possibilities.
First, Mueller may well have farmed out a number of his ongoing investigations to various district offices. Reportedly, there were also an inordinate number of sealed indictments in the DC area. Some may be significant placeholders. We know there are significant aspects of other unknown cases due to the copious redactions in various federal court filings. We know that Michael Flynn and Rick Gates are not yet ready for sentencing due to continued cooperation with investigators.
Lastly, it’s likely Mueller followed department policy in withholding indictments of a sitting president, if such indictable behavior exists. I have never seen someone behave so guilty or fearful of investigation in my life. Trump literally acknowledged firing the FBI Director over the Russia investigation, and Trump constantly berated AG Sessions for recusing himself and not protecting the president.
Yesterday’s announcement is likely not the end of anything beyond Mueller’s direct involvement. Congress now rightfully gets involved. They’ll be briefed but can demand much more fulsome reporting if necessary. National security concerns must be shared with Adam Schiff’s committee. Last Congress set the precedent for full disclosure of all underlying investigation documents. There’s more to come.
4
Virtually nothing will change with the submission of the Mueller report that does not accuse President Trump of any crime.For the Resistence folks there still remain the SDNY probes,which some believe could ensnare Trump and bring him down.And if those probes don’t do the job,you can be sure there will be something else.The field is seemingly limitless for the believers.
1
If the new attorney general President Trump appointed in anticipation of this day, after firing the one who recused himself, materially messes with the written words in the report so as to protect Trump, his family, or any other high-level person who is still in a position of power in our government, I expect Mr. Mueller or one of his team who maintained such rigorous silence during the investigation to step forward publicly to defend their work. Their work is not really done until the American public has the full and unaltered account. As we all know, reports can be edited. Merely changing one word, e.g, "knowingly" to "unknowingly," or one number in a date, or redacting one name can alter the truth.
1
I hope that Mueller and his wife can get away to someplace private and relaxing for a good, lengthy vacation. ( Surely it has been stressful for his wife, too, to have endured the past many months.)
Many thanks to Mueller for doing this critical work, and for staying above the political turmoil.
5
While reading, I was struck with how much this felt like waiting for news about a crime boss. The surrounding circle always loses some of its soldiers as the feds move in. Do the feds get the Don, who is surrounded by legal soldiers as well as armed ones (if they aren't both)? Not often.
It also makes me think of Bobby Kennedy, who died fighting corruption. No rose colored glasses here, but struck with the difference in the ideals from the top, and maybe from the nation.
1
I'm curious about reporting that claims that there are as many as thirty sealed indictments still in play. Would these be unsealed with the submission of the report? If so, will we hear about them? If not, when would they be unsealed? At least one report has suggested that there is meaningful evidence of a sealed indictments against Assange.
1
The soul of our republic and the integrity of her institutions can ill afford an uninterested or politically intoxicated public in the face of this investigation. This report must be received and dissected at all levels with deliberate sobriety to best synthesize the data and move forward in a collective endeavor to still "form a more perfect union."
1
Along with any full disclosure of the final report should be a full and total final cost amount that we the American tax payers shelled out for it and a justification from someone of why it was worth it. Granted it gave the big network talking heads plenty to talk about for years, but as rich as those networks are already they should have payed for this themselves. Just another blatant example of corporate welfare in this county.
1
@John Doe
Umm...the investigation cost less than $20 million US Tax dollars and it raked in more than $60 million in seized assets and fines SO FAR.
A 3 to 1 return on investment is rare in any economy.
@Blank, then by all means turn the profit generating power of the DOJ loose to shake down all of corporate America then, starting with Apple and Google. Extreme excess wealth like theirs I’m sure doesn’t just happen by playing by the same rules as everyone else. Too bad they own them too already though. Why should the EU be the only ones that get to have all the fun?
With only a handful of people seeing the actual report, everyone engages in endless speculation. They don't seem to know they don't know that they don't know what they don't know. I have my own thoughts like everyone else, and judging by the breathless coverage and spin, and by comments made here and elsewhere by readers, everyone is remaining entrenched firmly in their quarters and we'll undoubtedly never know everything Mr. Mueller knows or what goes on or went on behind the scenes. There are still multiple investigations underway in multiple venues. Meanwhile, Breathe.
2
Does it really matter? The President, backed by Republicans in Congress have supported the breakup of our alliances and the support of autocratic dictators across the globe.
In 2 years we have made a complete shift in our foreign policy, trade policy along with supporting nuclear proliferation and carbon based energy production and use globally. We have de-regulated our professional, none political, government at the expense of food and drug safety, air travel and have put our heads in the sand regarding gun safety as Americans are routinely slaughtered across the country.
We have also run up the single biggest annual and monthly deficits in our history, during a time where we are at full employment.
It's not as if a foreign country just meddled in our election. They won the election and the war. The US in 2 years has surrendered our values and is on a path to absolute failure supported by roughly 45% of Americans.
3
Investigation is complete. See the findings and move on. Time to solve real problems. BAD strategy if the Dems continue to investigate. Win the election on the merits and policy and he is gone!
2
@Just 4 Play win the election on merits and policy and good nature and faith and morals and honesty and Trump is NEVER elected in the first place. The real problem: a criminal president. I hope to god that if you ever encounter billowing smoke rolling into your eyes while you're at home, you'll have the sense to believe there's a fire somewhere and escape for your life. Trump has more smoke around him than the Marlboro Man.
It has been asserted that 50% of Americans think the Mueller report was a witch hunt, according to a USA Today and Suffolk University Poll. I would suggest that this poll is quite skewed and is not representative of the American people. The proportions of Republicans (34%), Democrats (36.7%) and Independents (23.3%) is not representative of American polls showing 25% Republican, 33% democrat and 42% independent. 69% were white when the country is 60%....
1
If there are legitimate reasons not to publish part of the Mueller report, the unpublished sections should still be made available to some Congressional committee to ascertain whether the claimed reasons are indeed legitimate.
As is the case with DTs end-run around congress to build his border wall, pro-Trumpists should be careful what precedents they set for future administrations by embracing a monarchical view of the presidency. If the conclusion of this constitutional crisis is that presidents have TOTAL control over the executive branch, regardless of their corrupt intent, that sure weakens the hand of any party trying to reign in a future lawless president. A legal conclusion of that magnitude, heretofore (wisely) untested, would significantly alter our system of government.
1
The Justice Department has something like a 95 percent conviction rate. This is because it normally brings cases that are supported by overwhelming direct evidence—not smoke, even a lot of smoke. The bar for bringing a case against the President or his family is probably even higher. Mueller, a cautious, by-the-book prosecutor is a product of this culture. So it is not shocking that he has not recommended indicting the Trumps for “collusion” given that the evidence is largely circumstantial.
1
The public has a right to see the Mueller Report in toto. In case Attorney General Barr chooses not to release the entire report to the public, I sincerely hope Mr. Mueller sent copies of the report to the NY Times, the Washington Post, and other honest news sources. This will ensure a cover-up does not take place.
1
It is looking more apparent than ever that Mueller did not find anything pointing directly to Trump. Disappointed but there it is.
2
It's not too late!
"House and Senate committee members Adam Schiff and Mark Warner ,,, ASSURED us ... that evidence of [collusion] was in plain sight. Never mind that neither ... provided any."
Mueller's "no new charges" recommendation does not bind either branch of Congress. The House, for example, could reach the opposite conclusion in its still-pending investigation, and impeach Trump based on that contrary conclusion. Until now at least, Mueller has been called honorable, and so his "no new charges" recommendation will count for a great deal with most Americans, but it's not binding on Adam Schiff or Mark Warner.
1
Russiagate peddlers: Hunter Thompson was equally tethered to observable reality, but infinitely more entertaining. In twenty years everyone will agree that the best journalism from the Russiagate 2016-2019 Great Panic is found in a gonzo journalism book very much resembling a Fear and Loathing installment.
1
The 'radikal' transformation of a divided America, promised by DJT's predecessor...Most concerning is the weaponization of the state apparatus for political ends to target and hobble opponents. This just might lead to another Electoral College landslide for DJT in 2020, to the chagrin of the party screaming for its abolishment.
2
I thought that I'd be thrilled when Muellar finally released his report to Barr. That was it, no more MSNBC, CNN, or FOX talking heads opining about this or that possible outcome. Clearly I was mistaken. The media's business model does not allow for an end to the continuous speculation which occupy hours of "repeat after me. Yes, there was collusion" or "No, there was no collusion".
I yearn for the days when these news enterprises reported the news, when they actually did reporting on the impact of the President's proposed budget or the impact of the change in governance of the EPA's science panels has had and will have on scientific research. Instead, I fear that we are in store for another year of show after show made up from the same pool of experts arguing over the same tired talking points.
2
It is simply not true as many commentators and commenters are stating that there will be no more indictments.
That has nothing to do with the delivery of Mueller's report.
#NADA
1
You think people would be happy there are no more indictments. Would we want to have a president who actually did collude with a foreign power? Isn't it better to know that this didn't happen. Or is our politics so damaged, that we'd rather shoot the country in the foot and have a constitutional crisis for political advantage over the other party?
2
Can we demand to see the report?
After all "WE THE PEOPLE" are the ones who decide who we put to govern us????
If i doesn't happen we can all go out and protest...
It's our right to know.
The day democracy died and the banana republic rose.The middle class withered and the poor began to starve.The rich played their wretched games and fiddled as they laughed as it all burned down.Sounds familiar Rome perished almost the same way !
2
Special Prosecutor finds no grounds for indictments. You would think reasonable Americans believe that is good news. No one wants criminality, you would think. But I’m reading that this is bad news. So either people believe Mueller is incompetent or they root for criminality. And they have no proof of either.
3
I’d noted that Mueller got indictments on 16 Russian nationals.
The correct number is 26, plus three different companies, all for crimes involving election-meddling and/or witness tampering, all with direct links to Putin, which makes it even weirder to see Trumpists trumpetting that Mueller hasn’t found anything on Russians or Putin.
The Trump campaign is maligned as a criminal organization primarily because it hired Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. But Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, George H. Bush and John McCain also hired them.
George Papadopoulos was not a member of the Trump campaign when he made false statements about his lawful but unsuccessful attempts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Roger Stone was not a member of the Trump campaign when he allegedly contacted WikiLeaks and lied about it to Congress.
Michael Cohen was never a member of the Trump campaign. He got a two-month sentence for making an excessive campaign contribution and lying to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, but he testified that Trump did not ask him to lie to Congress.
The FBI determined Michael Flynn did not violate the Logan Act during his transition period conversations with the the Russian ambassador, but Muller charged Flynn with making a misleading statement to FBI agents during an post-inaugural interview, even though the interviewing agents concluded in the report that Flynn had not purposely lied. That is the sole crime the Muller indictments attribute to the Trump administration.
2
Cue all the talking heads on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News. . . The endless banter conjecturing what will be revealed in the Mueller Report, what it means, how it either vindicates Donald Trump or is the torpedo that finally sinks his presidency.
Blah, blah, blah. Well, his presidency has its flaws, but bolstering up the ratings for cable news hasn't been one of them.
All Trump, All the Time. That may be great for his already over-sized ego, but it is giving me an ulcer. Me and about 65% of the American electorate.
96
@Len
I highly recommend turning off the TV. By watching the news rather than reading it, you are giving control to that news outlet to the pace and content of the information you receive. By reading it, you can stop and google something that was written, there are side-bars with related info, you can skip irrelevant fluff, or go back and reread the really important content. We have not watched TV in 10 years, nor do I watch Internet news videos. It is amazingly refreshing.
12
@Scott Werden Good advice!
6
@Len...This may sound like an archaic notion given our current culture, but try READING the news while you still can as newspapers continue their decline.
Cable ‘news’ of every stripe is designed simply to generate advertising revenues, certainly not to inform the public.
5
Just amazed at the speed with which both sides in this controversy have rushed to judgement before one word of the report has been published. “Nuance and process be damned, I was right all along”, they all shout with no evidence whatsoever save the tiny sliver of information that Mueller himself sought no additional indictments. One needs to remember a number of inconvenient facts and factors — little things like investigative referrals, plausible deniability, the difference between culpability that’s criminal vs, that which is a logical, though not legally definite, conclusion. Cool your Jets, America. It’s still a long road ahead. Firing them up too quickly and too often will just burn them out — something those who don’t have our collective interests at heart are fervently hoping for.
72
@John A. Figliozzi
Trump, on national television admitted to firing Comey to end the Russian investigation.
Trump, while standing at a podium, Putin a this side, once again on nation television, boast "We...I beat Hillary Clinton".
Forget Trump's lies about hush money payments to Stormy and the Playboy model, AND you want to talk about
plausible deniability?
3
AMEN TO THAT!
2
Who needs facts buddy. Politicians hate them.
2
The report from Mr. Mueller's investigation needs to be revealed to the American public in its entirety. The conclusions drawn by the Mueller team are a vital part of our national democratic process. And, importantly, we, "The People" need to be aware of the fitness of our leaders, in this case, the president of our nation.
Without knowledge we cannot make informed decisions as to the directions in which this country moves.
Transparency, please.
12
The House is not bound in any way by Mueller's report:
"Perhaps now that indictments and impeachments are off the table ... "
Other investigations are still pending, even though Mueller's is finished. Adam Schiff's House committee, for example, is investigating collusion too, and it might reach an entirely different conclusion, and the House might impeach Trump based on that entirely different conclusion.
In short, though Robert Mueller may be highly respected by most Americans, his conclusions and recommendations don't restrict others, who may reach contrary conclusions and take action based on those contrary conclusions. Whether they will do so, or should, remains to be seen, of course, but they could.
10
I will withhold judgement until seeing the report. If I am excluded from knowing the contents of the report, then I will have to make assumptions as to its findings. Is that the intention of the creation of a Special Counsel?
To not have a clear and fulsome understanding of the findings of this investigation presented to the public serves no one.
I doubt most partisans wouldn't read into what they choose, but justice would be failed. And justice is all I hope for from all of this. If after all of this, to borrow a phrase, long national nightmare, nothing is settled, we will be further divided into unknowing tribes. We have that already, we should hope for better.
20
Finally, the Mueller report has been delivered. I would like to thank Mr. Mueller and his team for their hard work, dedication and their ability to keep a secret.
Last night, I watched the cable news shows, read the papers and scoured Twitter for any piece of new information. After a while, there was nothing new. The reports soon degenerated into speculation, i.e., Since we don't know what's going on, let us tell you what we think is going on.
Today, it appears to be a repeat, holding our breath until the next piece of information is released.
It is sunny in Michigan today, with a clear blue sky. Why not get outside and breathe the fresh air? Let's declare a Mueller-free day or more aptly put "Mueller's free" today.
27
Ok fellow readers please be willing to acknowledge that while you may dislike Trump, by living in an echo chamber, you missed all the signals once again. There was never any prima facia evidence of collusion, he’s not a Russian operative, etc and many of our political teammates and their opinions will look foolish once the campaigns are underway. Pity so many smart people place reason aside and face both disappointments and some embarrassment now that the main event is over. Investigations may carry on but the undecided middle won’t care. Come on everyone, we can do better.
28
@Paul
No collusion?
Read the Stone indictment.
2
And you know all this how, exactly? Because I hadn’t known the Report had been released to the public.
But you know what I happen to know, as everybody does? trump’s lifting the North Korean sanctions his own Treasury delartment imposed the previous day is dangerously nuts, given their continuing to build nukes and missiles, and his behavior around putin is, plain and simple, collusion.
3
We certainly need to do much better in 2020 and be done with this nightmare!
4
It is disappointing that to hear there will be no more indictments, which have been the primary source of information for the public.
How will the public ever learn the answers to all the questions that have arisen during the Mueller investigation?
The report may not reference anything except crimes that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and may leave unanswered basic questions such as whether Trump was not indicted because of DOJ policy or why so many people lied about their activities.
Unless all the questions are address, conspiracy theories will abound, just as they did in the wake of the Warren Commission report.
Let us make sure we let the Congress know that we want them to investigate so we know how our election was manipulated, what can be done to ensure it won't happen again, and if we can have any confidence in the election process.
If in the process of such investigation, evidence is found that Trump committed impeachable offenses, Congress must act. If not, so be it. Trump has many other legal problems to address.
The most critical issue is ensuring that our elections are not manipulated and that we respond to any foreign countries that attack us in this fashion.
Anyone who has sworn an oath to protect the Constitution should want an thorough explanation of events to be made public. Let's hope Congress is capable of discharging its duties.
5
Millions of Americans either don't care or don't want to know what Mueller's report says. They'd rather live in ignorance of any corruption by Trump. Particularly Trump voters, who just don't want to know, or have any reality intrude on their slavish devotion. It's like the Michael Jackson fans that don't want to know and will never bring themselves to admit what really went on in Neverland. It's just too much for them to face.
19
So after nearly two years of investigation and over $25 million spent special investigator Robert Mueller III has declined to recommend indictment of president Trump or other key figures for Russian “collusion”. That after Democrats like House and Senate committee members Adam Schiff and Mark Warner who were part of congressional investigations of the same matters ASSURED us during the entire investigation that evidence of it was in plain sight. Never mind that neither of their committees provided any.
If it was Putin's desire to foment distrust of our election process and sow discord among the electorate he succeeded beyond any rational expectation he had. The great irony is that his success didn’t require any collusion with the Trump campaign but it did need a virulent animus against Trump within the FBI, DOJ, Intelligence community and politicians on both sides of the aisle. It also required a complicit press willing to parrot their baseless accusations, innuendo and out right lies claiming “collusion" day after day for two years.
Despite special investigator Robert Mueller III FINALLY concluding his investigation with absolutely no indictments of Trump or his associates relating to his original mandate, it’s obvious that Democrats and many in the media will continue what can now be accurately termed an inquisition. Doing so will surely further Putin’s desires and so can be accurately termed collusion. At some point it will be even more accurately termed sedition.
22
You do realize that there are dozens of sealed indictments that were already filed that are unopened...
5
@tim k Oh, how much of your critique about expense and proving nothing could apply to Hillary Clinton and Benghazi. I assume you were right smack on the trenches condemning that waste of time by the GOP too, yes?
6
Good grief!!!! ONLY Attorney General William Barr, Rod Rosenstein and Mr. Mueller KNOW the specifics of the report! Until it’s read fully, by the Congress and released to all of us....the media will use the report at clickbait!
Be patient. We do not know the FULL conclusion!
63
Although AG William Barr pledged transparency, he was appointed by Trump, because of his lenient interpretation of presidential executive power. It remains to be seen whether he will shield Trump by withholding parts of Robert Mueller’s report that could be politically damaging, and Trump might assert executive privilege to sweep them under the carpet.
The Russia probe may be over. Even if no criminal charges have been recommended, it’s not the end of Trump’s legal nightmare. If he can’t be indicted while in office, he will be under investigation for the rest of his tenure and in the dock for the rest of his life, given the number of lawsuits filed against him. The House of Representatives will also continue to investigate the administration, and they could ask Mueller to testify or demand that Barr provide relevant materials.
Perhaps Barr will – like Mueller - choose to be on the right side of history. The two have known each other since the 1980s and have been described as good friends. Mueller attended the weddings of two of Barr's daughters, and their wives attend Bible study together.
5
So many cynical comments here from both sides saying that this ensures Trump a second term . I disagree . Democratic presidential candidates so far have been concentrating on domestic policies like climate change, income inequality ( yeah , remember when Trump was running that was his rallying cry until he handed the super rich in our country the biggest tax break in history) , his demolishing of environmental policies and on the international side ; Trump’s desire to take down NATO , his siding with world autocrats . Those issues will resonate with voters so Democratic candidates are wise to stay focused and let Congress mete out the Mueller report while they continue to hit hard on these important issues .
Unfortunately, due to our outmoded Electoral college process , winning the big title becomes a
board game identifying which states are in play , especially the ones heavy on electoral votes, and WINNING THEM
2020 — Go Democrats, GO!
9
Until we know what is in the report, all this coverage is a big nothing-burger.
11
As Trump said, at least occasionally: release the report! All of it, without edits or blackouts!
And, just in case Trump and his AG won't do that, another Trump quote: "WikiLeaks, I hope you're listening!".
But, seriously, nothing but a full release will do.
5
Agree! If Barr doesn’t release the Mueller Report, I bet you it will be leaked!
Trump raises the victory flag claiming no collusion with his complicit GOP and Trump supporters following his lead. The Democrats seek transparency and want to see the full report hoping there is something there to implicate Trump other than empty words. Voters, taxpayers, the American people are demanding to see the full report. The entire world is watching this spectacle of immaturity in our government and having a big laugh at the country’s expense…..especially Russia.
Whatever the report reveals……there are no winners here. The damage to the country’s democracy and unification of the people as one Nation under god has already transpired and may take decades to repair if it’s repaired at all.
The biggest losers from this entire investigation and government debacle we are all witnessing are the American people and the American Democracy.
5
Actually, when the Mueller Report is released and when Congress is briefed and reads it fully. We will see that our Founders created an excellent system of checks and balances!
I believe, that the media and the rest of us, have NO clue about the Report. Let’s be patient and wait. Trump is not an innocent man!
Assuming the Mueller report does completely dismiss any collusion allegations...say goodbye to the last remaining shreds of Congressman Adam Schiff’s credibility.
18
@Bill He's already talking about a subpoena for Mueller...
2
I’d like to see the report before sharing my thoughts on a report I have not seen.
5
Trump covered his tracks well. That’s my takeaway.
4
Imagine… the lengths our politically correct prevaricators will go to hold on to their political power and control; while the latest Democratic wunderkind Ilhan Omar is currently holding secret fundraisings with groups tied to terrorist. Twenty five million, ($25,000,000 USD’s) was spent on a politically correct witch-hunt in search of a Russian boogieman created by ‘deep state’ conspirators.
Imagine… vindictive ploys dividing this Nation while costing the American taxpayer millions upon millions for the sake of politically correct hatred. While AG Barr is reviewing Herr Muellers’ Russian collusion report, vindicating President Trump. I wonder who will investigate the real traitors and boogieman allied with ‘deep state’ conspirators.
Imagine… this entire Russian collusion fiasco was prompted by the lies of politically correct losers, and ‘deep state’ conspirators aided by a former F.B.I. Director, who was dismissed for his petulant mendacities and leaks, who acted on the whims of his politically correct colleagues who concocted false information to obtain the powers of a FISA warrant to abuse the rights of a citizen or citizens of this Nation.
12
Reality Check just a thought but does any one really read into what news really reporting. I mean there are tons real storys never get reported an have huge effect on peopls lives. Lets take taxs which number one concern in my life. Is it fair to tax peoples income allready been taxed? Is it fair to tax people for value of there homes other then what they oringinlly paid for it? Maybe news should be asking people what is right thing to report insted of what they being told to report.Investigation is just smoke screen to destract people from real storys never get reported.
1
My American brothers & sisters,
PLEASE FOCUS ON REAL TRAITOR TO AMERICA, Mr MITCH , he has sold American democracy to highest bidder and that arrangement gave us the Trump, Steve King , Steve Bannon, Kushner and all.
Let's focus on him and put him in Jail
13
The fact that their claim about "Russian interference in the American election" has proved to be as bogus as their former whopper about "weapons of mass destruction in Iraq" will in no way change the hostility of the TIMES toward Russia or their efforts to make their readers fear and hate that country, in order to prepare them for the next big war . . . .
11
They did interfere and continue to do so. Even without an investigation the evidence is out there in the public sphere.
4
Where have you been the past two years? Inside the Fox bubble? There’s no doubt that the Russians interfered in the election. Several Russians were indicted for that interference, thanks to Robert Mueller. The questions that has yet to be answered is how much cooperation did the Russians get from the Trump campaign and did that cooperation violate not only our democratic values, but the law as well.
Neither you nor I nor anyone else here has read Mueller’s report or is in a position to pontificate about what it will reveal. But we know enough about the people with whom the president has surrounded himself, and we know enough about his character, to be very worried about the future of our country.
@Red Allover I hope cooler heads prevail this time around...war with Russia would not be pretty.
The New York Times report thats “a half-dozen former Trump aides were indicted or convicted of crimes, mostly for lying to federal investigators or Congress.” However, it fails to note that only one of the crimes is attributable to the Trump campaign or administration.
When the FBI asked National Security Advisor Michael Flynn if he had told the Russian ambassador during the transition period that Russia should not retaliate against the United States for sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, Flynn answered: “Not really. I don't remember. It wasn't, 'Don't do anything.’" However transcripts of the conversations showed by Flynn asked ““that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. Sanctions in a reciprocal manner.” Although the two agents who interviewed Flynn said in their report that they did not think Flynn purposely lied, the Muller team judged Flynn’s statement misleading.
Since Muller has reportedly recommended no further indictments, Flynn will likely be the only person charged for a crime committed while serving as a member of the Trump campaign or administration. Although the sentencing guidelines call for zero to six months for someone like Flynn, who has no previous offenses, it is expected he will serve no jail time. Trump should pardon him
12
Do you have a link to those transcripts? I've not seen those. You left off other members of the Trump campaign who are in jail.
7
@jeffk
The quotes are from the Muller indictmemt, which cite the transcripts.
Left out that Flynn’s already convicted, too. And Manafort’s taking money to get the RNC platform changed, and the two or three guys convicted over various affairs Russian, and the personal lawyer’s going to jail over campaign stuff, and...and...and.
Doesn’t seem to know about the various State criminal charges and investigations, either, let alone the number of Cabinet guys who’ve left in a cloud of steam. Amazing to see somebudy type with their fingers jammed in their ears and their eyes squeezed shut.
1
I do believe the last two years of nothingness from Democrats will now deliver us another 4 years of Trump. Have they learned nothing?
19
Trump and the Republicans have been in charge for almost all that time
5
(Well, there were those 32 indictments).
5
@Hjb More like "have they no decency" to accept an electoral loss? They're acting like modern day McCarthyists accusing others of being compromised Russian operatives.
1
Now that Trump has been scrutinized by a Special Prosecutor, can we all agree HRC should be submitted to the same? I’m sure her charitable organization, involvement with Fusion GPS, campaign expenses, and interferences by the DOJ with her FBI investigation need the same vigorous investigation Trump got. Appoint a Special Prosecutor and Grand Jury, and prove to all Americans our system of justice is applied equally.
20
@Jay Agree -- the only reason not to is it would just be more devisiveness. But some things really stink from the dem/anti-Trump side of things in 2016 --- including the FBI, the intel community, the Obama admin, and perhaps Obama himself.
But if we are concerned about truth, justice and the American way -- yes -- let's appoint a special counsel to dig into all that on in the campaign so we will never have to question whether an election is on the up and up again.
4
The Republicans already spent more than two years investigating Hillary. Zero findings of illegal activity.
8
@jeffk
Where have you been? Republicans can’t determine illegal activity, or impanel a grand jury. The DOJ told the FBI they were not going to act on a recommendation of indictment. Loretta Lynch directed Comey to refer to the criminal investigation as a “matter”. Comey was testified he was uncomfortable using that phrase. Why? The FBI doesn’t investigate matters, only crimes. The stink of the investigation of Clinton was exposed by Horowitz, and later FOIA documents have revealed the disbelief they were not going to charge Clinton. The DOJ handed out immunity like candy when investigating Clinton, without cooperation, or a single threat of prosecution. Wake up.
It's still not known if there are any remaining sealed indictments. It's still not known if other Federal Districts are going to bring indictments on Trump, his family, or his accomplices. It would leave the state of New York, or any other state a wide-open lane to indict Trump, his family, or his accomplices if it turns out that there will be no additional federal indictments other than those that are publicly known.
Trump, his family, and his accomplices are not out of the woods yet. Stay tuned for further developments.
7
@SB
Other Federal Districts report to, and are controlled by Robert Barr. He will decide if the DOJ wants to prosecute possible campaign finance violations. He will certainly review why John Edwards was not convicted, and act accordingly. Barr is also the only person who can enforce a congressional subpoena.
Edwards was judged by a jury. Personally I think the guy’s a pathetic sleaze, but you DO know that when you have a trial and the jury win’t convict, you’re kind of done, right?
1
Face it. Trump was prejudged as guilty before the investigation was even begun. Now it appears that readers here are so disappointed that no cause for Trump indictment or collusion was found, and will not accept a verdict of anything less than guilty. So predictable. Still cannot bring yourselves to accept the results of the 2016 election. You are harming your chances in 2020 by such intransigence.
20
So far I'm seeing lots of comments defending Trump. You believe he is clean? The Russia issue is just part of the picture. Lots of state level investigations to come.
9
@jeffk
It sounds like an investigation in search of a crime, to me.
1
I was under the impression that there were a number of sealed indictments before the District Court in Washington. When they say no more indictments, does it include those already issued such those? Have all of those indictments been served? Or are we overlooking something that might still be hanging out there?
4
Only the full report disclosure will suffice.
5
@Steve NYET! Positions are too entrenched by years of fake news on the subject...
I would vote for Robert Mueller for president in a heart beat.
9
Unbelievable how lucky the guy is. At 70 yo, never to have a reckoning, never to face a real consequence. Forget the Southern District - it’s going to be another let down, will give him some paper nicks and he’ll get off yet again. Some people have all the luck in the world. I mean, even statistically-how’s it possible to be so lucky for so long?
5
@Laura
My theory is that Mr. Trump is some kind of low level gnostic demiurge - not a hapless Greek god, but some kind of flawed "other" being . . . maybe an extraterrestrial (illegal?) alien. He eats junk food, golfs with carts; but, is in apparent good health. He has five healthy children who are successful in their sphere. He is married to a very striking, attractive, nice woman. He is monetarily rich. He has, well, fame of a sort; and, on top of all of that, he gets to be President of the USA (fawned upon and is the "most powerful person on earth"). He can say whatever he wants and get away with it. Talk about teflon - nothing sticks to him! It's just not normal. But, I just don't think it's "luck." I too have considered that; but, as you say, it's not statistically possible. There must be some other explanation! There has to be? What is it?
1
The report is here. The moment when either Trump gloats or Democrats say We told you so. Then the fighting starts or rather just doesn't stop.
The GOP to this day would drop everything and start a new investigation into Hillary. Despite over 10 investigations where no charges could be brought against HRC, they still scream for her to be 'Lock Her Up'. It is ugly their hatred and vitriol. And they hold it close to their hearts.
Will the Democrats turn into the same bitter and vengeful partisan trolls like the GOP? Or will we accept the results and move on?
Trump will remain in office and his skills will not have improved. He will remain an ignorant, lazy, authoritarian, divisive and cruel POTUS intent on self-enrichment. His administration will remain as one of the most corrupt our country has dealt with in a long time.
The Mueller Report unfortunately is not the end of our corrosive division and partisan warfare. Trump does not want unity, only his base. The Democrats will be the ones who have to set the tone going forward into the 2020 elections. Are we bitter, disappointed and foaming at the mouth? Or do we move forward - we have House investigations - with a message for the future?
Our country can't continue to go on like this. All our efforts need to be towards beating him in 2020. The Mueller report may not be that magic pill we were hoping for.
13
Nothing but the full delivery of every word in that report will suffice to clear the President.
1
This investigation has been undermined by Trump and the Republicans since day one. They will claim 100% vindication no matter what the report says.
2
Trump and his lemmings will of course use this result to pontificate vindication.The question that should be posed to Trump and his sycophants is this: why didn't you simply let the investigation play out instead of constantly whining and disparaging the rule of law and Meuller in particular? That behavior was reprehensible and, to use Trump's favorite adjective, a disgrace.
It boggles the mind that such behavior can garner a 46% approval rate. With such behavior, this country is no longer the great United States of America. Rather, it has devolved to a banana republic. I don't want Trump to be impeached. I would rather he be defeated in 2020. But, the republicans seem to be immersed in a hypnotic trance in their support. The way the electoral college is currently constituted in terms of where his support is still strong, I fear that he will be reelected.
I'm hoping that now that the report has been delivered, the media can focus on the actual detrimental policies that Trump and his administration have implemented and the resulting harm inflicted on all Americans, including his blind supporters. Next question for Trump: where is the beautiful and cheap health care plan?
9
The underlying truth is that the Republicans investigated themselves, not to root out criminal behavior by the President, but to falsely legitimize his position by indicting scapegoats and exonerating the President himself. It was a Republican coup.
9
My husband said as much all along. He was right. I don’t care about Trump’s business dealings, I care about the integrity of our democracy.
Mueller is, perhaps, placing the real problem on the table for us all -- as a nation -- to solve. Kudos to him if that is the case. That said, we must consider this: Trump may actually be a madman who is so angry at the world that he would allow it to fall into chaos.
People of Earth, ignore this possibility at your own peril!
15
As I seek to categorize the last years, I'm left with the realization that we are ruled by a foreign enemy manipulated puppet government destroying our democracy from within.
I view the years long ongoing universe of news gathering and factual presentations by a wide variety of news sources to be a far better representative of the truth, especially if Trump calls them all "Fake News".
In the wake of the insiders Republican investigation, essentially the FOX looking at it's pack and reporting they are good, us chickens are now in danger in our coops.
Let's remember the source of this report. The government investigating itself should be viewed as uncredible.
11
There is a certain paradox regarding the Trump presidency; You have to be crazy to become President here because of the physical and intellectual dangers inherent in the office, and Trump is widely viewed as "crazy", thus making him an appropriate man to be President. Now we just have to get people to ignore him instead of being driven mad like him.
5
Both Comey’s op ed and Rosentein’s comments in the last couple of days were downright frightening and made me think Trump and his family will be once again escaping any accountability. Both implied that they knew, or had a good idea of, what is in the report and they were preparing the public for an exoneration of Trump by Robert Mueller while at the same time trying to distance themselves from any personal fallout and retribution from Trump for their previous comments. God help this country. With no further indictments from Mueller and a cherry picked release of the report to Congress and the public, we will be on our way to a full dictatorship. If he hasn’t already, Trump will be tweeting up a storm this weekend crowing about his innocence and threatening to lock up all of the people who opposed him.
17
No new indictments. Coupled with the pardon power sounds like a "get out of jail free" card. Awful, given so much evidence of obstruction of justice, just more obstruction.
16
Trump has trapped the Democrats into over-emphasizing Mueller's investigation, which was officially called independent but was actually run by Trump's Executive branch. Because the Democrats waited too long to start putting the Mueller report in proper context for the public, the public will be more likely to believe Trump's smears of mandatory congressional oversight, and to support Trump.
7
"Special counsel does not recommend charges"
That means Trump is free and clear on any ''Russia/campaign quid quo pro' accusation.
Why?
Because he couldn't possibly have been the ONLY ONE in the campaign engaging in that kind of conspiracy.
Don Jr? No indictment.
Jared? No indictment.
Jeff Sessions? No indictment.
The only thing left is obstruction of justice.
6
@Luciano
Let's wait until we see the actual document in B/W.
I am willing to believe that there was no significant Russian interference in the 2016 election. That means, of course, that we owe Trump's presidency to the ignorance and/or stupidity of American voters. Understandable considering that the alternative was Hillary Clinton; nevertheless it reflects on the entire country. Let's do better in 2020!
To start with, why not take money out of politics. At least, we should try.
22
@Fran
"I am willing to believe that there was no significant Russian interference in the 2016 election."
What are you talking about? That is not what the report says.
7
@Fran
Just conservative money ala Obama and the IRS? So union kickback to the Democratic Party would be banned? Where would campaign finance come from?
1
@Ace
Small individual donations I guess, and there might be fewer annoying ads on TV and fewer annoying telephone calls. I would like that; how about you?
Let's wait and see how justice works. Mueller has masterly played the game so far. I'm confident that he put the cards on the table for good reason.
7
First, thanks to Mueller for outstanding service. Second, chill people, because this national nightmare just got closer to ending. Third, there is hope for a positive outcome despite this only being the beginning of the next chapter. Fourth, take heart that the first time Barr had to make a choice about transparency, he chose transparency (i.e. to release his letter to the public) and that he has reported Mueller operated unobstructed by the Justice Department. These are very good signs for our Democracy. Either Trump hasn't been trying to obstruct justice (pfft!) or he hasn't been successful despite trying (bingo). Either way we had a very good day yesterday.
So instead of worrying, go on offense. Make Republicans who defend the indefensible pay. Let's start with Rep. Scalise. He could not have known the principle conclusions of the Mueller report when he made his "no collusion" statement. Further, concluding that the absence of additional indictments from the Mueller team means that no further legal action is forthcoming is not logical. There are several means by which more action could be triggered (e.g. sealed indictments). We don't know yet. It will be harder to start holding the President accountable for his lies, but after his riff about "out of the blue" reporting it is easier to start laughing at the Emperor with No Clothes.
8
"the stigma and burden of being under prosecution would damage the president’s ability to lead."
I get the principle, but … in this case, that's pretty funny.
13
No one actually thinks they will release the report, right? Their same old excuse will be "we cannot release it due to national security reasons." Just another government cover up, and I'm sure King Donald will agree.
5
Well, release it already and let the people decide for themselves.
My feeling is that this was a colossal waste of time and resources and they have found little to take the AG.
If that's the case, Mueller himself needs to be prosecuted.
2
@There
No. An investigation is just that - it means you don't know the outcome until you investigate. Mueller clearly had a good faith basis for investigating and, indeed, has ended up successfully prosecuting many. This was clearly not a waste of time and resources regardless of outcome. Again, that's literally what an investigation is.
8
30 indictments and several convictions is nothing?
3
Some rejected results of an election
“Resist”, “not my President”
These views reject democracy, or at least unless they like the candidate. Wacky
Some will reject this and cant accept. Cognitive dissonance won’t let them comfortably accept reality
Obsessive minds and judgmental minds will not let it go
Please, let’s move on. His tweets are absurd but no crisis here except in our minds
It’s time to move on
7
What do you think of Trump lifting sanctions on North Korea out of the blue because he "likes Kim"?
1
If Attorney General Barr is, as he says, “committed to as much transparency as possible,” the American public should see everything in the report short of highly classified information. It seems to me that intelligence officials should make that call, not the chief lawyer for the federal government.
7
The taxpayers have a right see the report after we paid for it not Trump who gleefully announced he doesn’t pay taxes.
10
The main motive for the Mueller investigation was the charge that Trump colluded with Russia to win the election. The Democrats put all their political energy on this issue which was a legitimate suspicion but was also fed by a deeply rooted Russophobia in the political. It is good for American democracy that the Mueller report exposed the corruption and the lies of several members of the Trump team. But in my opinion the real threat to the US did and could not come from Russia but from the homegrown rightwing tendencies in the US, reaching from Cambrige Analytica, fake news in the social media, the Koch brothers, Mercer and Singer to Breitbart news, Steve Bannon and Co. I sincerely hope that the Democrats will recover politically and will address these worrisome forces in the US.
9
I suspect the report will show that Trump tried to collude with the Russians, but they wouldn't let him, because he wasn't trustworthy. He tried to obstruct justice, but he couldn't pull it off because he was too clumsily stupid.
Take a step back and the most remarkable thing about this whole tawdry saga is how utterly incompetent this man is. We knew he wasn't a good man. We knew he wasn't a good businessman. We knew he was neither good father nor good husband.
But he's not even a good criminal.
What a president!
14
Yes, but he’s the luckiest guy in the world. That compensates for being all that other bad stuff.
1
@Laura Yes, there is that. Perhaps white, male, entitled privilege?
Bill Barr wasn't chosen for AG by Trump because of his fair-mindedness. Thus, whatever he chooses to release from Mueller's report will no doubt be edited, in accordance with the terms of his employment. But let's look on the bright side - if Matt Whitaker was still acting AG, we might not see anything at all.
4
The Democrats would do well to resist the temptation to imply that a conspiracy is afoot should the entire Mueller report not be published in its entirety. Both Mueller and the Attorney General, all would agree, have impeccable credentials, and, therefore, to suggest that they are somehow in the pocket of the White House would not sit well with a majority of Americans (including people like myself, a registered Democrat).
As the days pass, there appears to be less and less likelihood that sufficient evidence exists that would warrant Articles of Impeachment. If there are provable financial shenanigans from the days prior to Trump's election, let the Southern District of New York and the AG of New York do complete their investigations. Congress should go back to legislating and drop the pipe dream of impeachment lest the Democrats receive the same backlash the Republicans did during and after the Clinton impeachment.
The worst thing for the Democrats' prospects for 2020 is to look like a bunch of whiners.
8
Unless this report is released to the public without redactions there will continue to be tweets from this President that he did not collude with the Russians. There will continue to be “leaks” real or fake that will make the Mueller report a total waste of time since no one will have any credence in what was actually reported. What was the purpose of the report if not to fully investigate and report to the American taxpayers?
8
The outcome of this report has been known for weeks — ever since Nancy Pelosi started back peddling on impeachment. She knew the report’s general finding and has been trying to distance herself from it because this line of attack against Trump is a dead end. For the Democrats investing heavily in the assertion of collusion only to have no evidence that leads to a recommended charge is a tremendous blow that should not be minimized.
5
@michaelf
I would not crow so loudly in victory yet if I were you. If Trump did things that are not indictable while he is president but will be when he is out of office, keep in mind that 2020 is not far away. You are not looking at Pelosi's position in context. Impeaching Trump would give us a Pence presidency, possibly for 5 more long years. Defeat Trump at the polls, and we're done with him in fewer than 2 years. Much as many of us would love to see Trump behind bars, getting him out of the White House is a higher priority. Both sides can calculate politically, you know.
4
Wrong. She has tamped down impeachment talk since she again became majority leader. Her strategy was that such talk would play into the GOP’s hands.
@DW
No one is crowing victory, you are confusing my analysis with support for Trump. The frenzy regarding this report and then result of no indictment is a significant setback for the democrats no matter how you spin it, to think otherwise is to confuse cogent analysis with what one wishes to be true. The GOP will make a lot of hay from this, do not shoot the messenger (me) or believe the spin of the liberal press, this is a big defeat.
1
Victory!
How absurd this looks in retrospect - “on the cusp of impeachment” and all such silly pablum for two years.
What a waste of time and valuable resources, other than ensuring a 2nd Trump administration.
9
From what I saw, most of the impeachment talk was from people like you trumpeting that it was what the Democrats wanted.
4
Wrong. He hasn’t been cleared of anything yet. Plus, the assets seized from Manafort will pay for this investigation, an investigation that has sent people to jail.
@jeffk, lest we not forget ultra liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, and oh, maybe, just maybe, the same only of more humble means like Adam Schiff and his best buds Rachel and Lawrence. Blinders will do that, which is great only for a horse who can’t plow a straight row otherwise.
The Mueller Report is only the first half. Now we need Trump's tax records. The two will compliment each other and give the complete picture.
1
"....no White House official has seen the report or been briefed on it, according to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.". Ms. Sanders, a purveyor of many falsehoods and barely truthful statements wants us to believe her now?
5
Several pleaded guilty while some are still under indictment. Why would so many people lie and destroy their reputations? Where there's smoke there's fire.
9
Russia; If you have the Muller Report, please release it. You will be rewarded mightily by our democracy.
6
@R padilla The 'salacious and unverified' dossier used as the basis to launch this whole investigation was compliments from Russia, with love!
The absurdity of the DOJ rule that a sitting President cannot be indicted is now in focus. What if Trump committed treason or conspired with Russia or his colleagues to criminally subvert the efficacy 2016 election? Would DOJ countenance a traitor as President?
3
No further indictments???
Is the president’s family exempt from prosecution? From what has been made public, it would seem that Don Jr. has some ‘splainin’ to do...
My guess is that nobody wants to anger the 2-year old in the Oval Office. Indict his son or daughter and he will go test his Constitutional boundaries once again. He would undoubtedly obstruct justice by pardoning them. Who knows what else he might try.
Perhaps they are better tried in NY under state law after all.
5
No new indictments or charges. Nothing burger! President Trump says it like it is.
5
@Resident
So, several of his close associates have already been convicted, but no "new" indictments means this is a nothing burger? He really could shoot someone and his fans wouldn't care.
5
You seem to forget 37 indictments, several which led to guilty pleas or conviction. Factor in the refusal, or inability, of Trump to testify under oath, and we still are forced to live under Individual 1, credibly the most corrupt administrator, artless liar and shameless tax cheat to ever sit in the oval office.
So, as a natural continuation, let's get the tax records out.
1
Why did they keep lying about meeting Russians?
We saw the stable genius admit repeatedly to obstruction of justice.
This stinks to high heaven and the American people know it.
Is Benedict Donald going to rant that it is not a hoax?
6
A curious question...couldn’t the report be requested through a FOIA?
We paid for it. Now we have the right to read it.
2
The Republican government people have investigated themselves. Why wouldn't we trust it?
1
Whew...I am relieved...looks like Trump will not be indicted for Treason or obstruction of justice with the Russian, just complete stupidity and reckless behavior re the safety and security of our country.
As the old saying says there should be a law against that.
4
While the President is often his own worst enemy, a seasoned and respected investigator has found against recommending further prosecution to the responsible public attorney. “Transparency” is a “red herring”. Keeping this alive will achieve two things: re-election of the president and keep Putin’s objective of polarizing us alive beyond his wildest dreams.
5
I await the printed apology from the editors and retraction of two years of hype.
Good luck on that right.
9
Apology? There were over 30 indictments and people are in jail.
1
All the Russia collusion bloviating in the Democrat-run media for the past two years has been shown to be a lie.
The rabid, Trump-hating Inspectors Javert in the Democrat-Media Complex and the SDNY are not deterred! Crimes have been committed! They just know it and will eventually get their man.
They’ll just have to wait until Jan 2025 once The Donald leaves office. In the meantime, Dems can content themselves with the mockery of Alec Baldwin on SNL...
6
The big question is what will the CNN and MSNBC commentators have talk about now that the Mueller investigation is over?
9
Nothing but a uncensored report is acceptable.
1
Mueller and the Democrats spent two years roasting Trump over a slow fire.
I hope Trump spends the next two years presiding over his own version of the Nuremberg Trials.
4
It's Mueller Time at Last !!! Trump and his Whole Family are headed to the Big House, with Pence also Nailed. Nancy will be President in a WEEK !!! WE DID IT !!! Break out the Mueller !!!
1
Get ready: we're about to watch how far down our Republic has fallen as this nest of vipers withholds the true grit of this dedicated war hero's work.
3
The whole conspiracy theory thing was hatched in a Clinton think tank and handed to the FBI.
Wacky that it got rolling at all.
11
Mr. Mueller has set a new standard for the proper conduct of an independent counsel investigation in an age of slippery digital communications and declining personal ethical standards. I look forward to books that explain how he and his team maintained that secrecy as much as I do the eventual leaks of his complete findings by third parties. It's the best example of maintaining confidentiality since Deep Throat, and with far more participants in the know.
9
Except to protect sources that could be in physical danger if they were publicized, I can't understand why the taxpayers who have paid for the Mueller Report won't be allowed to view it in its entirety.
11
Any of us not understanding”, doesn’t mean there are not very good reasons
Let’s all move on
1
@Accordion
In addition to protecting sources, portions of the Muller report could be withheld to protect innocent people who were investigated but absolved. For example, the New York Times would place many on its list of suspects, knowing that millions of Americans would judge them as criminals because they talked with Russians during there 2016 or to or to persons purported to have links or ties to Russia.
2
"Not guilty" is not the same as "innocent."
15
Why the breathless headline? The report will lead to nowhere. Those who want the report public (Republicans mostly) will be stymied again by never-ending delays due to other "ongoing investigations"! What a joke. Meanwhile the real joke - the spectacle of Pompeo messiantic foreign policy - goes under the radar! Maybe better that way.
5
@DanGoo
Also under the radar: biggest number of farm bankruptcies in 10 years and financial government bond market flashing major recession signal. Meantime,
Let’s all speculate what Trump will tweet about the report
1
Just thinking out loud.....so AG Barr, a Republican who was recently apptd AG and who now has a daughter and son in law both attornies working in the White House for this president, and Spec Counsel Mueller, also a Republican and who is good friends (and whose wives are good friends) for 30 years with the AG Barr family, and Rosenstein, also a Republican and appted by this president after this president fired Comey and McCabe also both Republicans - so Barr, Mueller, Rosenstein (all Republicans) are all going to decide what happens with this report and which Democrats and which Congress men and women get to see what content of this report.
They (only Republicans) decide what will be seen and we the public are supposed to believe that this will all be done with complete transparency and fairness even if their fellow Republican president who they know is a big bully and has made it clear what outcome he would like out of this investigation? Have we all been bamboozled here to believe this president and his inner circle will be held accountable for their behavior even if it doesn't rise to the level of prosecutable criminal actions?
19
Oh yes let’s obsess and find more conspiracy theories ?
Or, shall we move on
The Mueller report, no matter what it says, will remain a symbol of what is right and wrong about American democracy today. On the right side is the fact that an "independent" counsel could investigate the matter of Russian interference of our elections and the role that Trump's team may have played to assist them, even in the face of repeated attempts by the president to undermine and delegitimize the investigatory process and the individuals undertaking it. On the wrong side is archaic Justice Department rules -- not approved by the public -- that allows a sitting Attorney General appointed by a President, to make decisions on whether the public or even the representatives of the American people -- the Congress -- get to see the report and its contents. Barr has already made his views clear about the investigation saying publicly he thought it was unfair while not going as far as saying it was a witch hunt, which was the call of the rest of the GOP.
Americans deserve to see the entire report. Failure to release it will further undermine an already skeptical public about how our democracy is run and what role the people possess in such a democracy. If the president has the right to continuously badmouth the Special Counsel, his team, and the investigation, then the American public deserves the opportunity to see if he is right or wrong before they go to the polls again.
17
Trump is hardly out of the woods. The Mueller Investigation will no longer distract from the SDNY findings of the criminal enterprise known as The Trump Organization.
Trump paid a $25M fine for fraud days before the inauguration for Trump University. He and his family AGREED not to serve on the boards of non profits because of the abuses at The Trump Foundation. Then there are the Stormy Daniels payoffs.
Cohen and the Trump CFO will bring down Trump not the charlatans and clowns associated with the campaign.
12
You really think the SDNY is going to carry water for the Democrats? We’ve got a country to run, Time for all this hate and spite to end,
5
No details have been released yet and people are already jumping to conclusions, some breathing a sigh of relief as if „it‘s all over“. The brief was narrow, the report has to focus on that. But the process threw up a network of criminality surrounding Trump. That cannot be regarded as insignificant or „yesterday‘s news“. Mueller may not have indicted Trump or been able to indict Trump (DOJ rule a sitting President cannot be indicted) but that does not mean that there is no incriminating evidence. Or that DT has not broken the law and committed crimes. Remember, the „key witness“ has so far evading (by executive priviledge) interrogation. Mafia-parallels (something DT seems to regard as a compliment) are as relevant today as they were yesterday, in terms of both how it operates (through a smoke screen of other people, keeping the boss „clean“) and the length of time it finally takes to nail the boss. That the Mueller report must be made public, in full, is a no brainer. But work began a long time ago to make sure it doesn‘t. Either way many of the crucial questions that emerged in the process of Mueller‘s investigation remain, the key perpetrator not (yet) made answerable and brought to trial.
13
The United States has been meddling in the politics of other countries for decades. Now it has had a taste of its own medicine, but this will change nothing. Imperialism continues. Russia wants to have its own imperialism. If Russians ever take over in America, I hope that they will repeal the Second Amendment and provide universal health care.
8
And many of us wish the Canadians would stop meddling in our business, sell their condos in miami and go home......
3
@Robert Dole
good grief. how about wishing the democratic leadership takes control of the US government and the people vote for universal health care and strict gun laws banning military assault weapons in the US.
3
The focus of the investigation was Russian interference in the US election. However, I'm not convinced that the US doesn't try to interfere in other countries' elections. I recall reading/hearing that during various military conflicts, the US military often dropped propaganda pamphlets over countries where we were trying to influence one candidate over another. Do as I say...not as I do.
2
“To maintain that a sitting president cannot be indicted, and then to withhold evidence of wrongdoing from Congress because the president cannot be charged, is to convert D.O.J. policy into the means for a cover-up,” Jerrold Nadler said.
Even worse, the original sin was that this man became the president thanks to "wrongdoing" by him, his campaign, and a foreign nation.
Whether or not Russia's crimes were significant enough to determine the outcome of the election is irrelevant if the "cooperation" given to Russia by Americans who supported Trump is sufficient to demand that the "legal opinion" that a sitting president cannot be indicted must be ignored in the case of THIS sitting president.
Moreover, the reasoning for this legal opinion is invalid here - namely, "the stigma and burden of being under prosecution would damage the president’s ability to lead."
How ludicrous!
What hasn't damaged this man's "ability to lead" - does he have the "ability to lead?"
15
@Mimi
and that answer is a resounding NO! this president is not someone that should be leading this country because he doesn't believe in the constitution and the justice system and the 3 branches of our government.
7
Mr. Barr has said that he is "committed to as much transparency as possible."
He alone determines how much is possible.
I am skeptical of any DOJ official's report on what the report says.
9
There's another investigation going on. That one of the behavior of the Obama Administration during the last election. Scant coverage but even more important to Americans. Entrenched bureaucrats seeking to thwart the will of voters should be getting everyone's attention.
12
@AACNY
Investigations on Fox News don't count as real investigations. Neither are vague assertions of wrong doing by partisans, and what amounts to second guessing of decisions made by the Obama administration, especially when those decisions are completely defensible. The criticism is that the administration should have done more in real time when faced with evidence of Russian interference. The response is that Obama didn't want to appear to have put his thumb on the scale of a presidential election. Disagree if you like, but in terms of criminality, it hardly amounts to what the Trump team has been accused of doing in 2016.
2
Lincoln once said of his supporters, when they were in for a fight,they were in for a funeral. The Democrats wasted two years waiting for this thing, and now they hope a Trump appointment will be fair with them. Impeachment is off the table, that worked out just great.
6
@Ken calvey
A Republican assistant AG launched the special counsel's investigation. The special counsel himself is a Republican. Congressional Republicans declared at various points that Mueller's investigation should be allowed to proceed. So it's not just Democrats who "waited for this thing." And it's not partisan to expect the AG to follow through on what he said he'd do: be transparent. Fairness has nothing to do with it.
1
The second shoe to drop. No one has finished talking to the Deutsche Bank to see who owns the loans that trump has taken out to buy his NY properties.
8
I wonder how much Devin Nunes' midnight run to the White House and Whitaker's refusal to answer questions regarding whether or not he spoke to Trump about the investigation played a part in the outcome.
Maybe it was doomed from the start considering the administrations built in aversion to documentation and email tracks...no paper trail left to find.
9
If there is no Trump / Russia collusion and never was, how could the alt-left media including CNN and the NYTs report it on their front page for two years? The Trump / Russia investigation was created using the Fake Steele Russian dossier that was paid for by HRC that is why the inquiry was a hoax.
13
Get ready for truckloads of sour grapes delivered hourly by the main stream media who tried as hard as the could and came up empty handed once again. Oh, the humanity!
17
@Bob Would those sour grapes be of the same vine that was used against Obama and Hilary Clinton over the years by the noise makers at Fox "News"?
Not an Obama or Clinton apologist, just addressing the hypocrisy.
4
@Bob
If you think the mainstream media is bad, then I would recommend a stint in latin-america or asia, or the middle-east. There is no place that is 100% perfect, 100% neutral... but boy oh boy, should we be grateful for our main stream journalists that, via the wonderful American constitution hold power to account. CNN is a world respected brand, as is the NYT. This literally has what has made America great throughout our history. It's like vaccinations... people don't appreciate it until they have had polio, and then life-long disability. We owe a lot to professional main-stream journalism for all its imperfections.
4
@ees That's a very interesting statement. Let's look at the facts. For 8 years the media remained silent while the Obama administration engaged in many abuses. In fact, it was during his term the media in this country was tagged as the state run media. You could make a good case that the hands off treatment received by Obama and the corrupt members of his administration led right to the 2016 election and Trump.
1
When is the mea culpa by the liberal agenda-driven “journalists”, that were so sure and obsessed for years?
12
@Joe Yoh It shall be forthcoming from the conservative agenda-driven "journalists" that were obsessed with a birth certificate for years.
"The truth ..... We can handle the truth!!!"
2
What happened to all the Democrats who screamed bloody murder because Comey did exactly what they are now demanding that Barr do?
7
@Cold Eyei
Timing. It's about the timing.
1
Feel sympathy for the NYT editorial board; they wanted Trump s head on a golden platter and instead they got this. What a let down .
11
Things America knew before Mueller's report was published questioned Trump's character via indictable and/or impeachable offenses:
a) While running for President, Trump was negotiating a "business" deal with the head of a foreign nation (Russia) who'd get an apartment in Trump Tower Moscow as a kickback.
b) Russia gave lots help to Trump during the election (e.g. - Manafort, Trump Jr. and Jared meeting with Russians in Trump Tower for "dirt" on Hillary, the Russian troll factory's social media campaign, Russians laundering money through the NRA, etc.)
c) Trump repeatedly tried to blocked the investigation (obstruction of justice) by firing FBI Director Comey (admitting on TV it was over the Russia investigation) and demanding AG Sessions act as his personal lawyer shielding him from the investigation (plus inserted "Acting" AG Whitaker for nefarious reasons before nominating Barr), then Trump denied any collusion, then claimed collusion isn't a crime. Trump still hasn't acted to protect the American election process from foreign influence and hacking.
d) Since being elected Trump has had numerous off the record conversations with Putin.
Trump is innocent just like he's a tremendous businessperson but has countless bankruptcies and has settled numerous lawsuits via money payouts PLUS can't get loans or financial credit from banks in the Western Hemisphere. His record as a business person proves he is a cheat, a con artist and a liar which also describes his presidency.
18
If Nixon was President now, he’d have nothing too fear.
11
@Greg
Nixon was a great President.
1
Many rushed to judgment two years ago
Many doing it again today
Many disappointed or shocked
Cognitive dissonance won’t let them accept. They will have to explain and spin conspiracy theories to cope.
Obsessive minds will stick like flies on flypaper to one thing
Let’s move on
9
@Joe Yoh
NOPE.
I also like the part where Trump and trumpists are cheering for what they think is evidence—based on precisely the same single, anonymous source that they’ve spent years howling against—that they and their Maximum Jefe have achieved precisely fhe same declaration of orosecution as their fantasy of Hillary Clinton.
Heckuva job, brownies.
2
Will Mueller go from being the goodest of the "good guys" to the baddest of the "bad guys?"
"When I was in law school and and I pointed out the obvious conclusion that Mueller was a stooge, I was roundly reprimanded by the 'professors,' saying that Mueller was a great guy. Well, now, we have the answer...Stooge."
It could happen. Remember, Jim Comey, now the goodest of the "good guys," used to be the baddest of the "bad guys." Indeed, Comey almost single-handedly lost the election for Hillary Clinton!
Could this happen to Robert Mueller, in reverse?
Could he go from being a really, really "good guy" to a really, really "bad guy?" According to this commenter, he's ALREADY a "stooge." Indeed, he's been a stooge all along, even if the "professors" somehow didn't notice this.
1
So I guess they never got to the bottom of that computer server in Trump Tower whose sole purpose was communicating with a Putin-linked bank in Moscow.
6
"I won. You lost. Get used to the idea son."
Perhaps now that indictments and impeachments are off the table we can be spared the spectacle of sanctimonious know-nothings like Adam Schiff, Malcolm Nance, Zerlina Mawell and others pontificating endlessly about Trump's crimes.
You want to beat Trump? Get a smart candidate for 2020 who knows enough not to write off the Upper Midwest.
9
@Lilo
except the election is already rigged in favor of this president. he's done nothing to increase the sanctity of our elections because he is happy Russia helped him win by cheating and wants them to do it again. and nothing is preventing that.
6
“Not since Watergate has a special prosecutor’s inquiry so mesmerized the American public.” Hmmm.
2
@Christopher Gerety
Ha, ha. Good one. Outside of Times word is was always obvious this was a hyped of diversion.
1
This is pretty funny. Dems and anti-Trumpers, those who have hospitalized with TDS, have been waiting for two years for the tool they needed to get Trump out of the WH and were certain Mueller would give them that tool. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks. It is Donald the beast and Mueller provideth no gun -- smoking or otherwise.
I have to laugh laugh laugh. Should we put half the country on suicide watch? Should Adam Schiff resign in disgrace? Should Maxine Waters apologize for lack of civility. Should mainstream media talking heads roll?
You can count on it folks. No collusion. I've said that for two years as it simply made no sense.
But of course now the true believers, those with skin in the anti Trump, game will demand to read the entire thing (who can politicians?), have every document delivered to their home, Mueller's teams garbage cans emptied on their lawns so the citizens can finally save themselves. Certainly, there must be something in there that can be used against Trump. To oust him and his criminal regime. Isn't there?????
17
Yeah, there’s nothing funnier than a president who has the support of neo-Nazis, the Klan and other violent white power mobs, and who has already presided over a pogrom in a synagogue and other right wing atrocities threatening violence against anyone who doesn’t support him like he’s done repeatedly over the last few weeks.
We can’t forget that for his supporters, this is a feature—not a bug. When they laugh at all this, just remember they are showing you who they are. They like seeing their fellow Americans threatened and victimized. If Trump ever calls for rounding people up, these people will volunteer to help.
2
From the website: ... "The New York Times revealed the Trump team’s connections with the Russians ... The articles, which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, triggered the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
One of the authors of today's front-page article "Mueller Delivers Report ..." was part of the team which produced those 2018 articles which the NYT claims triggered the 2-year investigation.
Which has produced nil.
Nice work if you can get it.
7
@Geneva Ayte. Sort of puts the Pulitzer Prize in perspective. About on par with my toddlers Nursery School trophy for participation in sports.
6
Whatever the report says, a real victory for Trump was made in spite of Trump, when his attorney John M. Dowd kept Trump from testifying. I say this with great regret as a former prosecutor and current defense attorney.
It was Dowd who defied Mueller's subpoena for Trump to testify which Trump wanted to comply with because he actually thought there'd be no consequences for perjury. As detailed in Bob Woodward's book "Fear: Trump in the White House" Dowd told Trump not to testify in the special counsel investigation, saying "it's either that or an orange jumpsuit." When Trump wouldn't listen, Dowd resigned as Trump's attorney out of frustration, but accomplished what he set out to do. Trump finally got the message and never testified.
The whole thing is disgusting. I could say defense attorneys often put "the system on trial" and claim corruption in that system. However, Dowd claimed that the investigation was a "witch hunt" and "one of the greatest frauds this country's ever seen" while unlawfully defying Mueller's subpoena. Dowd correctly calculated that Mueller would relent. It's exactly what happened. Instead, Trump's subsequent attorneys submitted answers they carefully composed based upon evidence known to exist against Trump.
It is notable that Dowd never actually disputed that Trump would have perjured himself. Instead Dowd has publicly argued Trump would have perjured himself not because he's the serial liar everyone knows him to be, but because he's a dimwit.
9
Release the report, now!
2
2 plus years of Anderson cooper, Don Lemon...etc...etc and multiple guests speculating that Trump will fire Mueller...oh oh constitutional crises....He is going to fire Mueller. What a waste of time, hours and hours every day for 2 years when we could have been talking about homelessness, education..whatever. But no, complete utter obsession. We coul dhave had so many intelligent discussions about so many topics and we would still be at the same place. Not good.
13
@DJ
Unfortunately,"intelligent discussions" and Donald Trump are two things that could never be linked together.
2
@DJ In my opinion, the whole Russian collusion thing was dreamed up precisely so the corporate Democrats could avoid advocating the social reforms needed to deal with education, homelessness, etc., that the rank and file Democrats demand but their super wealthy funders completely oppose.
6
Senator Check Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned about giving the White House a sneak preview of the Mueller report. Trump’s Lawyer Rudy Giuliani is to stay in Washington over the weekend in anticipation of the release of the Report by Attorney General William Barr.
All of this have a very bad odor. Where is Devin
Nunez Who is known for his delivery of classified documents in the wee hours of the night?
5
Correction: I meant Chuck Schumer.
Russia, if you are listening, please release the missing Mueller Report. Our press will reward you greatly.
10
I don’t know how Trump could do it. He led the country through all this. He conducted his foreign policy, met with leaders throughout the world, developed his domestic policy, led the free world, found time to go back to his base, kept his promises but all he got from the Democrats and the media were lies and hate. Yet nothing distracted him or kept him from his purpose. He did his job. His enemies owe him an apology. They are traitors themselves calling the President a traitor with no evidence at all. Schiff, Slalwell, Strzok, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and all the way up the hierarchy, the whole rotten bunch exposed for what they are. Yet they keep on. There’s only one thing that will stop them—time in the slammer long overdue.
12
@Edward. Or perhaps charging them all with sedition. And then the jail time.
2
Right on cue, Trump’s followers are calling for roundups of journalists, political opponents and, let’s face it, anyone whom they disagree with. Echoes of Germany in the 1930s. We’ve already had a pogrom, and they want more. Clearly.
2
I dont want to know Barr's Opinion, but see the Full Report.
Barr's first statement is nothing but a loyal Partisan Comment in favour of the President.
We want to know all.
6
Thanks for your service, Mr Mueller.
3
So bottom line, Trump is just a dupe and pawn in all these shenanigans of the oligarchy in Russia and enablers in the USA. He's too stupid to even be involved.
5
The AG hasn’t even read the report and we have the Fox News devotees celebrating and a NYT headline because someone at the DOJ said Mueller doesn’t recommend more indictments.
Until the report is public, this is not a verifiable claim.
6
"A senior Justice Department official said that Mr. Mueller would not recommend new indictments"
But MSNBC told me that Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Don Jr, etc, etc, etc were all tied up in this Russia conspiracy and indictments were a virtual lock.
9
This is how elite white crime whitewashing works. All white male lawyers from elitist institutions hired by their all white male classmates turned politicians decide that white elitist crime will be judged differently under “Justice” Dept. “guidelines that don’t apply to not rich white people crime. Pure genius.
2
I wonder how many Trumpists understand what the word “further,” means, can think about the way that after years of screaming about anonymous sources they’re relying on aan anonymous source, or care about this country so much as one little bit.
Twenty? Thirty, nationwide, tops?
1
Two years and vast amounts of taxpayers money with the'straight arrow' Mueller for a great big nothing burger.
5
Well, I guess we're getting what Trump has maintained all along - Mueller has just punted thus affirming the whole 2016 election 'scandal' is a big nothing-burger!
7
@Common Sense. We all knew it was an attempted coup by certain individuals including the main stream media who participated in the fraud. This has been a treasonous attempt to change the outcome of an election by lies, fraud and fabrications.
13
So it seems history will show a tremendous coordinated operation by the Russians to annex Crimea and neutralize the response of declining superpower U.S. by a variety of digital attack, election interference, and collusion with the staff of the Donald J. Trump.
1
@Marko What are we going to do about the annexation of Crimea? Go to war? You, first.
1
@Marko NO, history will show this was a coup attempt by those unhappy with an election and an attempt to remove an elected president by lies, fraud and innuendo. 16 Democrats on Mueller's team came up with nothing because it was a fraud from day 1. The NYT owes a complete apology to the President for supporting the coup attempt. BTW, you just lost the 2020 election..
1
Whatever this particular report turns out to say, let's not for a moment forget the plain and well documented fact that Mr. Trump is at best an utter incompetent and likely a deliberate trampler on our democratic institutions. And that he's so extraordinarily and consistently vile in his attitudes, utterances and behavior as to represent a great country's self-immolation. And that his presidency, like his career, is an abomination - not as a theoretical point, but in practice. And that he is a professional, perpetual liar in service of his own interests above anything and anyone else. Have I left anything out?
7
No more indictment ? It is shocking . Not even Don Jr ? Jared Kushner ? Carter Page ? Julian Assange ? I am disappointed. fOX TV and tight wing talk radio started celebereting . Anyway I trust Mueller and am thankful that he completed. AG Barr will edit it and will make it more acceptable to his boss Trump. That is the problem.
1
I find it quite astounding to read so many comments prematurely telling the rest of us the contents of this report. Can we maybe just wait until it is released? All the sound and fury reminds me of the teacher administering a Rorschach test to a teenage boy, then admonishing him for having such a dirty mind. "Why do you say I have a dirty mind? You're the one showing me all the dirty pictures."
6
time, for Abe L. Government of the people, by the people, for the people. or only some of them?
It's pretty clear that there's not much new here. Watch for NYT, WaPo, and others to try to distract attention from this. And watch for Trump to be reelected.
5
The meaning of Mueller's action seems pretty clear, tho the news media are upset.
Mueller has declined to intervene in the 2020 election.
3
Let’s see.
• No further indictments as Mueller completes his investigation and submits his report. This after getting guilty pleas, cooperations, and convictions of criminals in Trump’s immediate orbit.
• As of August 2018, ABC News reports that there are at least 50 sealed indictments that Mueller has filed to the courts in relation to Russian interference (with a separate sealed indictment being prepped against Assange).
So of course, MAGA logic dictates that Trump is exonerated without:
1–reading a single word of the Mueller report.
2–reading a single word of the sealed indictments.
In the words of Private Bone Spurs, himself the reigning world champion of illiteracy:
TOTAL WITCH HUNT!
2
@Opinioned! $100 says that ABC News, that paradigm of journalism, is wrong and there aren’t 50+ sealed indictments.
1
@Opinioned! Not one indictment of an American for any crime remotely related to Russia. NOT ONE!!!!!!
We now will move on
The fake news cycles hopefully subside. The whole thing began with reports generated by Clinton. How absurd.
The waste of time. The waste of energy
The waste of obsessed journalists resources. And of your time
Let’s move on
Some want another witch hunt.
Some were smug before
Self righteousness is a terrible thing to waste while we rush to judgment
Let’s move on.
7
Trump is above the law. Look for more of this in the future.
For those of you too young to remember ...
A commenter refers to himself as the "Nattering Nabob." This is a reference to Nixon's first VP, Spiro Agnew, who, in addition to accepting brown paper bags filled with unmarked bills in his Vice President's office (his most memorable act), was briefly but well known for his alliterative criticisms of opponents. His most famous remark referred to Democrats as "nattering nabobs of negativism." Hence the name of this commenter.
Some of us remember Spiro.
The United States is no different from Venezuela where a dictator (Trump) and his minions (Justice Department) hold sway. The long-suffering American public deserves to know what is in Mueller's report, and demand that it be released. Otherwise "democracy" continues to be a laughing stock.
So a life-long Republican investigator found no reason to indict a Republican president? What a huge surprise!
3
The report is irrelevant.
Any sitting president who would look the other way when families are being separated at the boarder in the way it is done under this administration is not in need of a report. That needed thing was never there in the first place.
1
Trump will be re-elected. His administration will spin this investigation as a failed liberal attempt to overthrow him and his support among voters and in Congress will swell. It will be like the aftermath of an assasination attempt; Trump will enjoy broad sympathy and unflailing support. This outcome will give members of Congress who were ready to throw Trump under the bus pending a damning report enough cover to defend a man who they know is unfit for office. Trump will continue to be their blunt and ugly instrument who slowly but surely accomplishes the GOP agenda while simultaneously tearing our nation and its reputation apart. The tragedy here is that the media relentlessly hyped Mueller as the savior who would provide the magic wand to end this nightmare once and for all, and anything less than this outcome would be underwhelming and a failure. The dichotomous and wrongheaded prognostications of high treason or nothing will be the ruin of any attempt to vote Trump out of office.
6
Unless new charges are laid or recommended, the Reps will see this as a VICTORY and the current WH occupant will keep beating the ‘WITCH-HUNT’ drum anytime the Dems start up any new investigation in Congress. And the same goes for investigations by NY or FL attorneys general that potentially unearth any ‘juicy’ evidence rendering the Rep. leader guilty of racketeering and obstruction of justice in separate non-federal jurisdictions.
This is ALL in spite of the fact that half a dozen of his aides and his lawyer have already fessed up to a litany of crimes which resulted in them being offered plea deals, not to mention the role played by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to undermine the sanctity of the electoral process, much to the satisfaction of America’s Cold War arch rival: Russia.
And any such statutes preventing a sitting Pres. from being indicted NEED to be thrown out the window, given the DIRE STRAITS the country is in. Otherwise, the next time around there won’t be a country left to govern nor its prized Democratic institutions or the other two branches of the US government (Legislative or Judicial) for that matter.
If there are ANY patriots left on the Rep. side, time to ACT is now for the GOOD of the country (assuming that still matters to anyone sporting the MAGA hats these days)
1
The fact that most Democrats believe the accused committed crimes of which they were not even charged says it all.
That is the very definition of a witch hunt.
9
I love how people are claiming they are going to leave the USA and immigrate back to where they came from if Mueller's report clears Trump.
Bye bye then the airports are not far away. We wish you a happy life from whence you came.
4
@Mr Chang Shih An. But we all know not one of them will leave. Virtue signaling at its finest. I despise them.
3
I’m confused; If Mueller is a liar and a hack as Republicans claim, then how can this report be believed?
1
No more cover ups please. The American taxpayer has paid for this report and is entitled to read it in it's original form and content. Mr. Barr should have recused himself from being involved with the report.
I was never heavily invested in this or expecting much from it because I believe in defeating an opponent on policies. Or lack thereof and in those areas Trump is an easy target and failure.
However, I do have a question for Trump supporters that feel vindicated: Mueller exposed and revealed how those closest to President Trump defrauded banks, cheated on their taxes and, time and time again, lied to deflect attention into their ties with Russia.
So the question then becomes, If you’re Ok with the way he talks about women, other non-white cultures, buffoonish behavior and hangs out with criminals, etc. what does that say about you?
Like my father used to say, “Be careful son. You’ll be judged by the company you keep.”
2
What the Mueller report will show is how sleazy, low, and corrupt Washington DC is, and how everything has a price. Time to start over tic tick
1
@CathyK. Mueller's team was made up of no fewer than 16 DEMOCRATS , with not a single Republican.
3
When do we taxpayers get our money back? You know, if the bureaucrats in Washington were actually personally responsible for their expenditures we would see a lot less travesty's like this "investigation".
Now the Democrats, still sore losers, are going to "investigate" further? Amazing. Irresponsible and amazing. And appalling that the people that they represent will put up with it.
6
In the immediate aftermath of Mueller's report the shallowest thinkers among the repubs are already declaring victory; enjoy it while you can ... As I've heard on most newscasts, this is 'the end of the beginning'. Mueller has been careful not to make unsubstantiated claims, but has set up the next step. There are indictments which have not generated trials, (yet). Two have major potential; Stone & Gates. Stone will shuck and jive because he's entitled, but eventually cop a plea. Gates has had his trial postponed and appears to be sharing loads of info. Manafort? Flynn? And those 81 letters to 81 people will generate at least a few important issues. The truth will out.
Pelosi is right; impeachment is a waste of time, and the senate is not likely to vote to impeach. Let Trump run his mouth while the republicans lose their last shred of dignity. One may emerge to challenge Trump and seduce him into more stupid & disgusting talk / behavior. Trump's shouted lies at rallies echo like desperate cries but they keep the repubs in line. He needs to be re elected to avoid prosecution.
The dems need to find the perfect candidate and float a truly progressive but practical agenda. They need to be ready to fight voter suppression in all it's forms; obviously in states with a republicans governor & attorney general, who control all aspects of voting.
Meanwhile ....
What is the point of writing a report if you’re not going to make it public?
1
Trump and his minions are already claiming victory, which only goes to show just how far Trumpism has polluted and degraded presidential accountability. If even a fraction of what has already been disclosed about Trump's rotten campaign core of traitors and crooks were attributed to Obama or Clinton Reichwingers would be demanding their heads, but the bar has been so drastically lowered that Trump will skate with the ridiculous assertion that he was completely ignorant and clueless about all the criminal, immoral shenanigans around him. Then again, that's been Trump's M.O. throughout his whole sorry life -- plausible deniability. But we should NOT be sucked into such a flimsy excuse of innocence and let him off the hook. Make sure this clown doesn't get reelected in 2020. THAT power is still in our hands, people.
3
The truth is worth it says the Times, justifiably. So the truth is that to counter the absolute disaster that Trump is, the totally corrupt incompetent president, the Clinton Dems found nothing better than play the collusion game therefore accusing a vile individual of probably the only crime he did not commit (Alan Nairn said as much weeks ago). No collusion but hundreds of other crimes. Dems and the media who played along this collusion story did not fight for the truth or democracy but cooperated in its erosion by fake news. Aaron Maté was one of the lone sane voices in this matter (after Robert Parry died). I hope the full unedited report is published and that now all the other crimes and misdemeanors of this terrible president can be prosecuted.
The Times should come up with a mea culpa, the way it did after its Iraq WMD dereliction of duty. Its reporting on Trump's tax returns is the way to go.
1
Security was reinforced at Mar a Lago tonight. Are troops out there to protect Trump from protesters of a benign Mueller report? But how would security be used in the event of a scathing but veiled report, or in the event of a 2020 Dem victory? Trump has said his forces will not allow him to be displaced.
On another thought, I wonder if the Democratic leadership regrets their mantra of "wait for Mueller." Did leadership not know that Mueller was not appointed to do the work of Congress in checking Executive power?
1
This commenter is more hopeful than I am:
"Hopefully this can stop the histrionics on both sides ... "
I doubt that. One hopes that the Democrats will re-focus on next year's election, where they should have been focusing all along.
And who knows? Maybe Adam Schiff's House committee, or the prosecutor's office in the Southern Distribt of New York, will come up with incontrovertible evidence that Mueller missed. If that happens, Trump could be impeached even before the 2020 election. If i were the Democrats, though, I'd focus on the election. If Mueller didn't find any "smoking gun," most Americans will be skeptical if, say, Rep. Adam Schiff claims he's found one. If he does, it's likely to be late nest year before a vote on Trump's impeachment will come up. At that point, it might be simpler just to vote him out of office.
Nixon and Clinton were impeached (strictly speaking, Nixon resigned, but his impeachment was inevitable), but both of them had several years left on their term at the time. Had either been closer to the end of his term, voters could have just tossed his party out of office at the next election rather than go through the messy impeachment process. Voters did, of course, punish Nixon's and Clinton's parties in the next election, but Congress also impeached them.
The Mueller report may make that very difficult this time, perhaps impossible. But nothing can prevent voters from tossing Trump out of office, and that should be the focus of his opponents.
Clinton’s party was not exactly thrown out by the voters and Dems will lose another Bush v. Gore if it comes down to it again.
Don't forget that Mueller used Sealed Indictments before. If there are any they could still be served. It's a smart way to go.
1
The Democrats got their pound of flesh over this 24 month saga. It's time to move on. If their smart about it they'll let it go. Pushing the issue will not yield the benefit they seek only further vindication for Trump, and the possible Spector of a Democratic led witch hunt that would tarnish their chances in 2020. There comes a point in an argument when you take your points off the table and stop. I doubt Democrats know how to do that.
5
If present, collusion is important, but it is equally important is to know details of the extent of Russian interference and a reasonable assessment of whether Trump would have been elected without such interference. I would say probably not, but the American people need to know this, and the Mueller report is not designed to answer that. US intelligence agencies could do so, but if the news is bad for Trump, he will call them fake news, and many will actually believe him. The country is in bad shape when we cannot accept reality, whatever it is.
2
I am hoping this report will help bring this long national nightmare to a close. I hope the Congress continues to investigate trump and bring to light just how bad a choice he is. I hope trump is finally trumped by justice.
1
There's no sugar-coating this: it's a setback for Trump's opponents. But maybe it's a blessing in disguise for them, since it may cause them to focus on what they should have been focusing on all along: the 2020 election.
If Mueller hasn't come up with any "high crimes or misdemeanors," that doesn't prevent Americans from voting Trump and Pence out of office next year. A voter doesn't have to find evidence of a crime, or explain his vote at all. Voters can toss Trump and Pence out of office for any reason or no reason at all.
1
Mueller has already done his part and provided the evidence. If Congress were inclined to impeach, Cohen’s testimony had provided plenty of evidence of criminal conduct. For that matter, Trump’s own bizarre public rants provided plenty of evidence, too. But so long as Republicans control the Senate, there won’t be impeachment.
So anybody that wants to see Trump gone, there’s nobody to do anything about it except us. 2020 is going to be the same as 2018. Donate to Democrats if you can, volunteer if you can...but above all, vote. No supercop is going to swoop in and save this country. It’s just us.
Not releasing the full report to the American people will be a serious setback for our democracy. Lets not forget that the reason for the Mueller report was the open attempts by Russia to influence and ultimately try to decide the winners and losers in our 2016 elections. Full disclosure or face the consequences.
Mueller is not proposing fresh indictments. Is that because he has accepted Justice Department advice that a sitting president can not be indicted? Today’s story goes not answer that question.
Trump said there was no collusion. Leave the guy alone. We all owe him an apology for putting him through this. I did not vote for him but I will next time.
10
"Even though under current Justice Department policy, a sitting president cannot be indicted, ..."
What's wrong with the above sentence? It's the juxtaposition of the two words "policy" and "cannot." If it's only a policy and not a fact of law, which it ain't, then all the Justice Department is doing is opining that a sitting president shouldn't be indicted.
I hope that the District Attorney for the Southern District of New York keeps this in mind.
1
And now I've just learned that the Southern District is nevertheless bound by this policy. Well there is still New York State's courts.
I wonder if Mueller recommends no more indictments given that he knows Trump will pardon. So perhaps that's where letting the SDNY and other state agencies indict was the smart thing to do. Especially after seeing Manafort get only 7.5 years and expect a pardon from Trump. If Mueller doesn't explain his motives in this report, I hope he wriites a book one day. In any case, thank you Mr. Mueller for all your hard work.
I am praying the report in its entirety will be published.
If Barr/Rosenstein/Mueller, under guise of Justice Dept. policy, do not release full and complete information on the investigation of the obstruction of justice charge begun when Trump fired Comey - and Trump's part in Russian meddling - NOTHING will have been resolved for either side.
Trump supporters will say investigation was a baseless witch hunt, no collusion despite ample indictments indicating otherwise, his detractors will seethe with anger at the malfeasance of office, daily lies, slander, character defamation and treasonous activity. The divide in this country will only solidify.
More likely, snippets here and there may come out due to Congressional investigations. Which means, the WHOLE TRUTH will never be known and the hyperpartisanship will continue unabated.
You know the old adage; "If it walks like a Duck and talks like a Duck, it must be a Duck".
Admittedly, I have always hoped Trump was just an unwitting victim of the psychological manipulation by Putin, former K.G.B. man who may have employed such techniques. But the fact remains that Trump continued to support Putin and Russia even after the election interference was proven, demonstrating that Trump's election was illegitimate.
The overwhelming impetus to impeach Trump is his aberrant foreign policy acts from making enemies of our traditional allies to building that "Wall of Hate" to endanger us by making our closest friends our enemies, to embracing our greatest foe, Russia who sabotaged our nation with his very election.
If Trump truly loved our nation and wanted the best for us, he would resign under these circumstances.
1
An important point people are missing is that Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to go ahead and criminally charge Don Jr. or Jared Kushner of criminal collusion with the Russians. Given that it's also very unlikely that he found sufficient evidence to criminally convict the President—even if he were allowed to under DOJ rules.
I've always wondered if Mueller essentially focused on "collusion" as a premeditated, well-planned effort led by Trump and coordinated by those around him to cooperate with a foreign country to overthrow the democratic voting process.
I never thought any of them knew what they were doing enough to make a plan and conspire to complete it in terms of premeditated, clear treason. I don't believe any of them have any loyalties--either to Russia or the US: their only loyalties are to themselves.
In other words, I wonder if in his mind, Mueller drew a line: his investigation would pursue cooperation with Russia for subversion of the US, and he would turn over to the states the felony crimes committed for more personal gain, such as bribes and other money-making deals.
A hostile foreign power interfered in our election to help Donald. Now come the investigations into Donald's finances and his life of crime. The report is the beginning much more than an end.
2
The Times reports here that "While the inquiry, started months earlier by the F.B.I., unearthed a far-ranging Russian influence operation, no public evidence emerged that the president or his aides illegally assisted it." Trump literally, and publicly, called upon Russia to hack Secretary Clinton's emails. As Vanity Fair reported back in 2016, “'Russia, if you are listening, I hope that you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. I think that you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens,' Trump said during a press conference, effectively asking Russian president Vladimir Putin to commit an act of cyber-espionage against the U.S. government and the former secretary of state. The Clinton campaign immediately shot back, issuing a statement calling Trump’s comments a 'national security' threat. 'This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,' foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said." Subsequently, Trump used his position as POTUS to obstruct the Russian-meddling investigation in numerous ways but particularly by firing James Comey explicitly, at least in part, over "this Russia thing." I'm no legal expert but if inducing Russia to meddle in the 2016 election and then obstructing an investigation into that meddling don't constitute "illegally assisting" Russia's meddling, what does?
3
If this report is not made available to Congress and to the public, Trump's White House will nevertheless get their grubby little fingers on it. Trump would then use it: 1) for political retribution or revenge, 2) to slander the Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors and 3) to whitewash any findings of the report that are damaging to Trump and his administration.
The trajectory of the Mueller investigation, who and what it has explored and investigated, as well as choosing not to, for whatever legal or other reasons, does not simply cease in an ongoing divided nation of diverse peoples, views, beliefs and a very potent, toxic WE-THEY violating culture. There have been many "actors." Known, still unknown ones and perhaps even hidden, unknowable ones. For whatever the reasons.The outcomes of the much-awaited report on targeted people, a range of systems, influential individual and systemic stakeholders, values, norms, over time, is unpredictable.THE reality of reality's dimensions and processes! One generic consideration, of the many meriting concern, is that of personal accountability. Who, among the many "actors," interacting or not, at all levels, will willingly, take responsibility for harmful words, voiced and written; deeds planned and implemented? Who will be accountable for the many next steps, words and actions, for the "healings" that are needed? Who will lead the way, with first steps, to transmute the human-barriers which anchor uncivility, mistrust, lack of respect, inequitable sharing of human and nonhuman resources, critical to developing and sustaining wellbeing for ALL- a toxic, daily, life-space of ummenschlichkeit- into viable, inviting, open "bridges."To caring, mutually-helpful, daily functioning and adapting, to life's ever-present uncertainties, unpredictabilities and unexpecteds"? Can we count on accountability?
This is the United States of America, a country designed by the people, for the people.
I am a citizen of this country.
I want to see the report.
It is my right.
Any problems with that request?
2
The only critical point out of the report will read these were very silly men playing a very silly game which had very silly rules none of which can be figured out by residents of the supremely silly serious world.
1
If Barr/Rosenstein/Mueller, under guise of Justice Dept. policy, do not release full and complete information on the investigation of the obstruction of justice charge begun when Trump fired Comey - and his part in Russian meddling - NOTHING will have been resolved for either side.
Trump supporters will say investigation was a baseless witch hunt, no collusion despite ample indictments indicating otherwise, his detractors will seethe with anger at the malfeasance of office, daily lies, slander, character defamation and treasonous activity. The divide in this country will only get worse, if that is possible.
I am praying the report in its entirety will be published.
More likely, snippets here and there may come out due to Congressional investigations. Which means, the WHOLE TRUTH will never be known and the hyperpartisanship will continue unabated.
1
The Mueller report is a Rorshack test. People will see what they want to see and arguing about its merits is futile. The punditry class has added to this situation by conflating unethical behavior, boorishness, amorality, greed, ignorance, and the like with criminality giving Trump apologists all sorts of ammunition and motivation. Speaking of motivation, the looming SDNY charges will give the Orange Buffoon even more incentive to stay in office. 2020 is not far off. Let's not impeach, let's vote him out.
Don't like what happens with special prosecutors or their results? This entire shell game was developed by political soreheads and everyone close to these investigations eventually says the law should be ditch or completely rewritten.
The fact that we had a secret goup of 10-15 people in the Dept. Of Justice running a coup d'etat needs the next investigation, but one with a prossecutor working with a federal grand jury.
3
It should never be up to one person to have the power to withhold the report from the nation. If you must, redact names, but for just once in this administration open the windows and let the light shine on the evidence and conclusions contained in the report
1
those on the left are getting a huge spin tantrum right now. both illegal and legal sources of pot will be in short supply tonight "consumed" to alleviate emotional distress, and the price will spike due to high demand - a useful economic lesson to the left that there is such a thing as supply based economics. toke up, but do not swallow. Wind pipe burns hurt
3
Based on my reading of earlier indictments from the Mueller team i'm expecting a clear and concise document. Anyone who's been paying attention understands Trump is dirty as they come. His five deferments and bone spur debacle, trump university, the Trump Foundation, Fraudulent tax returns when he got the inheritance from Daddy, stuffing his pockets every time he can. They need to lock him up and throw away the key.
Anyway, I trust that Mueller has done a exemplary job and his document will be truthful. We owe him a debt of gratitude. Let's all show him the respect he deserves and not second-guess his motives if his conclusions don't come out the way we would like them to.
Thank you Robert Mueller.
2
I have grown so weary of hearing about the Dept. of Justice "policy" that a sitting President cannot be indited.
A policy, any policy is in effect only until it is superseded by the next policy--no "policy" is chiseled in stone. Oh, wait--actually there IS a policy which is chiseled in stone: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW. The idea that Mr. Mueller may not have found evidence of collusion is absurd. Am I the only person in the country who heard Trump say: "Russia, if you're listening?"
1
We are governed by The United States Constitution, the supreme law we all live under. We the People of the United States own this report.
We are not governed by "mob rule."
1
Whichever way the report comes out, I just hope each side is mature enough to accept the outcome!
In our current climate, where each side has its own “facts”, and we all consume the news in search of confirmation, there is no chance the Mueller report that will harm Trump. Only winning the next election will diminish Trump’s grip on our nation.
1
As much as I appreciate Mr. Mueller for his efforts of late I have deep misgivings about the system that allowed the likes of "The Donald" to ever think for a moment that it was worth the risk to run for POTUS. Just the apparent multi decade/generational Trump family tax frauds alone screams obvious pervasive system-wide ROT throughout the Establishment. In short, the upper echelons of the fake-meritocracy running this country have a lot to answer for. Old man Anton nailed it with, "If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"
1
Does anyone really believe the Mueller report won't become public?
"[O]ur attorney general can unilaterally decide if the Congress, not to say the public, get to see an independent counsel's report [?]"
If Mueller's report (ideally with appropriate redactions) isn't publicly released very soon, it will be leaked.
The odds of Mueller's report becoming public one way or the other aren't 100%, of course -- I'd put them at no more than 99.9%.
Anything's possible:
"It is happening. CNN has photos of a confused and baffled Mueller now. He was the stoic dignified Mueller just hours ago."
It's very easy to forget that Jim Comey was once a "bad guy" -- indeed, the baddest of the bad -- since Comey has been a "good guy" for so long.
The opposite can happen too (though it's a bit early to conclude that it will). Mueller could go from being a "good guy" to a "bad guy," from an all-knowing honest investigator to a stumbling buffoon. Frankly, I doubt that will happen, but it could, and the reported CNN footage suggests that at least one network will try.
Anything less than a release of 100% of the entire report to Congress is a direct act of obstruction in itself and the entire administration should be put on trial!
If only a partial release of the report is allowed to stand, it is the beginning of the end of the American Democracy and a step toward possibly even worse things to come.
I am struggling to understand why DOJ "policy" enjoys the same gravitas as law. If it is only an accepted rule that holds that a sitting president cannot be indicted, why can't this be challenged in court? If a sitting president can be proven to have committed a crime or series of crimes, he should be held to account. If Trump robs a bank (as indeed he has, a number of times, tho without using a gun) or if he has violated campaign finance law (as indeed he has) he should be as indictable as you or I.
1
The FBI reputation has been restored. So far, we know one thing to be true. THERE WAS NO WITCH HUNT. Bob Barr said so in his letter.
"Some predict that any disclosures from Mr. Mueller’s report will satisfy neither Mr. Trump’s critics nor his defenders, especially given the public’s high expectations for answers."
That, in a perfect nutshell, is what we're going to get.
And anyway, what difference will it make? The right will believe the report is a liberal conspiracy packed full of lies if it says anything bad about Trump but will defend it as if it is the word of God if Trump is found blameless. Of course, liberals will believe the exact opposite.
Meanwhile backstage, Stephen Miller, John Bolton, and the likes of Tom Cotton in Congress will continue building the infrastructure to transform the country into the autocratic/fascist or, in Israeli-speak, the Democratic Christian State of New America.
1
All nonsense and politics, what a waste of energy. Instead of helping the country this investigation has set it back.
1
No new charges in addition to already stated findings that there was no evidence of Trump’s collusion. In nutshell, a NOTHING-BURGER.
Trump 2020
2
"And that's just the tip of what's already public."
How could Mueller have missed all of this?
Should this commenter at least have pointed Mueller in the right direction? And how much help could Mueller have fairly expected on this "tip of the iceberg", since it was "public" and all?
Tough questions, for sure, but most uf us would agree that this kvetching commenter should have helped Mueller out, since Mueller obviously overlooked this incriminating evidence!
1
This report is far to important for our democracy to be kept secret. Nothing less than full disclosure is required.
7
Even if the Robert Mueller investigation report fails to conclusively establish Trump's collusion with the Russian interference in the US elections, the indictments and ongoing court trials of his campaign chief Manafort or the fixer/lawyer Cohen speak volumes about the offence Trump has committed yet perhaps likely to escape impeachment due to his skillful political/legal manoeuvring in the highly polarised Washington politics.
31
What offense?
We all rushed to judgment
His tweets are offensive
That’s it
2
D.J.T. may escape Impeachment for awhile.
The State Prosecutors from South Manhattan are investigating Trump. Acting A.G. Barbara Underwood stated she saw "a Startling pattern of illegality",referring to the Trump Foundation, which was closed under Judicial Supervision. D.J.T., should be more afraid of the States Prosecutors. I think
Trump has been, is & will continue to be Corrupt. Congress has to follow Constitution, which says
Impeachment is the People's right but more than this their duty.
With the facts exposed the " impeachment" will take place November 2020 when the people vote. Maybe by then they'll forget.
Some much can happen between now and then.
The special counsel indirectly helped expose hush money that Trump’s lawyer paid an adult-film actress, shed new light on secret foreign-backed lobbying efforts and obtained convictions for some of Trump’s closest associates. His investigation has provided several paths to investigate the Trump empire by the SDNY. Mueller played according to the narrow mandate he was given; there should be no doubt when upcoming court cases are litigated that any evidence gleaned out of Mueller’s report will be solid and without taint.
Like most anti-Trumpers, I was hoping for a bolt of lightning. What I see is a continuing set of legal difficulties (investigations, prosecutions) for so many associates of Trump.
39
@The Nattering Nabob. The release of this report makes it all the more important that Trump is denied a second term. A second term would allow him to run out the clock on many of Trump Inc's criminal activities.
It'll go on for years. If you're under 60
and in good health the whole scenario will be revealed. As for the rest of us, they keep us hanging for as Colonel Jack Nicholson said" You can't stand to hear the truth".
Seems fair enough.
While a "special counsel" is a special duck, the job of a prosecutor is generally simple: indict people for whom sufficient evidence of criminality exists. And, if no such evidence exists, keep your trap shut. Generally, prosecutors do not give reports or offer opinions. Here, the rule is different, but the principle is the same. Mueller did the job he was asked to do.
But it's too much to ask to those with TDS to simply let it go. Their hatred for DT is an essential element of their political identity, and they MUST believe, as a matter of unimpeachable dogma, that he is a criminal. And a racist, sexist, xenophobe, etc. Mere facts stand no chance against such all consuming faith.
One wonders how long before the attacks on Mueller as an incompetent Republican stooge will start? I haven't read all the comments; given the typical quality of NYT comments, they probably already have.
This entire episode was essentially a farce from the start. The next investigation should be into how it ever got started in the first place. It very much appears that the politicization of all aspects of the government under BHO -- including, obviously, the IRS -- reached the FBI, too. THAT is the truly scary aspect of this.
So, the left will awaken tomorrow, dedicated to finding something new to be enraged about. It's just what they do.
25
There is a lot to work with. Blind loyalty, Dunning Kruger writ large.
One doesn’t have to go looking for something new that is enraging...unfortunately where Trump is concerned it’s always in one’s face.
1
If you were comfortable voting for a man whom swindled many, (contractors, students, charity foundations), says more about your ethical standards or integrity or whatever moral code you practice or adhere to than any so called “predictable” comment offered up here by the likes of me and my Democrat party ilk. He was a despicable man well before he announced his candidacy.
Bad news for major news media and democrats and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Looks like Trump is not going to be impeached. But it is a good news for Trump and his supporters. American people really cared about this investigation and Mueller's report? Why so many educated Americans would like to see Trump in trouble? Is he really a bad guy? A crook? Enjoying to see America is under the control of Putin? Trump acted crazy but is he really crazy? He hates America? Would John McCain be a better president? There are so many presidential candidates and they must also be disappointed by this bad news.
13
His base will not grow and he will lose the Independents and some Others whom decided to take a chance with this inept phony swindling pathological liar real estate crook. He fully awakened younger voters to oppose his re-election bid.
New Non Mueller indictments won’t change DT’s slim to none percentages chances necessary to win in 2020. He’ll keep up with his proven and consistent form of governance he follows: Smoke and Mirrors Marketing- welcome to the Thunder-dome over the next two years.
@Mclean4 - Why would Pelosi be “disappointed”? Are you utterly unaware that Pelosi and House Democrats could impeach Trump anytime they want, and don’t require any outside permission?
@Mclean4
You hit the nail right on the head. Trump is a crook, thus, a bad guy. He is beholden to Putin, thus, putting America under Putin's control. He is crazy, but also, self-centered, greedy, and treasonous. He hates anyone who opposes him, just like his dictator heroes.
And, more, he is only interested in lining his and his family's pockets with lucrative business deals regardless of what it does for American democracy.
Unless he's handcuffed, Little Donnie couldn't care less.
Not even if he has to throw Ivanka and Jared under the bus.
He's got to stay "in office" because that's what Putin wants; Putin owns The Donald.
Control of the American Presidency is the prize.
24
Snowflakes might want to avoid social media for a few days.
Democrat politician after Democrat politician being embarrassed with clips of their completely false and completely made up hysterical speculations and accusations making them look as foolish as this whole thing has been.
But wait. It is sure to get better as we learn just how many of them knew they were pushing a fake narrative.
23
Instead of social media, anyone who wants to understand the mind of the Trump supporter can just read comment threads like this one, where they call for "investigations" (code for roundups) of anyone who they disagree with, Mexicans, Muslims, Jews, etc. That's always been the endgame of this regime and its followers.
@Ken - An interesting comment from someone who undoubtedly supports mountains of unproven claims against the Clintons...
@Kip. Bonus points if you can give me the party affiliation of the President who presided over the actual roundup and internment in actual internment camps of US citizens. Here is a lifeline, it happened during WWII and involved American citizens of Japanese ancestry.
1
What exactly is the point of a report that no one gets to read?
24
@Ashwood8
Laws, not politics, govern what is released. If the media were doing its job, Americans would understand this. Instead it has become another witch hunt of those who seek to keep things hidden.
Like Mueller, AG Barr will follow the law, ostensibly that for which everyone is calling.
1
@AACNY Huh!!! That is a great answer to a different question.
"Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown."
16
The Democrats and the media have laid a big egg. No indictments involving any U.S. citizen colluding with the Russians. Only indictments are for unrelated crimes or lying to the FBI. A total farce because the Democrats lost and wanted to come up with why they lost. The reason is simple--the voters decided the Democrats were a fraud. And please do not give me the nonsense about the popular vote--remove CA and that is not true. Keep America Great—Vote Republican.
19
Yeah, well — news flash — California is a state, its citizens pay taxes, and they get to vote as well. Their votes are just as valid as every other American, and they do count. (Except those of us living in Washington, DC, who pay taxes and have no voting representation in Congress — but that’s another story.)
Lots of big talk from people who don’t have the slightest idea of what Mueller’s investigation has produced. No new indictments means pretty much nothing when you’re talking about a President who supposedly can’t be indicted. Who knew that the people who Trump has totally taken for suckers would jump about raging about him being cleared. Nothing of the sort has happened.
Over ten percent of the American people live in California. According to your twisted logic, their opinion does not matter. So how would the popular vote look if the former Confederacy were to be removed?
People are now asking for the underlying documents that Mueller used. Are we trying to second guess Mueller? Are we trying to redo these last 2 years. Are we going to claim the Russians got to Mueller too... and we need another special counsel? We are starting to hurt ourselves....we can't appear to be trying are hardest to remove an ELECTED president. Time to yell at our fellow Americans who elected him...but that's about it.
8
Hopefully the report will be released by the DOJ before the Russians release it, or some version of it. And, lacking the real thing, I can imagine myriad other provocateurs will release fictionalized versions purloined from their imagination in order to stoke passions all around. Without a certifiable copy, it's likely to get very ugly, quickly.
3
When I was in law school and Mueller was appointed to head the FBI, and I pointed out the obvious conclusion that Mueller was a stooge, I was roundly reprimanded by the 'professors,' saying that Mueller was a great guy. Well, now, we have the answer to which of us were correct in our thinking...Stooge.
3
Hah-but he would still be a great guy to the left and the never-Trumpers had he found any collusion, right? This whole thing was a farce from the beginning. Now the Justice Department must go after those who colluded on producing the false dossier.
1
''This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.'' - Winston S. Churchill
23
We need to see the entire report. Every American can come to her or his own conclusion about the fitness Trump and his associates to hold their offices. And as for “the department’s longstanding practice, with rare exceptions, is not to identify people who were merely investigative targets to avoid unfairly tainting their reputations,” they compromised their reputations when they chose to associate with Trump. As the old saying goes, you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
10
@Ockham9
No we don't get to see the report! And NOT every American is equipped to come to his/er conclusion, absent due process.
Just like we don't get to see every police investigation of a complaint or a possible crime, when it resulted in NO indictment. It is the due process of the investigated that trumps your inquiry. They need to either be left alone or face their accusers in a court of law and have their day in court.
Nope. You lose. No collusion. The whole thing was a farce and now the left’s hopes are in ashes. Being associated with President Trump is only a crime in the fever dreams of extremists.
2
Yawn. Trump will be re-elected. No matter the Dems attempts to defeat him.
18
Yep. After all, Trumpists kept the House last fall.
1
@Olivia
He has a 42.5% approval rating in the average of polls over the last 6 weeks and has never been higher than his meager election tally of 46.2%.
And don’t worry, Democrats will not allow Russia to influence our electorate in 2020 like they did in 2016.
1
Not enough percentages this time around for him to win.
2
The American people will except nothing less than 100% disclosure of the information found in the Mueller report.
We deserve to know exactly how Russia interfered in our election, and who helped Russia will it's campaign to disrupt our election. Who knew what, and when, and who helped the Russians.
100% disclosure - nothing less is acceptable !
8
@S B
Disclosure of what?
Here is one: Americans never believed that few Russians hackers on Facebook, spreading fake news, could have de-throned the powerful media from spreading the "truth" to change the outcome of the election.
Logic has never been so eviscerated in the public square, like it has been in the "Russian Collusion" dope!
2
Here’s what we know to a 100% certainty: there was no collusion between President Trump and the Russians. Since that was the whole point of this fake news saga, you lose. I look forward to the re-election of President Trump. When will the Democrats apologize for being so unhinged after Hillary’s loss that they created this collusion fantasy out of pure hatred and resentment?
2
@S B
Will you then hold former President Obama responsible for Russian interference? It was, after all, he would was responsible for what went on under his watch, not Trump's.
My guess is that instead of actually holding former President Obama responsible, collusion theorists will simply pivot to the next big thing they can try to pin on President Trump.
They don't really want to know how the former president messed up.
2
Hopefully this can stop the histrionics on both sides, Too much energy spent on hoping to use the specter of an investigation as a political weapon instead of trying to advance a progressive agenda.
Policy has taken a back seat and has been a casualty.
How many smart things have not occurred on the geopolitical stage because Trump can't afford to find common ground with Russia lest he receives fire for being cooperative with the government he ostensibly colluded with.
Too many Dems are on tape declaring Trump's guilt prematurely, something that should have been reserved for Mueller. And if you think all those bogus assertions helped win the House 2018, you're wrong - it might have cost the senate, and dwelling on it any further just boosts Trump's chances in 2020.
Focus on policy that matters to the American people. Move on, fold your hand and let's deal a new round of cards please.
9
I said it before and I’ll say it again, trump will see the report, will delete anything that implicate him, then the Congress will publicize the part they think we should know. The democracy as we knew it is gone, this government is getting to be more like China and North Korea.
8
Did Barr or Rosenstein demand that Mueller and his team complete and produce the report by a certain date, or is the team truly done with it on their (our - American people's) terms?
3
@KIDS NEED CIVICS EARLY ON
Yes, is it possible that Barr has ordered Mueller to prematurely end his investigation and turn in his report?
Too bad "March Madness" is already taken. It would have been a good description for our anticipation for the report. At least in basketball we get to see the final. Can you imagine if the networks said "Sorry, we can't show you the final game but here are some summary highlights." Of course, this subject is only about our democracy and not basketball so I suppose it's okay if we only get a summary. (Go Zags!)
6
This commenter turned out to be correct, but I'm nevertheless glad that Mueller investigated:
"So it WAS a witch hunt. Not a single American was indicted for collusion with the Russians. Or for obstruction of justice. Will the New York Times ... be apologizing ... ?"
It turned out that there was "no collusion," as Trump has been saying for years. Or maybe there was, but just not sufficient evidence of it.
That's just Mueller's conclusion, however. Other investigators may reach different conclusions -- Adam Schiff's House committee, for example, or the prosecutor's office in the Southern District of New York -- and they may be correct. Mueller does command a great deal of respect, however, and so I expect that most Americans will trust his findings more than the findings of others.
6
Barr is going to try to slow walk this report, and only release the non-incriminating parts of the report.
Trump will lie and say he wants the report to made public because it clears him of wrongdoing, knowing fully that the report shows him for the criminal that he is.
Barr will make false and misleading claims as to why he can't release the full report, knowing there is a lot of incriminating evidence in the report.
If Republicans were waiting on a special council report on a Democratic president, and the AG was elected to keep the report secret like Barr has been, Republicans would be threatening to exercise their "second amendment rights" and remind us all of how many guns and ammunition they own.
Democrats - get a spine, and fight for this one !
16
With the news that no further charges will be brought by the Special Counsel, it should be obvious that the only way Donald Trump will be removed from office is by the American electorate. In contrast to Richard Nixon, who was morally unfit for the presidency and for whom the tapes provided incontrovertible evidence of obstruction of justice, Trump, though even more unfit than Nixon morally, intellectually, emotionally and psychologically, will at least serve out his term because no such evidence could be found. Whatever charges may result from the Southern District of New York or New York State investigations or the emoluments lawsuit, Trump will remain thumbing his nose at the justice system, repeatedly lying, erratically changing sanctions from one day to the next, fawning over Putin, race-baiting, mocking the weak and arguing with ghosts. But the saddest fact of all is that he is in the White House because the Republican Party and enough American voters still want him there.
36
He won by approximately 80,000 vote in a triangle of 3 important electoral states. History will not be repeated. Younger new and awakened voters will change that dynamic and will turn DT out to the curb. Younger voters couldn’t wrap themselves around Hillary but they will vote for the winning Democrat candidate.
@Lynn Fitzgerald
I sincerely hope you are right, but what used to be called America's allies are waiting for Trump to plunge us all into a catastrophic conflict before his remaining two years are up. And the Republicans who claim God wants Trump to be President are evidence that Trump's craziness is widely shared.
1
I hope I am wrong, but right now my gut feeling is that the Mueller report with regard to Trump will be a big nothing. He did not even interview Trump. Trump will start blabbing endlessly that all the stuff he is accused of was made up, and this will give him a weapon to use against Pelosi and the Dems.
11
@Jim Grossman- not a big nothing for all those connected to Trump who are now in jail.
Mess with CIA, FBI, the military, strikes one, two and three. Mess with the press, game over.
When the 2020 Republicans convene, Trump will not be a candidate for the nomination. He may be alive or dead, free or not, living in the USA or some other country, rich or penniless.
He has been the apocryphal cleansing fire, the near miss of a catastrophic collapse. We as a nation will be better off, and we'll elect another flawed human being, but not another criminal.
6
No indictments. No collusion. No problem for the POTUS. Mueller is very aggressive as he has demonstrated. Nonetheless: No indictments. The result is clear.
13
The tragedy is that we needed an investigation in the first place.
4
It's improper for a prosecutor to ask that a defendant do anything other than tell the truth:
"Why were Cohen, Manafort, Flynn, Gates, etc. all allowed to cop pleas? What did the Special Counsel get in return?"
There's no reason to think Mueller broke this rule. He may have anticipated that one or more defendants would incriminate Trump, but none did. Mueller insisted that some of them were lying, but it was never established that any of them failed to tell the truth. I don't recall that Mueller even introduced evidence to the contrary.
Again, this is just one investigator. There are other investigations pending, and one or more of them may reach entirely different conclusions. Nevertheless, most Americans believe Mueller is an honorable person who looksd into this very carefully, and he always said that neither Trump nor anyone else ever interfered with his investigation in any way. I think his report -- which should be made public -- will count for a great deal to most Americans.
2
We can debate until the cows come home about whether a sitting President can be indicted. But whichever side one picks on that question, nothing prevented Mueller from charging others -- Trump's children, for example, or Jared Kushner. Yet Mueller hasn't charged any of them (and CNN has reported that none of the previously-delivered sealed indictments includes any charges against them). Other investigations will undoubtedly continue -- the House's investigation, for example, or the pending SDNY investigation -- but it's impossible not to conclude that Trump has weathered the storm of the Mueller investigation. Mueller may (or may not) believe Trump colluded with the Russians, and Mueller may (or may not) have SOME evidence that Trump did collude, but it's clear that Mueller didn't come up with enough evidence to charge Trump or any other key figure.
Reps. Schiff and Salwell, and others, have said there is ample evidence of collusion already out there. If so, it may be time for them to share it with the rest of us, including Robert Mueller.
9
@MyThreeCents
I suspect the Justice Department rule that a sitting president cannot be indicted may, in the eyes of the Justice Department, extend to members of his immediate family as well. If the reasoning behind this rule is to preserve the president's independence from politically motivated prosecutions, that independence would be just as vulnerable to prosecutions of the president's family as to prosecution of the president himself.
Thus, the president and/or others could potentially have committed indictable offenses that they were not charged with because of Justice Department policy.
Hence, the completion of the report does not necessarily mean there has been "no collusion". Nor does the "no new charges" statement by the Justice Department mean there has been no wrongdoing. To know that, we need to be able to read the report.
8
CNN never reported who were in the sealed indictments. They’re sealed. We have no idea who’s in those. Could be that trump and his whole family are in them.
@MyThreeCents
Schiff, et al, will now pivot to the other "crimes" evidenced in the report. Indictments matter except when they're absent.
The voice of the resistance, ex., Schiff, et al, have a big job ahead of them. Keeping the drug flowing to those now addicted to their Trump animus.
Without full disclosure of the report to the owners of this country who happen to also be the employers of all parties to the Mueller investigation, America as we understand it is over. The rule of law is dead. Transparency is over. Our function as citizens will be to pay our taxes. Yet taxation without representation is kindling for a revolution. So be it.
14
Really no assumptions can be drawn at all at this point that this vindicates Trump.
Maybe Mueller didn't subpoena Trump because he didn't need to to make his case against him.
Mueller has already referred cases to other prosecutors, so it in no way means that indictments are over.
AND Mueller may have a strong inclination to not indict a sitting President, but that does not mean that criminal conduct wasn't discovered.
15
@lkhjl (if the really is your name): I totally agree. Be can not take anything for granted. They tell us that Oreos are a creamy filling surrounded by two chocolate cookies. But, who is to say the cookies didn’t already exist and the creamy filling didn’t infuse itself in-between them! What is reality?
There will be no criminal wrongdoing because we generally don't create laws that hold our leaders accountable, or enforce them when they exist.
2
True, but ...
"Mueller has ALREADY secured numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions. That's not "nothing" at all."
I think most Americans are blissfully unaware that Manafort's crimes occurred many years before he worked for Trump, and had nothing to do with Trump. Mueller undoubtedly hoped Manafort would disclose later wrongdoing from when Manafort ran Trump's campaign. But that reportedly didn't happen, prompting Mueller to argue in court that Manafort had violated his plea deal and should receive a stiff sentence. Other Trump aides either haven't been sentenced yet (Michael Flynn, for example) or have received extremely light sentences (George Papadopoulos, for example, who was sentenced to a whopping 14 days and argued that even that was too long).
Michael Cohen? He says he's never been to Prague (or anywhere else in the Czech Republic), yet James Brennan insists that the CIA has evidence that he was. One of them is lying, and it's surprising that the House hasn't endeavored to find out which one it was. Did Cohen lie to Congress again? Or was Cohen telling the truth this time and it was Brennan who lied? Whether or not one considers it important to figure out whether Cohen met with Russians in Prague, it's undeniably important to figure out whether Cohen or Brennan was telling the truth.
The vast majority of Mueller's indictments are of Russians, who won't be visiting the US any time soon anyway. Mueller appears to have struck out on Trump and his family.
3
Manafort agreed to a plea deal and then continued to lie to prosecutors. That’s why he was found by the judge to have violated his plea deal.
Brennan never claimed Cohen went to Prague. And his name is John not James.
You’re not from San Francisco.
"The [DoJ's] Office of Legal Counsel has repeatedly advised that the stigma and burden of being under prosecution would damage the president’s ability to lead."
So if Trump actually shot someone on Fifth Avenue, we couldn't indict him for murder. If he decided to hand Putin a raft of classified information, we couldn't indict him for treason.
Doesn't anyone else see what's wrong with this picture?
The DoJ's policy is something created by the executive branch for the executive branch. It's not a statute enacted by democratically elected Congress. It has never been tested before *any* court, let alone the US Supreme Court. It short-circuits the safeguard of the "checks and balances" that the Founders designed our tripartite system of government specifically to create. It is profoundly undemocratic.
And here we see the result.
7
How can there be no indictment of Trump for obstruction of justice? We all heard Trump *admit* on national TV that he fired Comey because he wanted to relieve the "pressure" on him from the FBI's Russia investigation.
I can only hope that this indictment is one of the "old" ones that remain sealed, and that it will be unsealed the moment Trump leaves office.
6
We will get Barred. An attorney general who interviewed for the job by writing memos criticizing the special counsel will publish minimum if he wants to keep his job. Trump's methodical madness is working. He snd his family has successfully gotten away with the conspiracy against the US. He's selling foreign policy to the highest bidder. If someone wrote this as a fiction will probably never get another book deal. I heard this from someone really early asking all to put little stock on Muller. He wisely pointed out that US will never publicly admit that it got so badly played by Russia. So, they're always going to deny that Russia succeeded. Looks like this cover up was inevitable.
4
One thing I know: Robert Mueller has impeccable integrity and I trust him more than any politician I can think of. Thanks to Mr. Mueller and his team - whatever the report says - for a job well done.
14
And another thing: plea agreements. Numerous individuals charged with crimes by the special counsel were offered reduced sentences through plea bargains.
Logically, the American people must be supplied the answer to extremely basic questions like: Why were Cohen, Manafort, Flynn, Gates, etc. all allowed to cop pleas? What did the Special Counsel get in return? In high profile cases these types of deals are made in order to advance cases against more important targets of an investigation.
Who exactly would those be?
30
Some people will never accept the truth.
19
Trump, for example?
6
Not guilty? No collusion with Russia? The trumpland bubble is alive and well. Pray tell us: why did all these trumplanders plead guilty?
The report will show the Russians manipulated the election in trumps favor and that fact landed his underlings in jail. Of this I have no doubt.
It will be a victory in the minds of a few, but that rotten odor in the Oval says it all.
15
@1%: So hard to see us in fly-over country from your California perch in 1% land. Have another martini and then ponder this fact: we are the electoral majority on this country.
7
I strongly believe Trump is a cheat, a lier, a con and a racist and I did not need Cohen to expel it out for me. It is obvious.
But I was hoping Mr Mueller would find something to save the country from the most unethical administration ever. It seems that it is now unlikely. Wost, it seems that Trump truly can get away with anything.
I really cannot bear another four years !!!!!!
29
So it WAS a witch hunt. Not a single American was indicted for collusion with the Russians. Or for obstruction of justice. Will the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, etc. be apologizing to President Trump - and his voters?
25
It’s Manafort, Flynn, Page, Papadopoulos, Stone, and the rest of Trump’s cronies who owe the American people an apology, not to mention the man who hired them, protected them, and profited from their immoral and often illegal conduct. None of us knows what Mueller’s report will reveal, but we all know the character of the man who now occupies the White House. And speaking of apologies, don’t you think that the man you so admire owes an apology to John McCain’s family and to all the veterans who, like McCain, risked their lives for our country while your hero was hiding behind his bone spurs?
18
@Conrad Noel and |Trump dangled the promise of pardons in front of them during the investigation and their trials.
Given that the USA is a fascist oligarchy with a nepotistic crime family as its mascot head, that works on behalf of its ruling members and related syndicates, why would anyone expect transparency, especially from an attorney general appointed by same? There is no credibility left in the Trumpolini administration, in spite of the honorable work that Mr. Mueller has attempted to conduct.
14
Congress, subpoena Mueller.
10
One problem with the findings of the investigation is that the FBI was not able to find any witnesses who were not convicted felons. Hopefully, this will send a strong message to the criminal justice system that prosecutorial misjudgement should not be tolerated.
Unfortunately, many DAs see their advancement by the number of convictions. Very often they win convictions with either corrupt judges or judges who simply are not the sharpest-knives-in-the-drawer. Many Blacks and Hispanics have suffered and even received capital punishment for crimes that were never committed.
If Trump were truly an honorable man, he'd jump on new legislation that would clean up our corrupt criminal justice system. (I'm not holding my breath for this to happen)
1
All those involved in handling Mueller’s report- Barr, Trump, Congress- you all should remember that you work for we, the American people. We the people need to see this report in entirety, and we the people need to know the whole truth. You work for us the people. Remember that.
13
@Simon: you are on point! We the people. The electoral majority that voted for Trump and put him into office. We want our money back! The $25 million that was wasted on this witch hunt - we want it back! I will take my share in the form of a gift card, please.
2
@William You haven’t even seen the contents of report and you’re already condemning it. Obviously, you’re not interested in the truth.
We'll never see the reeport or have a clue what is in it. It will all be swept under the table.
Looking at the profound influence of the Federalist Society, It seems to me that we are back in the time of the Medici All being run by the wealthy and the Catholic church, for fun and profit.
6
In your list of people already charged or involved you left off Samuel Patten - who sold his country for influence, money, and power.
How did his name mysteriously disappear from those involved?
2
Prelude to post Trump Presidency indictments and prison terms for him and most of his family. Even a Billion bucks will not stop this train...
3
What’s happening with this mystery case with the secret foreign company? It was reported just yesterday that SCOTUS was meeting behind closed doors to discuss if they’d take the case in their next term... Then nothing?!?
4
Many thanks to Mr Mueller. He is a shining example of the best of our country - honest, decent and courageous.
There is one fact of Russia's intervention in American public life that is vastly underestimated - trolling. The Russian Federation has an enormous number of voices on social media. And while some of these voices are gentle & kind, the majority of them are fomenting hatred and partisanship, against liberals, against conservatives. . And the very worst of the Russian trolls are promoting Islamophobia.
We all need to recognize that all social media _ including alas the NY Times comment threads is infected by Russian agitprop. And this will be the case for the foreseeable future.
16
It is funny that Republicans are celebrating that there are no more indictments. I guess after so many convictions, it is a relief to get a break.
15
None of the convictions had anything to do with collusion. They all dealt with completely unrelated matters. This must be a tough day for you. Admitting that this was all a fake news witch hunt that had to come to an ignominious end at some point has to be difficult. I look forward to the re-election of our President.
1
Thirty-seven prosecutions of small fish, but nothing is done with the principals? All of the small fish are convicted of lying, but we do not move up the chain to the head? We do not even make an attempt to interview Trump. Why, because he will lie?
Fredo (Don, Jr.) thought that he would be indicted, yet the Justice Department is saying that there are no further indictments? Jared Kushner is abusing his office to personally enrich himself. Did we follow the money to Deutsche Bank and other places? Doesn't look like it.
William Barr takes over, and now suddenly the investigation is wrapping up, with so many loose ends? Something stinks.
17
Off subject but I am looking for
reporting on this by Matthew Rosenberg. Where is he? His reporting was excellent.
1
It must be made public. We have all been waiting. We must expect no less. FULL DISCLOSURE NOW!
8
All I can say is, Jacinda Ardern for U.S. President!
We would never have to put up with this malignancy in our highest office if we had someone with her character.
She is the polar opposite of Trump and exactly what we need right now.
9
Why is it the private information of every citizen is freely published online by the government to be abused but something as important as the investigation into the Trump corruption is all hush hush.
11
If they can show Robert Kraft’s sexually graphic spa videos, which can be argued really serves no public interest, then the Mueller Report can absolutely be fully distributed, which undeniably serves democracy and the public interest.
8
@John I knew Leon. Leon was a friend of mine. John Sawyer, you are no Leon Jaworski.
There is a lot of crowing in these comments without knowing the actual contents of the report. It may well find that Trump himself did not knowingly conspire with the Russians to influence the election – or that there is insufficient evidence to say so. Although for an innocent man he tried awfully hard to avoid any sort of investigation, to a degree that may well constitute obstruction of justice.
Whether or not there is evidence of collusion, and that he was aware of it, this is a man who, for whatever reason, clearly feels beholden to Putin. Who has tried to shield Putin and his friends from the consequences of interfering with an American national election and who takes no interest in protecting those elections from further interference. Who invites Russian officials to the White House without telling anyone, and reassures them that he has fired the man who was poking around his connections to their country. Who trusts Putin’s intelligence over that of his own security agencies. Who takes Putin’s advice on foreign policy. His character is weak and his motives suspect. And for reasons as yet unknown, he has personal loyalties that put him in direct conflict with the interests and security of the nation he took an oath to protect.
18
Kudos to Director Mueller and his crack team of prosecutors and investigators for the stellar work it did over the past two years on this inquiry and for their standout public service. Well done.
Now, let's let the chips fall where they may.
7
For Steve Scalise to proclaim that is no evidence of collusion before the report has been submitted to the appropriate Congressional leadership has received its copies is unsettling, to say the least. Did he, in fact, receive a copy ahead of time? If so, how? Who leaked it to him?
If he hasn't received a copy and is making such declarative statements without advance knowledge, then is he lying to us? If so, why?
9
Nearly all the readers who have commented want to read the report.
Not to be a legal know it all, but the writer of this news article did explicitly state
"The regulations that governed Mr. Mueller, who is under the supervision of the Justice Department, only required him to explain his decisions to either seek or decline to seek criminal charges in a confidential report to the attorney general."
Robert Mueller was acting as an investigator, a detective.
Under most penal codes, and doubtlessly those of the U.S. Federal Government, crime investigations are never made public.
The facts Mr. Mueller discovered are confidential because they are associated with the possibility that the subjects of his investigations had committed a crime(s).
I don't expect anyone is going to get their eyes on this report other than top security people in Congress. That's it. And if they do, they will be restricted on being able to comment on the content for the same above reason.
That stated, Today, if I am not wrong, President Trump reversed our sanctions on North Korea, because "he likes the leader of North Korea".
5
You can be sure that none of the major mainstream media outlets which have been pushing this Russian collusion narrative for years will ever issue a retraction, much less an apology to all those who were not indicted (on any charge) whose careers if not reputations were irreparably tarnished. But no one with an ounce of journalistic integrity should be surprised as advocacy journalism driven by ratings and subscribers is all that matters to most now. Perhaps someday if journalistic standards return in large measure, and if historians set aside their own grand narratives long enough to be objective, we will see this sad chapter in American history for what it was: a pernicious partisan plot to divert attention from government malfeasance from leaders in the Obama Administration and Clinton election campaign to the incoming Trump Administration by the use of McCarthyism tactics. Perhaps the single most despicable display of crying wolf came from former CIA Director John Brennan, who tarnished the reputation of that agency, and James Comey, who managed the same for the FBI. And I say this as a 70 year-old holder of a doctorate who voted for neither Trump nor Clinton in 2016.
17
Another commenter asked a good question:
"Does Mueller's recommendation of no additional charges really mean anything?"
Mueller has delivered sealed indictments to other prosecutors, and so he there may ALREADY be additional charges that we just don't know about yet.
This struck me as an entirely valid point, but CNN just reported that one of its reporters asked Mueller specifically whether his "no additional charges" includes any sealed indictments already issued. CNN reports that Mueller replied that that's what it means: the sealed indictments previously delivered do NOT make any charges against any of the key figures involved here (for example, Trump or his children, or Jared Kushner). In other words, though Mueller's "no additional charges" recommendation technically doesn't exclude charges already made in sealed indictments previously delivered, that's what Mueller meant by his statement.
4
Money has always been the paramount determinant in the United States. Don't you think this goes a bit too far though - the US president sells the country and the people for thirty pieces of silver minted in Moscow.
7
@Markku
American money and power keeps the Soviet... I mean... er... the Russian Army out of Helsinki.
You can thank is later.
1
For nearly two years, the Mueller team kept the investigation confidential. Within two hours of the delivery of Mueller's report to the Attorney General, it is leaked that there will be no further indictments. And Trump's toadies begin their "See, no collusion" refrain. I guess Barr did come through, in his own fashion.
12
@Tamara: that wasn’t a leak. No further indictments was stated in the cover letter - which was released. Keep up girl.
9
Sadly most people will read this as "no indictments"... other than the six people who worked closely with Trump during the campaign that Russians influenced in his favor that are already indicted for lying about their contacts with Russia.
6
@Bryan: totally agree. And don’t forget that the Russians in Russia speak Russian. It’s so obvious. How can people not see the involvement of Russia when it’s so obvious. If they weren’t Russian how in the world would they know how to speak Russian!
Too many people jumping to conclusions here. The public needs to see the report. We know the Justice Dept and Mueller do not believe a sitting President should be indicted. Beyond that, this report could be loaded with information that translates to charges for Trump (Sr, Jr, daughter etc) once he’s out of office in 2020. Sit tight and let’s see what happens. We’ve waited two years. One more weekend should be ok!
15
The President was right. No collusion. No obstruction. Write each of those phrases on the blackboard 100 times.
22
@Aleister Have you read the report yet? If not you might want to wait.
Trump already lied about his Trump Tower Moscow situation to the entire world. Who know's what else this report will reveal.
10
How do you know? Tea leaves?
3
@Aleister Extra credit if we add Witch hunt?
2
If all or most of the presidents men were Russian or Russia-connected, or Russian agents, what does that make the president. The facts are beyond question and speak for themselves. Even for those who like Trump, do they honestly want a Russian controlled or compromised President?
7
Can we at least know why Flynn, Manafort, Gates, et al. were convicted but Donald Jr. Trump, Jared Kushner, Hope Hicks, and others aren't even indicted?
11
We are all about to pay the political price from the over zealous focus on this report. The likelihood that it would implicate Trump was never great, but the the speculation machine, fueled by money, rolled on and time that could have been spent exposing Trump's character to the public has been wasted and he will now, as was inevitably the case, be able to claim exoneration. Once again, the media's obsession with money (eyeballs and ears) has proven to be Trump's greatest ally.
8
I’m watching the TV media reports and am hearing things Like the Mueller report will help us determine whether or not Trump is compromised by Russia and unable to fully carry out his duties with respect to foreign policy and security. My question is this? If his disgraceful performance in Helsinki where he kowtowed to Putin for the whole world to see discounting our intelligence services doesn’t tell Republicans that he’s unable to carry foreign policy unencumbered what will?
12
This all just seems like a charade. The email of Trump's son saying in response to a person of a foreign country "I would love it" when asked if he wanted dirt on Clinton is a smoking gun. No? He was in contact with a foreigner regarding an attempt to affect the election. What am I missing here? His CAMPAIGN MGR Manafort lots of Russian contact, has been convicted. Other of his top aides indicted and plead guilty. This is not guilt by association. These are people who had direct interaction and undoubtedly discussed all or most of these shenanigans with Donald Trump. These were not some interns or low level campaign workers. So spare me the "he didn't know what they were doing" excuse. They've lied to investigators and congress. Trump is an unabashed unrepentant liar.
Seriously, at what point do we as a nation not demand honesty, integrity and justice? Oh that's right the President in our country is above the law. Oh that's right there are no such things as knowable facts anymore. Just opinions of one tribe or another. The Fourth Estate as the founders envisioned it is toast. Water freezes at 32 degrees last I checked but if Fox comes out and says "Well some people say water freezes at 34 degrees" then we have to treat their contention as if there is really a controversy about otherwise factual evidence. Society has been so numbed by years of reality tv that now our politics and governmental function is no more than a spectacle.
This whole thing is just disgusting
22
Everything is political.
This report may be the first special counsel report in modern history that is not. It may be a report that is apolitical to it's credit, and also to it's failings.Trump and the Trump Family Business, on display to all of our questioning marches on.
And if the report ultimately precludes or discourages GOP primary challengers to the president, then the report left too much of the obvious to interpretation, scaring off challengers to the president, the real shame.
2
Based on the polite way the other branches of government handled Nixon during Watergate, I knew I was likely to find the Mueller report too deferential to presidential power, and too focused on preserving institution, and therefore disappointing. I thought I was mentally prepared.
But I'm still disappointed to learn that Mueller isn't recommending any new indictments. I knew that of course he wasn't going to recommend indicting Trump, at least while Trump remained in office. Mueller has signaled for months that he believes DoJ is bound by its stated policy against indicting a sitting president.
But what about *after* Trump leaves office?
And what about the large cast of Trump-Russia characters who remain as yet unindicted? Starting with Kushner, Ivanka, and Don, Jr.?
8
@lkhjl: I'm thinking, maybe we should wait a few days and see what that "no indictment" thing means. It came from a "senior Justice Department official" -- not necessarily a reliable source in this day and age. You know how fast breaking stories can change right in front of our eyes. Of course, chances are it means what it says, but let's wait and see.
3
Look, we are all (myself included) falling short of one thing. the United part of being a American. Polarization isn't getting us anywhere good. Mueller was handed a hand-grenade with the spoon off. Regardless, it was going to hurt people. The intention we gave ourselves was to go after election meddling. True, he cant indict a sitting president, but there's no current charges that his inner circle would be in. Sure, people committed crimes. lying to congress (they invited him back..), long outstanding tax fraud. but no collusion related with the campaign. Stop moving the goal post. I'm tired of constant far left/right identity politics ruling and dividing us when its has always been the center that moves us forward. What's enough? When we retire the College electoral to the popular vote allowing 40 metro areas in 34 states to dictate our leadership? When we appoint a permanent investigative body who's only job is to investigate our political enemies? I fear we are using up all our energy fighting each other to realize the rest of the world has positioned themselves to take our global position as economic, strategic, and technological leaders. Our system isn't set up to be perfect. Its built around the fact it cant be. That is why there are regular elections, term limits, free speech, oversight, and in cases of gov run amok the right to bear arms. We need to take comfort in that and start coming together. otherwise, whats the point?
8
@Marcello Saus: So, you're threatening to shoot us if we run amok, and telling us to take comfort and come together in the meantime? Doesn't sound very reassuring.
3
The Mueller investigation drew significant blood, resulting in 37 indictments or guilty pleas, and will likely turn a profit for U.S. taxpayers based on asset forfeitures of convicted criminals. Michael Cohen, Trump's bagman and personal lawyer for 10 years is now a convicted felon, proving at a minimum Trump's gross ineptitude as a judge of character, and likely his willing solicitation of criminal acts. Yet so many biased Right wingers are absurdly claiming that the Mueller investigation was somehow illegitimate. Would these bitter Republican partisans have preferred that criminals like Cohen and Manafort go free? The culture of noxious criminality he has surrounded himself with will stick to Trump forever. Whatever Mueller's final report states, there is PLENTY to see here.
11
I seem to recall that the Starr Report was available in paperback in every bookstore in the nation (back in 1998 when the nation had tens of thousands of local bookstores).
I also have several copies of the 9/11 Commission report in my archives (I've picked up a few of them at thrift stores for pocket change).
When I see the unexpurgated Mueller Report on sale at the one remaining bookstore in my community - then I'll believe that We the People have received our money's worth.
Until then, I'll believe that "the fix is in".
16
@Dave: The Pentagon Papers, too.
5
In his report, Mueller couldn't choose to play a direct role as gatekeeper for the public's access to information about Trump's activities, due to the laws governing his position, and the DOJ rule against indicting a sitting president, and because the DOJ and the presidency are part of the executive branch and thus should minimize their "internal conflicts" due to the unitary executive theory. He was able to make public, through his 'speaking indictments', many of the details about the cases he did prosecute, because the people he prosecuted aren't Trump. As happened with the investigation of Nixon, Mueller is required to see Congress as the gatekeeper for evidence his office and others at DOJ have gathered against Trump, and this evidence (along with investigative reporting) will conclude with whatever results that Congress and the public decide. The parallel with Nixon is that even though Special Prosecutor Jaworski and his grand jury had the goods, including the "smoking gun" tape, Jaworski didn't release those goods directly to the public--he went through Congress, which then released the evidence in open hearings.
Though Jaworski prosecuted people in Nixon's innermost circle, Mueller didn't, for several possible reasons: Jaworski operated under different laws; such prosecutions would reveal evidence on the president that may be better left to Congress to release; all the people who Mueller prosecuted, not being family, were less likely to be pardoned by Trump.
3
I am just realizing certain individuals have tremendous power.
The president aside, our attorney general can unilaterally decide if the Congress, not to say the public, get to see an independent counsel's report on interference on our democracy and if our president has any part in it?
351
@Doodle Don’t forget that the Attorney General is operating under the laws passed by Congress related to how products from Special Councils are to be handled. So, democratically elected senators and representatives passed legislation that became law and now guides how the Attorney General receives and distributes the report given to them by the Special Council. It’s not voodoo. It’s law.
25
@Doodle Sad that we have to hope he understands he’s our Attorney General, not this “president’s.” He’s there to work in the legal interests of the United States, not protect his political party and its criminal leader. Even Sessions understood that; that’s a pretty low bar to meet.
50
@William
And there you have it, the tragedy of our western democracies.
"...democratically elected senators and representatives passed legislation that becomes law....."
With gerrymandering and huge donations to any political parties and canditates,
( sometimes disclosed after elections in Oz if at all), what could possibly go wrong?
38
Trump wins, again.
17
@Mike Ahern...wins what? Again? The ire of the majority of the American people? Check. Laughingstock of the world? Check. Deficit largest ever? Check. Insulting a deceased patriot? Check.
You have to be tired of winning by now. We all know this is just the beginning. He evaded taxes, just like Capone.
Tick tock.
15
Much ado about nothing
11
Mueller did his job. If we don't see any sections describing collusion, Trump is not out of the woods. He will face scrutiny from SDNY and the State of New York. And probably the major indictments will be with those jurisdictions. I see a one term Trump.
8
I don't believe it. The FBI raids, the plea deals, the best attorneys in DC, 2 years, $25 million+, and Mueller found... nothing?? Much of Trump's illegality, along with his children, has been in plain sight. Either Mueller is incompetent (unlikely) or we don't know the whole story, yet. Not by a long shot. Let me see the evidence!
16
@Steve We don't know the whole story yet. Not even close. Don't jump to any hasty conclusions.
3
@Steve How can you even say "nothing"? I will be frustrated, as well, if Mueller doesn't nail obvious law breakers to the wall - though plenty of people have warned Mueller and his report cannot be depended on to provide such "saving."
But Mueller has ALREADY secured numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions. That's not "nothing" at all.
3
My great hope is the law is followed ,, and we burry the SP law once and forever
Follow the law .... Trust the FBI. That's how we move forward.
We also have a disaster in the midwest that's not getting the attention it needs.
6
@GT: Eh, just lob some paper towels into Nebraska. They’ll be fine.
5
Just as expected, all this time, and the report is essentially a big fat nothing burger. Who would expect Mueller a fellow Republican would really find anything on Trump and his family. This ends any hopes for true democracy as America once knew. The fix was in from the beginning. There is nothing to stop Trump from handing over the US to Putin on a platter, while we stand by and pay for the prilviledge/
3
@interloper you are absolutely right. Hope is lost. I expect Putin to move into Maro Lago any day. The good news is that, because of climate change, the world becomes uninhabitable in 10 years and so our misery will be short-lived. Now, back to the NYT crossword. Friday’s is always such a botch.
5
interloper, Coney was the one who nominated Mueller for the job. not likely he threw us voters a hook.
Bless you, Robert Mueller. We are living through strange and unsettling times. Many powerful pathetically boast of strength while being ineffectual, corrupt, and thin-skinned.
Thank you for being an exemplary example of strength and integrity who has served with great honor. It is a relief to know that there are still admirable people in the world.
8
Where does Mueller put his copy?
- Missouri
3
All good progressive know that Trump has committed many "high crimes and misdemeanors." If Mueller's report doesn't show that, and why don't know that yet, Mueller must have been influenced in some way by certain forces to tamper with his report. Another investigation, this time of Mueller, may be needed.
3
@LED
Sure. Why not? You show me the man, I’ll show you a crime.
4
As Glenn Greenwald has tweeted:
“The Mueller investigation is complete and this is a simple fact that will never go away: not one single American was charged, indicted or convicted for conspiring with Russia to influence the 2016 election - not even a low-level volunteer. The number is zero.”
The whole thread is worth reading
https://mobile.twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1109201503418490880
18
Your current online headline says that the special council recommends no new charges. That may be misleading. The special council isn't adding new charges. It may have passed those on to non-federal courts to bypass Trump's pardon power.
15
@Bo Gallup
doesn't work that way, Jethro
2
This is all not surprising. The Mueller team was able to conclude their investigation. Bravo. Although many things are surely in the “open” category and various probes are ongoing, this is exactly what should have happened, pending full disclosure. But the fact that DJT did not shut it down is very positive in terms of our democratic process at work.
I believe Trump and Co are a band of lying law-skirting semi-criminals. Their day will come. But I’ve always thought that DJT and his entire campaign were just too stupid to contemplate organized collaboration with Russia in order to win an election. Perhaps they were witless dupes but they could never conspire on a sophisticated level. Heard the sons talk much??
Sure, everyone wanted a storm of indictments. But for all the wrong reasons. DJT is now completely exposed to defend his own idiocy and ineptitude, and he cannot tweet and hide behind “witch hunt”. All of what he has wrought is on him now.
10
We may never know what is in it- Barr can black out what he wants- and we do not get to know what he redacted.
@Tim Like area 51! Right?
If Trump committed offenses, but Mr Mueller believes he can't be indicted as a sitting President, we still need to know what those offenses are. Otherwise, in 2020, Americans could be voting for someone who has committed criminal offenses.
11
we already have Jay but who's counting. You're lucky if you vote on a paper ballot optical scanner machine .
1
as expected, another total waste of time and money from the incompetent about the incompetent
7
@james graystoke And you reach this conclusion without knowing anything about the contents of the report? Does that make any sense?
4
@james graystoke
You do know that the seizures in the Manafort case paid for the investigation and then some?
2
No indictments for Don Jr? Or Jared? Or Ivanka?
So the report is conclusive: Mueller is ALSO a crook who belongs behind bars. (Of course, Mueller should have been put behind bars a long time ago when he helped his fellow Republicans lie this country into a disastrous war with Iraq.)
1
Don't question any eye-witnesses to Kavanaugh's rape—just appoint him.
Don't indict the key players at the Russia meeting—just help Trump evade justice.
Sickening country. Huge joke.
9
Now it's the Republicans chance to go after those who set up the phony collusion charges using official government power in a corrupt way to go after a political opponent. What goes around, comes around.
19
@Alan Klein
With so many Trump's associates in jail, the best thing for Republicans to do is to keep quiet and hope that voters forget the whole thing.
16
@Alan Klein "What goes around, comes around."
I guess you were referring to Whitewater and Benghazi?
1
Whatever fate holds for Trump, can anyone really say with a straight face that his scandalous presidency is the best this country has to offer. God save us all if that's the case.
8
@ARH *raises hand* Uhm...lowest overall unemployment rate in decades. Lowest unemployment rate for African Americans, Hispanics and people of IndioAsian heritage ever. Highest GPD in decades. On and on. Is this Presidency successful. You bet. Historically so.
It’s the economy, stupid.
7
And if you look at the economic trend since the very early Obama years, when the economy started to recover from the Great Recession, that happened in the last year of W, the trend has been pretty consistently positive. Contrary to his dishonest analysis, Trump did not inherit a mess from Obama, he inherited a rising economy.
10
You should thank the eight years of the Obama administration for setting him up...
11
Mr. Mueller is to be applauded for an extraordinary job. That there were no leaks is incredible. That stated, why does it somehow feel as though it is November 8, 2016? I am dreading the gloating and Tweeting to come. The wind has been knocked out of the Democratic candidates sails, and now Trump's base will be pumped. Fox News is having a field day I am certain. Lindsay Graham will be hot to pursue Hillary Clinton's emails and how they were handled by our own intelligence.
I am so fearful for this country, more than I have ever been tonight.
17
@Diana
"The wind has been knocked out of the Democratic candidates' sails": how so? Trump is still in the White House, still tweeting nonsense, and still doing a lousy job. It should be fairly easy for the Democrats to kick him out next year, especially considering that they have a few serious candidates to offer.
5
nothing burger. Bigly.
Mueller charged $1000 an hour for two years to satisfy wealthy elite liberals, unhappy that Hillary lost.
17
Some blue collar supporters of Trump still see him as a businessman who needs time to get the hang of governing. ‘Give him a chance...’ is their harshest perspective on his egregious, ignorant, vulgar, self-serving behaviors. They do not see colluding with Putin or MSB as dangerous to American interests or global security; they see immigrants as more murderous than white nationalists.
In fact, nationalism is the public face of Trump supporters’ notion of making money..and getting rich means you know how to win.
Democrats keep trying to find a Mueller smoking gun or candidates with populist charisma. Trump’s base just likes the crude, defiant bully who doesn’t read briefs or study facts. He just shoots from the hip. They cannot imagine he is a fool with swagger.
Barr won’t release the whole report nor evidence behind it. A long battle will ensue with the house which Trump will spin to his advantage. Dark days lie ahead.
12
"The department’s Office of Legal Counsel has repeatedly advised that the stigma and burden of being under prosecution would damage the president’s ability to lead."
That's rich. Seeing that Trump has not been under the stigma and burden of prosecution since he took office, what's his excuse that has been damaging his ability to lead thus far?
9
There is a standard of technical legal wrongdoing.
Trump may not have crossed such a line.
But so many of his people are now sitting in prison cells.
Wouldn't that bring down any other President?
12
Whatever the outcome of the Mueller investigation. Mr. Mueller and his team conducted a leak free 22 month investigation with great integrity despite the constant criticism and name calling from the President and his cronies. If it wasn't for Mr. Mueller, Cohen, Manafort, Pappadopulous, Flynn et al would still be in and out of WH conducting business as usual. Mr. Mueller is a true American Hero.
13
I don’t understand why the entire report is not made public. We the people, all of us taxpayers, paid for it. It is ours and we have the right to see it. It is ours!
693
@Tom, The law protects individuals who are not indicted. They will not and can't publish the entire report even if they want to.
21
@Tom
The report may have found details about the lives of numerous people you would approve of and people you wouldn't; or crimes that have not completely been investigated, about the Clinton uranium shipments, say, or either former Obama Attorneys General.
Such details need to be witheld until certain other things have taken place.
12
@Elizabeth Carlisle: You had the opportunity to read them all? Really? Please, then, do give us specific examples of those felonies and treason.
37
This horrible witch hunt is finally over. The Dems, FBI and mainstream media drug Trump through the dirt for two years, only to be exposed by a man criticized by the President but with great character to seek the truth, determined that there was no activity by the President that merited a criminal indictment.. Now on to reform so the FBI and others cannot put anyone else through the hell they put the President through based primarily on political bias.. ..
16
They sure indicted and convicted a lot of witches...
15
Most of them were convicted of lying to a government agent. Which has got to be the most ridiculous law we have any America. It’s insane. You shouldn’t be out in jail for telling a lie unless you are under oath. Yet in America you can go to jail for lying to the FBI. No one was convicted of collusion with a foreign government, which is what they were suppose to be investigating in the first place.
6
@zinn21
"Birds of a feather flock together". With so many of his friends and advisors in jail, President Trump is a very lonely bird on a very thin branch.
4
So much misplaced confidence in Mueller. Quitting before the job was done, with all the loose ends, the no-indictment of anyone of consequence, no interview -- no less indictment of Trump -- Mueller has left American democracy in peril. So much misplaced hope in his work. It's all about the 2020 election now. Start organizing or it's game over.
12
The story omits what taxpayers got for their funding of this project. After two years of continuous work by dozens of top experts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Counsel_investigation_(2017%E2%80%932019)#Criminal_charges says that they indicted 7 Americans, mostly for not paying tax on all their income and/or lying to investigators when asked "Are you guilty of any tax evasion?"
11
I want two things:
Full Mueller report
Trump’s tax returns
24
Trump and family crimes are using their positions to generate billions of dollars. Emoluments are the issues, and the decline of values in and among Republican enablers. Follow the money.
8