I think Mr.Barr might have asked his sister, Roseanne Barr, for advice because his conclusions seem illogical
77
@g.i.I've made it a point not to trust any middle-aged over-weight politicians, be they liberal or conservative. Give men the "leaning hungry" look, especially if they are lean and mean. So that's sty-shaming. So what!
2
@g.i.They "seem" illogical? I presume you have read the report? I think not.
1
Even when Trump is found not guilty of any crime, he's still illegitimate in the eyes of our elites. Because he's culturally not like us. It's the Queen's accent, the lack of being an insider, the pomposity... but mostly it's the humiliation suffered Nov 9, 2016. Just learn from your mistakes and help us MAGA.
4
As the New York Times why don’t you start a signature campaign to ask for the report to be immediately be made public?
All patriots in this nation should be incredibly grateful.
It is a better way to increase circulation than the article with the nonsensical heading.
Do the right thing. For menschkeit’s sake.
2
The fix is in ... Barr stated previously that basically Trump is above the law and his four page summary was nothing but a legal kiss to Trump ! Trump hired him because Barr wouldn’t recuse himself and said he couldn’t be indicted ... no surprise from the partisan hack Barr.
6
Seems like everything Cohen said was true: Trump is a liar(proven) a cheat(proven) and a conman(proven). Cohen also said he was not sure or could not claim the Trump colluded.
Ok so no provable collision, but we got him ok everything else. We need to focus
3
No Collusion, No 'Exoneration'
-The NY Times Editorial Board-
And...no more Mueller indictments, whatsoever. Mueller is finished...his investigation is completed.
Am I correct?
CNN, NYT, FOX, WAPO and other media outlets need to look in the mirror and think about all of the mistakes that were made. They became exactly what the Russian's hoped for. They created a rift in this country that will take years to heal. Journalism needs to change to understand their role in the next election. Shame on all of them for playing into Russia's efforts.
6
I'm simply relieved to see the overwhelming outpouring of joy here at the NY Times that the President of the United States isn't guilty of treason.
Thank you for that, Special Counsel Mueller. No wonder that Democrats fought so hard for you to be able to clear President Trump, his family, and his 2016 presidential campaign in any involvement in the Russian criminal conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
If only the NY Times had done a better job of reporting the facts...as opposed to unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo.
All's well that ends well, but nevertheless, we need much higher journalistic standards, don't we?
4
Let’s have President Honest Don appoint a Hillary-hating special prosecutor who hires an army of Hillary-hating lawyers with unlimited power and an unlimited budget to investigate any aspect of Hillary’s life. Let’s see if they exonerate Hillary of all charges.
4
If the Trump candidacy and administration has taught us nothing else, it's shown us that if you are going to be corrupt, go big. Bad land deal? Penny-ante stuff. Easy for the hoi polloi to understand. Private e-mail server? EVERYONE understands that. Wiretapping? We get it. If you're going to be corrupt, make it a giant multi-tentacled octopus that will give most people a headache if they even try to understand it. If you're going to be a crook, go big or go home. Because if you JUST GO BIG ENOUGH, you can get away with everything.
4
So even the board is continuing to promote .... what? The report should not be released, especially in this day of viral social media where one is guilty of anything because it was posted. Even videos are often taken out of context. We all know this, especially those with more level heads. Obviously, the board doesn't have level headed thinking or opinions in this anti-Trump era of the Dems. I'm not a fan and believe Trump has tweeted some outrageous things. I waited to see if he colluded, and must admit I was getting impatient. However, this is a time to shut down the constant hate and rhetoric. A time to pull people together. Publishing this long report, two years in the making, of hundreds investigated would be wrong. It would give social media fodder to attack innocent people. And while the NYTimes no longer believes in innocent until proven guilty, the constitution still maintains that belief, and it's the responsibility of our justice system to maintain that belief.
2
What a terrible week for the Democrats-President Honest Don was completely exonerated, ISIS was defeated, Avanetti is in jail- and what a great week for America!
6
@Larry even better- Avanetti’s partner in crime (allegedly) is a regular on CNN!
4
Eric Holder, former US Attorney General, was just interviewed by Ari Melber on MSNBC. Holder hired Mueller and worked with him for thirty years. Holder said Mueller would never let Barr determine his conclusions on Collusion or Obstruction.
Like former Special Counsels Ken Starr and Leon Jaworski, both did not indict the President. Rather, they provided their conclusions and asked that the House of Representatives to debate and vote the action to impeach or not.
Mueller would have done the same.
Release the complete Report now and let us decide.
Instead of Barr to decide that.
Fyi, he, wrote
a 15 page love letter to Trump to get his job as Attorney General.
9
What is still not clear is what Mueller did not pursue concerning Trump's misconduct due to the narrow focus of his charge.
Let's ensure the full report is released to the US voting public and our Congress. Only then can we get a more detailed handle on Trump's misconduct and what Mueller tried to address, AND failed to address for any number of reasons.
4
@howard. Mueller had unlimited power to investigate everything, even President Honest Don’s overdue library book from 3rd grade
3
Americans need to see the Mueller report. It's that simple. Anything less is really bad for Trump as well as for the country. He can claim vindication, but it's not true. It's only in the full report that Americans will know to what extent there is evidence that Mr. Trump committed wrongdoing, beyond what is already public.
4
The entire report needs to be released not just a 4 page summary of Barr's (not exactly a neutral character here) subjective interpretation. I for one would like to know what to make of the 37 indictments and several guilty pleas and prison sentences already metted to people in Trump's close orbit. How is this not colussion, in addition to the 100 + contacts between Russia and people close to Trump? what about the constant lies (until caught and corroborated) about such contacts. If there was no colussion, why the need for constant lies? What about the ample evidence from US intel that Russia interfered in the 2016 election? something that to this day, Trump has refused to acknowledge and dismisses as "fake news". what are we to make of Trumps constant efforts to discredit Mr. Mueller, the FBI,the Dept. of Justice, Sessions and anyone who would question his bizarre behaviors and statements What are we to make of Trump asking "Russia, if you are listening..." or that he fired Comey because of the "Russia thing", and so much more. It would have been helpful for Mr. Mueller to shed some information on the above as presently his report as it now stands raises more questions than it answers. The nation deserves better.
5
Only Donald Trump can tell us if he is being blackmailed,,, by Vladimir Putin, by the pro-Israeli lobby,.....
2
At one level, some might find the Mueller report disappointing. But it converts the 2020 election to a straight fight, without any distractions. Let the person supported by the most votes (people? electoral college? etc.) win. Draw your conclusions on America's "real nature" from that result.
4
@IfUAskdAManFromMars. Why wait? We can draw conclusions right now based on which side accepts evidence and rational thought and which side has come completely unglued, refuses to accept reality, and spews unhinged conspiracy theories
4
It pays to be rich and powerful. It also does not hurt to be white and male, among other things. Crimes are not crimes. Even when the wannabe mob boss Trump announces to the world his corrupt intent, he is not held to account. This is America. It is our religion is to worship the holy trinity of Money, Power, and Fame.
Exhibit A: Donald Trump.
Exhibit B: The ‘Otherwise Blameless Life’ of Paul Manafort.
Exhibit C: Crystal Mason, a black woman sentenced to prison for 5 years for voting in a state that does not permit citizens with felonies to vote.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/28/crystal-mason-begins-prison-sentence-in-texas-for-of-voting
Accountability
Vote him out
RICO
5
Precisely what would be the motivation to obstruct justice for non-existent crimes? Why would Trump agree to appoint Robert Muller and give him unlimited resources and powers if he wished to obstruct justice?
"the Special Counsel noted that, in completing his investigation, he employed 19 lawyers assisted by a team of 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff. The Special Counsel issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, obtained 230 orders for communications records, issued 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses."
6
There is no possibility that the President would be impeached for obstruction of justice...if Mr. Meuller could not find evidence of culpability, then there is no case, despite the factual statement that the findings of the investigation did not exonerate the President. One, and many do, go on and on about President Putin's desires as regards the outcome of the election; the bots of his supposed lackeys are deemed influencing factors. Individual Russian citizens, however, can and do express preferences, albeit once or many times removed from the American political scene. Returning to the thorny question of how virtually all of the polls could have been wrong, interest, if it could, would focus on another "influence" on the vote, that is, "rigging" remotely by computer giving votes for Clinton to Trump, especially in states where the vote was projected to be very close, and in due course, deemed to be pivotal. This brings us to two events, the December 3,2016, costume party in Head of the Harbor, where Trump appeared in normal attire, and a later party in Aspen, where a new board game, "Machine Learning President" was introduced, but at which the President was not present. The public, if it could, might want to know the real meaning of the catchy title of the game, and whether propriety dictated that the President attend "out of costume" as it were. These conjectures mirror the President's style, but there may be something else that they mirror, something like determinism.
Al Capone was never convicted of selling bootleg liquor.....but that doesn't mean he wasn't guilty of doing so. Mueller's investigation may have determined individuals (Trump, Trump Jr, Kushner) needed further investigation as foreign assets by the FBI, but their behavior not ready for full indictment.
6
Anyone surprised by these results - or the popularity of Trump, Bernie or Brexit or the truth about WMDs - should now be going back to the drawing board. And if you're 0 for 5 on these historical events and you get paid for political reporting or opinions it may be time to consider retirement or the minors.
5
Although I am a lifelong liberal Democrat who believes that Mr. Trump is both dangerous and unfit to be president, I must admit that I am disgusted and angry that it took Mr. Mueller, as stated in this article, almost two years, more than 2,800 subpoenas and roughly 500 search warrants to arrive at the conclusion that Mr. Trump and his associates did not collude with the Russians. Mr. Mueller should have been able to complete this investigation in no more than three months, and the fact that he prolonged this investigation for almost two years is a strong sign of incompetence.
3
@Mathman314. It was known on Day 1 of this witch hunt that’s there never was any collusion. The witch hunt should have been stopped the
3
@Mathman314
Simply be glad the Mueller finally got it right, citizen.
3
Upon learning officially that Russia had actively tried to interfere in the 2016 election, a law-abiding, normal president would immediately have issued a statement condemning such actions, preferably by threatening new sanctions and recalling the ambassador. Trump swore an oath to protect the constitution of the United States, after all. Instead, Trump reacted in his usual self-centered manner: by posing as a victim and threatening his opponents, showing once again that he doesn’t care about his country, just about himself.
7
@Michel Forest
Obama was well aware of their actions long before he left office. His response was 'Vladimir, cut it out!'
Obama also tried to get Congress to sign a law condemning Russian meddling.
Those are some big steps by your law-abiding President.
3
@Elliot. Obama aided and abetted Russian interference!
3
They all now scream they want to see all the report and background data no matter what the data represents. Be careful what you ask for because that second torpedo will circle back around and explode again in the Dems and MSM faces about July of 2020. Trump just won 2020! Dems are the party of the delusional. “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.” Waldo Emerson. Stand-bye the tables have turned..
4
@NavyGuy1981
There he is again: Our King!
Not George, but Donald this time.
I can only hope that the Founding Fathers will rise from their graves to save us once more.
3
With all the constant hype and speculation about how the Mueller Report was going to be a "tell all" and that it would explain so many seemingly and lay bare the nefarious actions taken by Trump and his side kicks. It was even suggested (based on good evidence) that it was even possibly that this Mueller may suggest the president should be indicted. But yesterday this all ended with a thud - one that leaves us a bit bewildered.
There's been obstruction in clear sight for two years, so how did Barr come to his conclusions? And with over a hundred contacts between Trump advisers and the Russians during and after the election, how can that not be colluding at some level? And how can Trump say in front of the world that he believes Putin over his own intelligence community, and it not be an impeachable offense.........if not treason?
Are we really this far down the rabbit hole???
This will only exacerbate and make more difficult for truth to come out, and for justice to done. It is, as the president would say, SO SAD.
5
Trump as President is a one-off. An anomaly. Who has he helped other than the very wealthy? Certainly not his base. He panders to and supports corrupt demagogues in other countries, believes them over his own intelligence advisors and resources, He beneficial rejects legislation such as common-sense gun control in the face of mass shootings. The fallout from that is beyond horrible - 3 suicides in the past week - those who just gave up when, in spite of huge efforts and public sentiment to change the gun-control laws, this President and his GOP cohorts turning a blind eye, mind and heart. His Presidency is an American tragedy. May it end soon. May the contents of the Mueller report and the current on going investigations reveals his nefarious motives and actions.
2
The only issue that remains open to debate is if the media will ever regain any credibility after their disastrous cheerleading of the collusion lie. I say no
6
Barr said there was no evidence that Trump colluded with the Russian government.
What about the Russians who were not explicitly part of the government, like the one Manafort gave polling data to?
How could the times have missed this parsing?
Sure, maybe Barr was simply imprecise.
But Barr should, at the very least, be called to explain whether collusion with any entity that could have been a front for the Russian government took place.
4
@MT
I hear you, MT.
Adam Schiff has insisted that he will subpoena Robert Mueller to testify before his committee if necessary...even though the DOJ Special Counsel regulations (written by Clinton Administration DOJ officials) indicate that Mueller is accountable to and responsible for reporting ONLY to the U.S. Attorney General, William Barr.
I really can't wait to see the likes of Congressional Democrats Adam Schiff or Jerry Nadler trying to interrogate a hostile Bob Mueller...
Can you?
1
Maybe Mueller is smart enough to openly let Barr fulfill the wishes of Trump: To conspire to obstruct justice. Period. There is no more blatant a conspiracy to obstruct than firing the man who would recuse himself and hiring the man who would exonerate the obstruction.
6
If it hasn't already been included in another comment, and doesn't break any copyright laws by reproducing it here, here's Glenn Greenwald's tweeted 2-minute video as to exactly WHY America's [mostly] leftist media owe the average American citizen a deep apology for the past two nightmare years--not that we're ever going to get it:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1110027367882346496
Mr. Greenwald is certainly a Progressive, but, IMHO, not a member of the Truly Loony Left. The video is pretty damning of American "news" outlets.
6
@Zee I always find it amusing when Trump's far right conservative base goes after the "leftist media". They didn't seem to mind at all when there was relentless coverage of Trump during the 2106 election. The coverage of his rallies was ad nauseam. And Brad Parscale & his cronies were all over social media playing it like a fiddle to get votes for Trump. No apology for that & for all of that manipulation. Trump manipulates the media every single day. And our country suffers for it..... thank God for Freedom of the Press !!!
“We have met the enemy, and he is us”
3
How it must sting the NYT Editorial Board to have such public capital invested in the election of Hillary and the toppling of Trump through collusion, be dead wrong and still lay claim to their slogan, "Now the truth is more important than ever". All that's left for the Editorial Board to do is sift through the crumbs to see if there is the tiniest bit of face to be saved. The big truth fish got away, but there may be a fact guppy lurking around somewhere if they keep looking.
9
The genius of your title --"No Collusion, No 'Exoneration'--deserves special notice for its deceptive accuracy.
Those two phrases must be conjoined. Each deserves equal weight; only a comma separates them, but in that punctuation lies the profundity of the divide we face. The report does NOT exonerate him, and your editors are right to quote that word as it's one of the very few quotation within the report. Likewise, the words "no collusion" do not belong in quotation marks, because they were not said by Mueller. They were said by Barr.
Within seconds of the release, the well-oiled machine bullying the left into caving in to depraved behavior was already swinging into high gear. Despite the bald truth that he was not exonerated, we've already been berated and hounded to drop everything because seeking truth can only be "a witch hunt."
As dozens of prosecutors pointed out last night, once the immediate hysteria abated, that letter is so rife with red flags it's in flames. We don't even need to parse the subtleties, though, because Barr, himself --he who doesn't believe in Mueller, the process, or the report, as he's on written record stating-- told us, in one slyly truncated phrase, that there is not enough evidence to make a case for collusion and then, directly, that this report "does not exonerate" him. It doesn't.
Demanding full disclosure and transparency is not a witch hunt; it's how a patriot acts. The left cannot back down on this. Release the full report. Now.
6
According to Mr. Barr’s four-page summary of the report, Mueller was unable to establish any conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
What about the conspiratorial meeting the Trump team had with Russians with the criminal intent of collecting “dirt” on Hillary Clinton? Of course, the team said that nothing came of that meeting. Does a conspiracy cease to be one simply because the anticipated outcome did not materialize? Even if the outcome aimed at was “subver[sion of] American democracy.”
There is one saving grace in the report, though: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” Despite the caveat, President Trump has been brandishing this report to claim “Complete and Total EXONERATION.” Mark it: The man who ridiculed the investigation as a "witch hunt" is now shamelessly using it to proclaim exoneration.
Equally shameless is Attorney General William Barr. Just a year ago he said that Mueller shouldn't be allowed to question Trump about obstructing justice, because, according to him, there can't be obstruction of justice unless there is an underlying crime to obstruct. He is now using the product of Mueller's work to show his loyalty to Trump. It's a shame that we have an AG who doesn't know that obstructing justice is a crime in itself.
The only hope now is Congress. Will it question Mueller and find out on what basis he arrived at his no-conspiracy-with-Russia conclusion?
2
Congress will have its say; there will be recriminations and acrimony, there will be lively discussion on the radio waves and in locker rooms across America, there will be collateral damage suffered by the protagonists to the debate (such as it will be) which will occur in a multitude of tap rooms and bistros across America and, finally, there will be an election which will either return the clearly divisive current President of the United States or turn him out of office. The entirety of all of the above is a sad note in the history of our Republic. The trajectory of our 'grand experiment' is uncertain; I fear that we are in a precipitous slide toward the end.
@Daniel K. Statnekov
I agree, Daniel. As long as too many Americans remain apathetic about voting, factually vetting candidates, or thinking short-term about politics we are vulnerable. The problems we face are complex, require systems (holistic) thinking, and long term solutions. Only competent, effectual leadership will accomplish this. History repeats and 476 AD is here!
So maybe now Democrats will stop calling me a Russian Bot? I don't get my hopes up frankly...
6
"[L]et’s not lose sight of what we already know, ... from news reports over the past two years." Honestly! We should at least wait for the Report to corroborate facts. Why waste the resources we have already spent on the investigation and risk coming up with speculative or partial conclusions.
1
Turns out that the real Deep State might just be Republicans who have dinner together at The Palm and send each other Christmas cards.
1
I thought people were innocent until proven guilty in the USA?
After two years with all the resources of the special council...he did not exonerate? How much more time do you need for your unending hit job on the President? The facts are not there. It was a political hit job from the beginning that sore losers bought into. This editorial board and others should apologize to the President and the American people.
11
The final finding of the Mueller investigation is:
"Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed the President"
The more things change, the more they stay the same....
While various takes on the report's conclusions will continue for days and demands that it be made public will be litigated, in the long term the Democrats will be better off now focusing on the Republican Party's record of undermining government policies protecting the environment, the health of the nation's citizens, blowing up the budget to increase the wealth of the wealthy, reducing support for the poor, destroying relations with our allies on security and trade and polluting our courts with doctrinaire judges. Those are the issues that matter.
2
Now that the Supreme Court and the Senate has been stacked in the Republican's favor. Now the Department of Justice has just fallen to a partisan AG. The only hope left is the SDNY and the House. The House is actually much more representative of the American people than any other branch of the government. The President lost the popular vote. Gorsuch took Garland's place in the Supreme Court. Now William Barr has replaced Sally Yates.
Nancy Pelosi please act fast be strong and tough we are counting on you. You as the Speaker of the House has to lead us out of these woods. We are everyday getting more and more lost in a Constitutional crisis.
4
Unbelievable. This paper and its minions will move the goalposts until it gets what it wants. The Times is beyond help.
7
This is a very important lesson. We, on the left, need to seriously drop this WHOLE narrative.
We need to understand that:
1. The content of Trump's character has always been the issue.
2. His base is unswerving.
3. The Republicans will absolutely not have another Nixon on their hands, even if Trump "shoots someone, in broad daylight, on 5th Avenue."
4. Continued harping about collusion and impeachment will only serve to alienate swing voters and people who don't vote, even if they hate Trump.
5. We need to mobilize the people who don't think that voting makes a difference. We need to establish that apathy creates vacuums that are filled with either career politicians, or as we have seen, monsters like Trump.
2
Trump and Putin both wanted Trump to be president, and direct collusion was not only unnecessary, but would have been a liability. The parallel to Aaron Banks role in swaying the Brexit vote is instructive. Banks did all the things that were too immoral and illegal for politicians to get away with - his distance from them is what allowed him to get away with it.
So there was no direct collusion. There didn’t need to be, and from that particular charge, Trump is indeed, well, pretty much, at least, shall we say “effectively,” exonerated. Now is when the actual witch hunt would begin, hopefully Democrats can resist the temptation, because it all works to Trumps advantage at this point.
1
@Peter
"...there was no direct collusion."
Special Counsel Mueller certainly couldn't find any...even with "...19 lawyers who were assisted by a team of approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff. The Special Counsel issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses."
Excellent point, Peter.
2
I am glad that we did not have a president in serious cahoots with a foreign government. But I am not glad that we have a president who lies constantly, even when the lie is not necessary, who plays the victim all the time (once a victim, twice a volunteer), attacks anyone who does not agree with his agenda, spends the majority of the day watching TV for news on himself and then the wee hours of the morning tweeting insults and lies. I am tired of a president who only considers 1/3 of America his constituency. I am tired of a president who allows corporations to trod upon our safety regulations and destroy our environment. I am tired of this president who lacks compassion. On to 2020 and let's vote for someone who has a message of hope, kindness, and inclusion.
4
It is misleading to report only say that Robert Muller's investigation "couldn’t find any links" between the Trump presidential election campaign and the Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 election.
Muller's team may well have found considerable evidence indicating the existence of links, but could not demonstrate links beyond a reasonable doubt--which is the high-bar standard that Muller applied.
Abundant evidence already in the public record suggests that the Trump campaign conspired with Russian officials.
We know that during 2016-17 Trump campaign and transition officials had 102 contacts, including some 28 meetings, with Russian officials. We know that some 28 high-ranking Trump campaign officials and advisers were aware of these Russian contacts; and that none of these Trump officials reported these contacts to the proper authorities, instead trying to cover them up.
None of this is remotely normal.
And none of it has been explained.
We need to know:
Who called these Russia-Trump meetings?
Why did the Russians attend these meetings? What goal were they pursuing?
Why did the Trump campaign officials attend these meetings?
What goal were they pursuing?
What happened at these meetings?
Why did Trump officials who knew of these meetings try to cover them up?
Attorney General Barr's summary of the Muller report shed no light on any of these questions. To clarify these issues we must see the entire Muller report and the evidence behind it.
3
This is so pathetic. Will the Democrats and the DNC News Outlets just admit that they fabricated this whole thing and admit that they are the reason they lost? Good lord, I could actually listen to a Democratic candidate if they would just own it. Going after Barr now because Mueller didn't give you the outcome you wanted? Pathetic
7
Oh given it up, After shameful coverage for last two years the Editorial has decided to continue its vendetta against our democratically elected President. Shame on the NYT.
8
Seriously, Barr worked on the Starr commission! Mueller and Rosenberg want to protect the organizational integrity of the FBI. That means they don't really care how their findings affect the Constitution, only the future of the FBI. The FBI played both sides in Watergate.
1
@Rocketscientist
The lawyers in the Clinton DOJ wrote the requirement that Special Counsel Mueller is expected to report only to the Attorney General.
Were you aware of that?
2
Let's see the logic of this reasoning. There is exoneration on the Russian collusion crime, that's not in dispute as Mueller already reached that conclusion.
On the 2nd issue of obstruction of justice, Barr wrote that these recorded incidents happened publicly so we can guess it's the tweets? But ignoring basic common sense of why someone would conspire for obstruction so publicly, lets get back to the basic findings that there was no Trump-Russia collusion.
So what is the potential obstruction about? To cover up a non-existent crime? Or could it be Trump is just indignantly and vehemently proclaiming his innocence?
4
"We hang petty thieves and appoint the bigger thieves to public office."
- Aesop, Greek slave & fable author
"Muller indicted petty thieves (Cohen, Manafort, Flynn, etc.) and I exonerated gang of bigger thieves and criminals (Trump, Trump Jr., Kushner, etc.)."
- William Barr, Trump's puppet
3
No, do NOT release the report. Why? So folks who DON'T have subpoena power, or perhaps even a legal background, and don't have FBI investigators, etc., can now re-plow the ground, looking for some minor matter with which they can seek to tarnish Trump?
No. Stop it. Grow up and quite acting like little spoiled children who want a do-over because your roll of the dice lost you the game!
Mueller was the great white hope of liberals...until he failed to return what they just absolutely, without question, intuitively KNEW was the truth (i.e., that Trump was guilty as sin!). Mueller played fair. He can take that as his legacy. A sitting president excoriated him at every opportunity, yet he held steadfast. He gave the results that were warranted by this MASSIVE investigation. And now the Democrats are upset that Mueller didn't deliver Trump's head on a charger.
Grow up! None of us is going to win every time. In fact, some times we're going to lose big. But if we lose FAIR, then we simply need to shake hands with the other team, be good sports...and wait for the next game (and there's always another one).
This has hung over our nation for two years. LET IT GO. Quite trying to find some scrap that you can fling at Trump. If Mueller didn't find it, you won't either. Let it go...and let's ALL, Republican and Democrat, get back to working FOR America...instead of AGAINST each other.
4
"We're not going to conspire with the Russians."
"OK, then we'll need a cover story. Adoptions!"
"I love it."
3
I for one am less concerned about AG Barr’s letter. I hope he realizes that at some point a critic of the current administration will be in a position to review all the documents, future books will be published on this affair and that information will be exposed. The reputation of each and every person that has touched this sordid tale will be in the full light of day. If that occurs 20 years in the future, many of the reputations tarred by this examination may not be around to defend what is unearthed. They should take to heart the words Shakespeare gave to Mark Anthony: The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones. Their children and grandchildren will either have to defend them or bask in their glory.
3
The single greatest problem with the Attorney General’s summary letter concerns the one who wrote it. Everyone knows that Trump’s #1 criterion for attorney general was absolute fealty to the president—not to the Constitution, mind you, but to the megalomaniac-in-chief himself. Thus objectivity and justice were rendered moot at the expense of vain loyalty.
For those of us who care about the rule of law and the foundations de rigueur of democracy, we simply can not abide the glaringly partisan judgement of Attorney General Barr. Too many important questions remain unanswered. Among them: Even if there was no legally provable collusion, why is Trump so obviously beholden to Putin? For this answer and countless others, the Mueller report should prove invaluable, at a minimum as a road map reveals directions to desired destinations.
The full report must be brought out of Republican darkness into the light for all to see.
6
Why does everyone (anyone) seemingly unanimously agree that Russian interference in the election was a good thing? The Barr letter stated that Russia interfered in the election, yet congress, and the majority of commenters here, seem to think that that interference is OK. Why is that interference not being investigated or prevented?
5
It is now clear that Russians did not collude with Trump to affect the election. I now want a full investigation into the Americans who have spent the last two plus years trying to reverse 2016. They did more to ruin confidence in our system than any outside interference could have. It was not Russians. It was those who cried Russian.
7
It's the Pence Effect. Best to keep the buffoon in power than enable a scheming religious fanatic to take hold.
In WWII, the Allies decided to no longer attempt to assassinate Hitler for the reason that he was going more insane day by day and thereby killing his own armies.
Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.
4
Trump believes the mueller report on the parts he cherry picks, but believed Putin over Mueller on Russia interference. Can’t have it both ways!
3
"Mr. Mueller and his team were unable to establish that anyone connected to the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government when it interfered to help Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign."
You have got to be kidding. So after all this time, this much anticipated report says there's no evidence of what there is overwhelming evidence of. This is madness.
5
The gross bias displayed during coverage of this investigation will taint any subsequent attempt to expose Trump's crimes. Who will pay attention to those who made a living on "Russia, Russia, Russia"? Most Americans don't watch cable news. Those who don't will be forgiven for thinking "that again?" when they hear news of other alleged misdeeds. It's as if the Lewinsky thing blew up in Starr's face and Reps tried to impeach Clinton over Whitewater.
However, Trump now needs something new to bloviate about. I don't think "deep state" is enough to get him reelected. He may actually have to govern.
3
Of course, Barr is a hand-picked, tool friendly to the kleptocracy: what did anyone think he would say when he is also not allowing the report to go public?
3
Although Barr’s actions are a bitter pill to swallow, let’s move on and throw him out of office in November 2020. Please, rather than endless bloviated hearings, the Congress must now deal with the long list of pressing issues facing the country. In reality, if Mueller could not nail Trump after two years of investigation, Congress will be unable to do any better. Pick your candidate and vote Trump into oblivion replacing James Buchanan as the worst president in American history.
1
Hell hath no fury like a Democrat scorned. Look out Mueller.
4
Barr states that the memo explicitly says it cannot exonerate him on obstruction of justice and lays out both sides. Is it even within Barr's duties to make the decision? Or was this left for Congress to decide? And regardless, since it came down to a 'tie', shouldn't the American people be able to read in full what is detailed on both sides? Since one side now is complaining complete and total vindication which the memo clearly states is not the case in the full report?
Please stop this nonsense! The media should be eating crow! For 2 years you have hyped the drama of this report and now it’s a dud! Trump was right! You guys are fake news! How about you start focusing on issues that matter! How about you put the same effort and same number of reporters on healthcare for all proposals, gun control, tax increases on the wealthy, white supremacy, immigration reform, decreasing homeownership etc!
Seriously it’s enough already!!!!!!
8
Yes, please, let's focus on the issues you have raised. And let's see if the Republicans in the Senate will be willing to take up these issues for the good of the American people. I'm betting that sadly, they won't.
The Trump trolls are here, in an organized campaign, spouting the same nonsense as Trump himself. “Apologize - ther’s bo collusion.”
As if Barr’s memo excuses Manafort’s sharing of poll date with Russians, Roger Stone and WikiLeaks, Flynn’s sitting next to Putin at the RT dinner, the whole gang meeting with the Russians up at Trump Tower. Russia, if you’re listening...nice job!
And please don’t mention felony Election fraud. That’s no big deal!
2
There is no exoneration for being stupid and incompetent, no exoneration for those who voted for him knowing that brutal fact.
1
The bloodthirsty hatred of Trump on the left reminds me of the bloodthirsty hatred of Clinton and Obama on the right. There is no chance of impeachment at this point particularly with a lockstep Republican Senate. Are we going to focus on Russia forever and the false belief that without Russian internet advertising millions of people would have voted for Hillary? Shouldn't the real work be to support a candidate on the Left who can energize the remaining moderates and centrists of the country? Hillary prophesied that a Trump administration would be "Republicans on steroids." That is exactly what is happening. Isn't that the real crime?
4
“Russia if your listening..............WE DID IT!”
The Times editors never apologized for pushing the weapons of mass destruction either. Funny, same sources.
4
"Who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes."
--- William Barr, Attorney General of the United States
1
Maybe now the Times will assign some intrepid reporters to tell us how the Steele dossier was paid for by the Clinton Campaign through a series of law firms for disinformation given to Steele by Russia.
Clinton campaign — Russian intelligence — law firms — foreign spy.
There is your collusion/conspiracy. And it leads back to the Clintons.
9
I am no attorney..but I knew from the beginning this is how this report would end....Prosecutors are looking for criminal intent...some purposeful strategy for wrong doing...Trump...as always, even in Real Estate dealings, is sloppy, no organization, nor strategy---just deal from the gut...which for Trump ended in a number of bankruptcies, and without his Dad, would have ended him out on the street in front of Trump towers...Yes, he has definitely engaged in obstruction of justice, but Roy Cohn would have gotten him community service---something like a counselor at a massage parlor---Trump is a loser, total incompetent, which comes in handy when trying to orchestrate collusion with a foreign power....
2
The real collusion and obstruction occurred in the NYT opinion offices. The columnists and editorial writers will hide behind claims of free speech or freedom of the press, but this was a coordinated effort to remove a duly elected president from office just because his politics didn't fit theirs. Young Sulzberger has ruined the reputation of The Times. He, Blow, Collins, Krugman, Goldberg, et. al should resign.
9
Only a stupid leader would want to get in bed with leaders from North Korea, Russian, Saudi Arabia, etc., as intelligent leaders keep their distance from these type of men. I hope that those farmers in the Midwest, and those blue collar workers in the Rust Belt are finding out, just how stupid his policies are, as they are driving this economy into the ground. Anyone who seriously considers voting for him, if he is nominated by the Republican Party for a second term, should question their intelligence. Stupid leaders are dangerous, and destructive, and who in their right mind would want anymore of that.
2
NYTs still clinging to the sham investigation started by the Obama/Clinton cabal and their deep state operatives.
It’s going nowhere boys and girls....and now Trump is wielding the prosecutorial hammer.
And Trump just won in ‘20.
7
Why is no one focusing on the phrase “KNOWINGLY COORDINATED” in the report? This is a huge red flag - it is likely that the report goes not excruciating detail about Trump & co’s activities toward Russia during campaign and finds that they were at the very least useful idiots for the Russians. Not so good for him, who wants a president who is a useful idiot?
3
Wow. A treasonous con man wins. Mueller couldn't connect the dots and we will now be under Russian control.
This is a wreckless editorial on behalf of the Times. Your final paragraphs contain two significant lies. Cohen is going to prison for lying to Congress, tax evasion and bank fraud. To say he is being sent to prison for paying off Stormy Daniels is an outright lie. The statute is clear, if the payment was solely for the purpose of the election it’s illegal. If it had another purpose - to avoid family problems, to protect Trump’s reputation... then it was not illegal. Cohen said what the prosecutors told him to say. He went to prison for other crimes.
Two. You claim to know what Putin wanted. Where is your proof? Your last paragraph is wishful thinking at best and unproved fiction at worst. You have no provable basis for this conclusion.
The Times is completely ruled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. You’re lying to your echo chamber. Unfortunately, this is going to become serious business soon and you are setting events into motion that will end badly because you’re neither rational nor truthful with your readers. You are whipping up hate and division. What do you hope to achieve by it?
5
Mueller investigates for 22 months and Barr spends what?
8 waking hours going over it and releases a 4 page cliff notes assessment. Are you kidding me!
What a joke.
If Nadler must, he needs to subpoena both Barr and Mueller for testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee and Nadler et al must continue House oversight of all the other investigations.
A former AG writes a 19 page "cover letter" last year re: SCR's injustice, months later he winds up being appointed the new AG.
Partisan hack? You bet.
What a sham.
At least Barr noted on page 3 that the President (I almost vomit every time he's mentioned as such) is not exonerated.
Release the report and Vote.
Al Capone walked around for years thinking he was untouchable and the Feds put him in prison on tax fraud.
It took the Feds three times to finally put John Gotti in prison.
Remember, the SDNY, MDA and other jurisdictions will eventually bring the criminal in the White House and his cabal down.
1
@Futbolistaviva--
"Remember, the SDNY, MDA and other jurisdictions will eventually bring the criminal in the White House and his cabal down."--Futbolistaviva
Err...
Isn't that EXACTLY what the Mueller Report was supposed to have done?
But now that Mueller has let the Loony Left down so very badly (/s), well it falls to the NEXT generation of "bombshell droppers," "SDNY, MDA, and other jurisdictions [to be named later]," who will, doubtless YET vindicate the Loony Left (/s).
Hope springs eternal amongst the Crazy Class which, like a rabid dog, will NEVER let go of Trump's leg.
There’s still no doubt in my mind that Trump is a filthy traitor and beholden to the Russians. Nothing will change my mind. This man is a criminal. Lock him up.
2
Give it a rest. You hate Donald Trump. We get it.
6
@Tom, Liberal Anxiety!!
What a disingenuous and partisan title. The picture is also ridiculous. It just reinforces my impression that this editorial was written by some partisan hack for the Democratic Party. The fact is after two years, millions of dollars and powerful powers to interview, subpoena, and indict, a team of experienced lawyers and investigators could not find any evidence to incriminate Trump or his advisors of collusion or obstruction of justice. The special prosecutor is by definition an accusatory office. They could find nothing and you cannot prove a negative. When will it be enough for you liberals? This editorial is another example of just how far this paper has fallen. Shame on the NY Times. You people know better.
5
I can concede Robert Mueller's investigation was thorough, fair and found no evidence of collusion/conspiracy between Trump or his administration and the Russian malign influencers.
Acts of commission are frequently criminal but acts of omission are less frequently so. A man who beats his child in public may be charged with criminal child abuse but another who sees this man's crime and remains silent is not subject to the justice system unless he is in a special class (doctor, teacher, public service officer).
I want my president to raise holy hell when a foreign power threatens our electoral process rather than standing mute because it appears to be helping him.
It beggars the mind to think Mr. Trump had no understanding of the Russian actions and goals after watching his predecessor oust Russian "diplomats" from their estates one month before his inauguration and after his own intelligence services all said Russia was acting against the interests of our democracy. And yet, from Mr. Trump we get...crickets.
We must now suffer a Peacock President strutting "no collusion" to his base for a time.
But, even without the Mueller investigation, we still have a putative leader who is rampantly and openly self-dealing, who sows insults about "fake news", who incites the marginalized to racism and violence, who lies with unparalleled ease and stunning frequency.
Mr. Trump may have dodged a bullet but he will not survive another election if Americans can awaken themselves.
1
Yes congress !!!
Release the entire report !!
Unredacted !!!
ASAP.
Commence hearings today!
In emergency sessions. !
This outcome feeds into trumps cult and autocratic dictatorship.
Barr is a real wimp with a huge ego.
How dare he save a racist white nationalist crook in office.
Mueller has all the goods on this trump creep.
Voters are very angry.
We get nothing done about our crisis here and abroad.
We just get gonzo politics !!!
1
It is truly unreal that not even the NYT can let this go. What a clown show. Take your licks and move on. Is there anyone on this "editorial board" going home after this article thinking, "I am a total loser with this obsession"? It's now become sad.
5
which part of NO in NO collusion don't the lieing liberal leftist losers not understand?
4
I see that Joe McCarthy is alive and kicking here at the NYT. It used to be innocent until proven guilty, now it is guilty even IF proven innocent. (see Also Assange and UN and EU courts who back him but get ZERO coverage; Shame on the lying accusers anti journalist attitude).
First the principles of a free press. This paper no longer functions that way. It is purely 100% DNC Democrat and spends as much time 'nicely' savaging the Nu Democrats (Sanders, AOC, etc) as they demonize Trump. Yet when Trump does something REALLY stupid and pointless like dropping the MOAB on Afghanistan then the NYT give him credit and call him 'presidential'.
We get attacks on real progressives (Corbyn, AOC) while the liberal media, AS ONE, play the we don't accept the result of out opponents winning the election (Brexit, Corbyn, Sanders, Trump winning or even the Spanish separatists or Europe's neo fascist resurgence are ALL blamed on the Russia.
We have been told that Muellers report would PROVE Collusion. It did not. Getting ACCURATE information on Hillary corrupting the democratic process is NOT sabotage nor is doing business with Russia- It was OUR medias job to reveal the corruption of the DNC as proven by Debbie Wasserman's firing and Donna Brazile's book. None of them are RUSSIAN!
NYT you are pushing McCarthyism and endangering all life on the planet and undermining the rule of law! Accept the result of court decisions and win in the election, like we do IN A DEMOCRACY! Stop cheating!
4
Barr said he wouldn’t put his finger on the scale of justice, he didn’t, he put his entire fist on the scale and gave the finger to the America people.
1
@Bruce Pippin
Not much that can be done when the mighty Mueller finds no collusion and recommends no prosecutions to the Attorney General and the Justice Department...it is what it is, no?
1
There really is no way to deny that Russia helped elect this president. Although Trump & his "merry band of want a be oligarchs" are pretty inept, it doesn't mean they weren't used by the Russians. Of course they were. Indictment or no indictment, this should concern everyone. If it was Hillary Clinton who had been elected with assistance from Russia, not a day would go by that we wouldn't be hearing about it from Trump & the GOP. But yet, Trump is teflon. Nothing sticks. Hopefully, for the sake of our country, it will soon start to wear thin.
1
Whatever the report says it's clear that Trump and Putin are in bed with each other.
1
Trump's hand was not caught in the cookie jar - so the law is not able to convict him - however, voters have seen him asking Russia to hack into Hillary's email, the Trump Tower meetings etc. There is circumstantial evidence of wrong doing - the voters and people who care about honesty in their President should vote him out of office. Hopefully his henchman like Graham etc will lose their elections and there is a clean up in the elected officials. The stench from the WH is overwhelming? It is seems to be a den of thieves - ultimately they will slip up and get caught.
1
As always the NYT takes the facts and tries to spin them in its direction. The massive takeaway is the Trump did not conspire with the Russians. That he claims himself 'exonerated' while Mueller says 'he's not guilty' is semantics, and it's sad to see the NYT focus on that.
This paper has spent two years proposing every conceivable reason why Trump conspired with Russia. It's defended a Justice department that spied on the President with no actual verified intelligence he committed a crime. And now, finally, when against all comers, he is proclaimed 'not guilty' this paper has the gall to take shots at his for proclaiming his innocence.
NYT . . .you were wrong. He didn't do it. You've published hundreds of news stories and opinion pieces saying he did. Admit defeat. It's more gracious and it's time to move on.
2
So, when the "special counsel" regime was changed in the wake of Bill Clinton's impeachment (to forbid the release of an embarrassing report as was done by Kenneth Starr), the NYT was all in -- supporting the change. My how the vicissitudes of self-interest change things for our most famous "newspaper"!
2
@Titian
Hey Delores, The Office of Special Counsel did not exist when Ken Starr was Special Prosecutor. Starr abused his authority so grossly even the republicans in Congress voted to end that office existence.
The need for the report to be made public is due to the corruption those republicans have sown in our nation since Starr's report.
Can't we still get rid of this lying,crooked man? Vote in 2020 as if your life depends on it,cuz it does. Vote him out!
They didn't alert the FBI-WHY ?
The entire thing was a complete lie fabricated by the outgoing administration and media. You people got two years of a worthless, expensive, pointless investigation. You people are lucky Barr didn’t say the same and throw the whole thing in the trash.
1
What a "surprise" the Mueller report is. Now the rest of the world will have to put up with this moron of a president "leading" the free world, especially as he is likely to be re-elected in 2020.
The Democrats have too many people trying to be their candidate - they'll stuff themselves up in the primaries while Trump takes pot shots from the sideline. No-one wants to impeach him, despite high crimes and misdemeanors.
It is all so sad for America and those of us elsewhere in the world.
Dear Editorial Board,
The first rule of holes is when you are in one stop digging.
And you are in the Grand Canyon of political holes.
Not since your paper’s disastrous decision to convince Americans there were WMD in Iraq has the Times so badly failed this country.
Focus on income and wealth inequality from now on.
2
The stench of corruption and possibly treason hangs over this president, his close advisors and children, and his entire self-dealing administration. When will the truth come out and free us from this odious gang of criminals?
1
What a shame! As an independent voter this does not look good for the Democrats and NYTs at all!
2
Now he left can stop calling for impeachment........enough!
1
Proof that we are living in Looney Tunes times: "At 3 p.m., Mr. Barr’s chief of staff, Brian Rabbitt, called one of the White House lawyers, Emmett T. Flood." We have a rabbit and an obvious cognomen for Elmer J. Fudd!
1
Mueller was not charged with, "Exonerating" Trump.
The idea that he has to be, "exonerated" is bunk and pure Leftist prattle.
3
Now we see why Barr got the job.
This destroys my last shred of hope.
A column like this reminds me why I have a subscription to The Times.
1
Thank you NYT and all the left-wing news channels for not failing to disappoint. You have helped in getting Trump elected again in 2020. The only way to sway the election is as the socialist Democrats are doing, getting the illegals to vote and of course, bring in even more illegals. May I suggest that you now infer that Trump colluded with the Chinese, of course, with no evidence.
1
Trump finally found “his guy” to succeed Roy Cohn.
1
With no underlying crime I find it hard to imagine making a case that firing James Comey which is clearly within the legitimate purview of a president could be made into for obstruction of justice change as much as Democrats want it as a consolation prize for lack of collusion. I realize that after promising they supporters that Trump would be found to be a Soviet agent or a least a useful idiot this is a bitter pill for the left but they need to move on or start planning his next inauguration party.
1
Hey NYT editorial board Read Some History Or At Least The News Paper. The only true direct link to Russian Medaling in the election Was Uncovered By The OBAMA Administration. Who promptly did nothing!!! A cross look and a stern warning oh yeah all behind the scenes and not made public til he left office. And who conspired to keep the Russian hack under wraps oh yeah the Democratic Party who were putting all their efforts to fix the election in favor of Hilary Clinton over Bernie Sanders and his voters. They certainly did not want that to get out. I guess that’s not worth mentioning since it’s you guys and the left and not President Trump corrupting the election process. Can we get. Mueller report on that please.
1
Apparently Trump was right, he probably could stand in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and nothing would happen to him. Rich, white boys are always above the law, just ask Bret Kavanaugh.
3
When are the political advocates running what remains of the New York Times going to apologize to President Trump for their over 2 years of slander?
Do they get up a bus to go to the White House or does the President stop by next time he's in Manhattan?
The real storm clouds are gathering over the floors of the Times Building that are still used by the newspaper.
You were ridiculous then and have become pathetic now. For shame.
2
Amen. NYTimes doing gods work again.
It’s time for the NYTimes to issue an apology and return their Pulitzer for their Rusdia collusion reporting. They totally misled the public in their attempt to influence elections. Why don’t you go after how the FISA warrants were obtained illegally? Or how about the activities by those at the top in DOJ and the FBI under Obama?
3
The score is 2-0 Trump over Times Editorial Board. You’re attacked Trump relentlessly and when the fabled Mueller report does not support your view you don’t even have the decency to admit your error.
5
At a REAL journalistic institutions that went so badly astray, the editorial managers would be apologize profusely for their embarrassing shame. They'd be drawing new policies about lying and fictitious anonymous sources, and they'd fire deceptive and incompetent reporters and columnists.
When we see that at the Times, we will know they are a real journalistic institution again. Until then, they are just a liberal propaganda outlet.
2
Once the full report is out - or maybe even before - the New York Times and other media need to look inward. That "Russiagate" was a tempest in a teapot, or the result of a massive misinformation campaign, needs to be examined. The whole thing reminds me of the false furor of "Weapons of Mass Destruction". Was journalist integrity sacrificed to a political view?
3
If the Democrats fail to play as dirty as the GOP, they will lose in 2020. The Barr scam is just the latest, and prepare to leave for Canada.
This what
Barr was hired to do.
Did anyoe expect anything different?
Ugh! Fire up the republican "Lock her up" sinister chanting. Next comes the inevitable spin that Trump is Jesus.
@Rudy Hopkins
Apparently some Evangelicals think Trump was appointed by G-d. It is in the bible and everything.
So Russia interfered. If, indeed, POTUS did not collude, that makes him look very, very stupid rather than traitorous.
What I want to know is what has been done to ensure this won't happen again? I'd say almost nothing.
Russia is no doubt working already to ensure that its apparatus is in place for 2020. POTUS and GOP will do nothing - wink, wink - we are going to see a repeat.
1
In what universe does Trump’s flood of lies make any sense? At the 10,000 foot view, what is the narrative coming from this administration?
Spare me the CliffsNotes, Mr Barr.
1
The banner headlines that the Times ran on Sunday suggested that Mueller had found no Russian collusion, a woefully inaccurate and irresponsible framing of what we actually know. Now there are pieces about “closure” and a “cloud being lifted” from the Trump presidency in the same paper whose editorial board is publishing pieces like this demanding the Mueller report be released in full.
Like the ever-shifting magnetic pole of planet earth, such is the consistency of the Times’ reporting,
According to Mr. Barr’s four-page summary, Mr. Mueller and his team were unable to establish that anyone connected to the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government when it interfered to help Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign.
http://www.result.pk/exam-results.html
Let's not forget who else didn't call the FBI when the DNC was hacked: The DNC and the Clinton campaign.
According to the Washington Post, upon discovering the breach, the DNC called their lawyers (Perkins Coie) who then called Crowdstrike to determine what was going on and clean up the mess.
Oh, and when the Trump campaign faced questions regarding the hack from the media, those questions were referred by the campaign to the Secret Service.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-government-hackers-penetrated-dnc-stole-opposition-research-on-trump/2016/06/14/cf006cb4-316e-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.799675906cc2
2
Can't stand Trump, but this is another one you guys got wrong. Like the election. Still think HC should have won? Get over it. Move on to real issues...healthcare, jobs, prison reform, unnecessary wars, etc. The Times keeps seeing thingd through left-colored glasses.
3
There was no collusion. It was pure stupidity. Now we feel better.
1
The President of the United States was accused of being the puppet of a foreign power or of having worked with a foreign power to obtain his office.
In short, the Press accused the President is Treason, a capital crime.
Two years of classified investigation (without any leaks to the media) and the investigation found NO evidence of the President committing treason.
America is heading toward fascist rule, but it is not the GOP pushing us over that cliff. It is the Democratic Party. They demanded Muller be allowed to finish his report! And he did! Now they demand the report and all evidence! Why? Because they know they are right, and merely must find something to support their certainty. That is a religious devotion to ideology; belief despite objective evidence belying their predetermined conclusion.
America would be better served by the Democratic Party being honorable as it was when JFK was President. This modern iteration should be renamed the fascist party.
2
Can someone please explain to the NYT editorial board how criminal investigations work, i.e. the federal statutes and department regulations governing the dissemination of exculpatory evidence from Grand Jury proceedings when charges are not brought? They don't seem to understand how the law works at all. It's embarrassing.
2
I dislike Trump but am incredibly disappointed by the NYT, the paper I love. Not unlike the election, you failed your readership and have now given the charlatan infinite fodder for his false news narrative. At some point you have to wonder...
7 out of 10 Americans want the Mueller report public.
Mr. Barr's hastily drawn 4 page version is totally unacceptable!
4
As a foreigner I must admit that I don´t think Americans are stupid. They elected, on their own, this President. After 2 years of expensive investigation done by an individual from the opposite party it is clear that Mr Trump, as I have always believed is innocent and won not against HRC, but 16-17 Republican candidates! Now, it is time for the American people to ask the adequate branches of government to prosecute HRC, BHO and the Democrats that have been absent from any proceeding! Despite the ordeal this 45th POTUS has delivered way more than he promised in barely 2 years. People will vote and re-elect him to become 46th, on the facts, on the economy and on recuperating and maintaining the fundamentals of the economy and RESPECT for your country and its people. Bubba and BHO ruined the aura of respect to the institution of the Presidency and the economy. Wake up and smell the coffee! Time for orange jumpsuits for those "privileged", untouchable and non-deplorables.
1
The NYT should be ashamed. They have pushed the narrative for two years that Mueller was beyond reproach and that there clearly was collusion. I assume you will have the decency to apologize for your irresponsible coverage. This comes from someone who hates Trump.
2
You all at the New York Times should be praying to God right now that Trump doesn’t sue you all for libel and put you out of business for good.
And I wouldn’t count on New York Times v. Sullivan protecting you any more, what with the new Supreme Court makeup.
After being so colossally wrong and misleading the American people for the past TWO YEARS, perhaps a little humility is in order.
1
Until the NY Times admits Joe McCarthy had 2 lists and everyone on the second was arrested, until they admit at the Wheeling speech of all the reporters there none heard Joe give a number ( the reporter who said the 205 number later confessed he wasn't there), until the NY Times admits that a fake dossier given to Joe before the Army hearings was done to throw him off they have done far more for Russia than anyone connected to Trump. The NY Times knows the truth, it has been on the CIA website for years, they simply continue to defend Stalinist's.
Democrats were sore losers when they lost in 2016 so it’s no surprise they’re sore losers now. Sorry New York Times, your scheme to unseat a democratically elected president through a series of lies and smears against him does not appear to have worked. However did you get yourselves into such a jam?
2
It is now time for the NYTimes to admit to the bias and antagonism they have exhibited towards this administration.
A full apology to the citizens of the United States for their commentaries and opinions that bordered on treason would be appropriate.
3
The Mueller and Barr statements all hinge on the definition of "Russia".
I'm sure "they" are chuckling at the work of the useful idiots, a game no one does better. (Lesson: Never play another person's game, when they are masters at it.)
1 would think that news that the president of the US has been cleared of collusion with the Russians by in my view a biased special prosecutor and his team of lawyers, some with ties to Clinton Foundation would have been welcomed by all Americans, regardless of party "a coeur joie,"with relief and gaiety.0f course 1 needs to see all the documentation,but meanwhile we can and should take comfort in the fact that we have a c-in-c who is not guilty of treason, contrary to Mr. Brennan's observation. Yet to look at Cong. Nadler's face, down cast, crestfallen, as if the sky had fallen, 1 realizes that the Dems. were hoping for the opposite verdict, and likewise the liberal media. They all wanted another Watergate, and liberal journos had long faces "tristes comme un jour sans pain!"My advice is to cheer up and give credit where credit is due: No man , no president has endured as much calumny, as much verbal abuse, unrelenting , non stop as Trump. Reason I supported him at the outset was that everyone else seemed to be against him!Don't be sourpusses(1 of William Buckley's favorite words); Go easy on the crankiness!
Unbelievable. The Times cannot give it a rest, even now. Hang onto that railing as the Titanic goes down. Please.
3
Barr appears to have disbarred himself.
I’m not going to turn on my tv this week and I won’t be listening to NPR either. I can just imagine the bickering back and forth. We all know what we need to know; Donald trump is unfit to be president. He is a liar, a cheat, ignorant and small minded. Vote!
3
Publish Mueller's report.
Publish individual-1's taxes.
Barr, yet another toady, in just a few weeks after coming in contact with individual-1 has just ruined whatever reputation he had. This makes Barr yet another nitwit, yet another sucker. Barr, after seeing individual-1's modus operandi of a lifetime in private, and 2 years in public thinks it is going to be different for him. Congress is eventually going to pry the report out of the DOJ. Individual-1 will turn on Barr just like Everyone. Who. Went. Before. . What a maroon.
1
Show Americans the full report. AG Barr and the puppet master Trump may believe they can convince citizens there are no strings as AG Barr penned the letter on Sunday. If POTUS Trump is so confident, as he tweeted out in such volume, the report exonerates all aspects of his conduct, then he definitely has nothing to fear nor be concerned about.
SHOW US THE FULL REPORT.
Leopards don't drop their spots, and criminals and their cohorts never give up their crimes, perhaps they conceal them better with practice and with cooperation in appropriate places by individuals who for reasons to be understood turn their eyes blind. The lead-up to the release of this report can't be swept under the rug with a simple summary, especially given ALL of Trump's conduct during the 2 year investigation and the outrage he professed from the investigation.
It only stands to reason a person vindicated by an investigation of this high profile would welcome the opportunity to share the details. Americans will make up their own mind AG Barr and POTUS Trump.
1
Though Mr. Mueller and his investigators were unable to establish evidence that the Trump campaign conspired or collaborated with the Russian ‘government’, important members of the campaign team had plenty of meetings with high level Russian persons. These individuals had close, but hidden, association with Putin’s government. There may not be evidence the Trump campaign coordinated directly with Putin. That does not exclude indirect coordination. Let Congress and the public see the full report.
This should be the focus of the media . The threat that Russia's disinformation campaign which have now been confirmed by the Mueller Report and indictments presents to our democracy (not a hoax). See the Times Video Report on Russia disinformation campaigns as well as the "Kremlin Playbook" and "Putins Kleptocracy". https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/opinion/russia-meddling-disinformation-fake-news-elections.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article#one
After more than two years of misleading (or worse...outright inaccurate) reporting on the direct involvement of President Trump, his family, and members of his political campaign in a Russian criminal conspiracy to hijack a U.S. presidential election...
The NY Times has some serious explaining to do and this pathetic offering simply won't cut it, Editorial Board.
Let's have an explanation and an apology to Times' readers for having gotten the Russia collusion story so spectacularly and devastatingly wrong.
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@Raconteur "Russia, if you're listening..."
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@XXX
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Fusion GPS for dirt on Trump through a cut-out law firm, Perkins Coie...in violation of FEC regulations prohibiting the disguising of the use of political campaign funds.
That "dirt" originated with Christopher Steele and his paid Russian government informants...why does the NY Times (and most of the rest of the mainstream media) have so little curiosity about THAT dirt and THOSE Russians?
Can you explain?
Does Trump have to be a narcissist, an ignoramus, petty, impulsive, arrogant, mean-spirited, a serial liar AND a colluder with Russia in order for him not to be re-elected? It's time for the public to put the Mueller investigation in perspective (if not in the rearview mirror) and realize that we are still stuck with the same unqualified occupant of the Oval Office who needs to be removed by the sane voters out there.
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One line summary:
"Trump got away with it"!
election tampering;
collusion with a hostile foreign power;
massive fraud and corruption;
trading on the office of president for windfall "emoluments" for the Trump hotels and businesses (i.e. himself!);
obstruction of justice;
encouraging perjury on a massive scale;
running a RICO-status racketeering and corruption ring;
etc,
etc.
This AG's letter is an insult to the American peoples intelligence!
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If you haven't read the report, dear Editorial Board, how do you know that it says and what it doesn't say?
Or are you presupposing that your "unnamed sources" for the past year actually have a clue as to what Mueller has found?
That's not journalism...That's character assassination.
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So, the AG is lying or misrepresenting the truth?I know the editorial board of the NYT or people against America and the president can't believe what actually happened today. However, it happened. Get over it. Our president is not a crook. People should be happy. Right?
This has been going on for two years. The narrative was garbage from the beginning. I don't like Trump but lets beat him at the ballot box. This whole Russia collusion nonsense has done nothing but put each side at each others throats for two years. When is the media going to take a respective look at what has been reported for two years? Maybe we shouldn't trust figures like Brennan and Clapper when they get on TV. Let's face it this paper that I read everyday has gotten so much wrong for two years. Where is apology or at least a small note to the readers. I agree with Matt Taibi this is the WMD of this time. Unreal that the Times is still going with this.
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Let Congress and the American people read the full report! Barr is a acolyte of Trump. And Trump is a crook.
1
Everyone, especially the press, should stop this nonsense and obsessiveness in finding Trump guilty of something. Simply, Trump won, Democrats lost and, if they continue with this stupidity, they will also lose 2020 elections. Concentrate in uniting the country. There are so many people in need of so much. Congress and all its committees should stop wasting time and money unnecessarily. Two years of listening to the same silliness and madness is enough. Just move on!
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If Robert Mueller and his team of investigators (Democrats all) found zero collusion then the question becomes WHAT were the motivating FACTS the caused the investigation into the Trump campaign to begin with???
THAT is the next shoe to drop.
THAT is the genuine scandal here.
How interesting. For those who watch Fox News the findings of the Mueller report are not a surprise at all. For those whose source of news is CNN or MSNBC, they are shocked by the Mueller report.
Why is that??
The lies in the Steele Dossier, lies used to obtain FISA
warrants to spy on the Trump campaign came from Russian sources and were purchased by the DNC/Clinton campaign
The Washington Post, NY Times and especially CNN and MSNBC PUSHED the narrative of Trump Russian Collusion for TWO YEARS based on a bogus document that to this day has not been verified. Don't take my word for it, take James Comey's word for it....if you dare. Willingly pushed a narrative that came from the "Russian sourced" Steele Dossier.
I would contend that the facts have and will continue to show that it was elements within the DOJ/FBI/CIA who colluded with Russians to divide this nation and cripple this President. And worst of all the American mainstream media have been along for the ride, they've been loyal Democrats who've had zero interest in pursuing the TRUTH.
Shame on you New York Times.
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@Linda
The truth is his personal lawyer, his campaign manager, and his national security advisor are headed to prison. The Russians have, since the campaign, no need to collude with Trump anymore. Putin owns him. Our President enjoys hanging out with the enemy. He is their Twitter toy, destroying NATO, South Korea, and soybean farmers in the mid-west with nary a twinge of regret; golfing every fifth day of his Presidency at the tune of 61 million taxpayer dollars, so far. Camp David, rent-free, is not good enough. He has to leave a slimy trail wherever he goes; on your dime and mine. Your political fantasies keep you satisfied and content. Good luck. I prefer living with curiosity, strength, and my own judgements. I am not persuaded easily by a President who demeans John McCain and other gold star families, after their sons and daughters are buried and dead. That is this President's truth, and, sadly, ours.
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Nothing to see here, folks! Move along. The Gaslighting of a Nation. Fight back.
The Russian ambassador's plane was seen at least six times at campaign stops. Sessions met with the Russian ambassador and lied about it under oath. The famous meeting at Trump Tower in which the reason changed 7 times. Trump makes everyone leave & has a meeting with two Russian diplomats ( spies ) in the Oval office. The closed meeting with Putin at the so called summit. Comey & the FBI are investigating Trump & the Russian connection, but never tell the public. Just the Clinton Emails Emails Emails. The Russians hack the Dem emails encouraged by the Trump people.. The Russians target certain voters through facebook. Trump hires Manafort & Flynn, with heavy connections to Russia, even after being warned of their shady past. TRex is brought in as Sec Of State specifically to try to get rid of the Russian sanctions for Exxon. But leaves when that fails & cause he can't stand Trump. The Russian woman spy & the NRA. The Trumps lie about the Moscow hotel negotiations. There is an article in Business Insider which details all the meetings and contacts. 101 points of contact between the Trump campaign & Russians. The article is entitled 'All known contacts between Trump Campaign & Russians ' ..... I'm probably missing some things ..... but there was no collusion. .. Yea Ok
I wonder if Director Comey has anything to say and how he views his “report” on Hillary Clinton’s email today.
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I want, no, need to hear from Mueller.
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Mr. Muellar is Republican. Mr. Barr is Republican. Mr. Rosenstein is Republican. Grand Old Partisans!
I'll look forward to the Editorial Board for your upcoming apology in taking a leadership role in driving this Russian story.
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Something is not right. Are we stupid? Trump dismantled the FBI, destroyed the careers of top flight agents. What for? Why? Because he never conspired with Russia? What is going on? There are very, very dark forces at work. There were dark forces at work that brought down Hillary Clinton down. And there are dark forces at work here. It does not make sense.
It's all over now and the Democrats - and their trusted mouthpiece, the N Y Times, have lost. And America, has won. Truth eventually triumphs over propaganda.
All that effort, with nothing to show for it in the end but a bunch of articles declaring that stop means go, and black is really white, and that exonerated really means guilty.
Barr is a Trump man so his opinion doesn't, or so the lie continues, but actively minimize the concurrence of Rod Rosenstein, hardly a Trumpist.
It's over and as predicted, it actually is a nothingburger.
The indictments of those responsible for promulgating the lies that resulted in this farce won't be so amusing.
It is expected that the Editorial Board would fulfill its fiduciary duty and continue to publish clickbait articles like this one, on this topic for the foreseeable future.
And why not, the Times is a business, not a disinterested trust. It is free to mislead its readers at any time.
But anyone on their staff who actually believed that two years of slanderous articles will be forgotten needs to think twice.
With sufficient investigation into sources, leaks, and manipulation of disclosures, I will confidently predict that the Times will end up named in several large libel suits before this is over.
They'll need all the clicks they can get.
We are deep into banana republic territory.
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Some commenters here are placing a lot on 2020. When did you last hear of a dictator who allowed himself to be voted out of office?
My take us that trump will ignore, even welcome, the threat Russia has toward our democracy. There will be no interest in stopping further anti-democratic attacks. He’s already decided they were good to him. Putin’s attempts to destroy democracy through helping a true fascist in trump is “treason enough” for me to vote 2020!
President Honest Don was investigated based on lies by an army of Hillary-loving lawyers with limitless power and limitless money- and they found nothing! Total exoneration!!
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The Democrats and the media including NY Times are now clinging (desperately) to the "no exoneration" line on obstruction -- can you all pls try to remember that Mueller did a full investigation into obstruction and concluded he could not bring a prosecutable case against Trump. Sorry, but in America, that is known as being found innocent. Great day for Trump. Blisteringly awful day for all branches of "Resist!".
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The one who is really smiling right now (besides Trump).....Putin.
Seems Mueller's report is a pretty thorough exoneration of President Trump with respect to to Russian collusion, if not so much regarding obstruction of justice. Time for the Demms to move on and maybe consider this: One of the oldest lessons in the art of war is to divide and conquer. If a foreign entity wants to weaken this country using social media and cyber hacking, what better approach than to stoke the fires of partisan and identity politics. Those fires seem to blaze hottest in the same quarters most concerned about Russian influence over Trump!
No further indictments from Mueller's office equates to exoneration.
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Barr's tortured and carefully craftef summary and I assume Mueller's report asks and answers the question: Was the President's conduct in violation of criminal law with the vague conclusion; No, not necessarily.
However the real question for the nation is: Is the President fit for office?
No, overwhelmingly so.
That is what "...not exonerated" is all about.
Now it is up to Congress and inevitably the American People...of which Trump's immutable Base is but a minority. The real question is: Do the rest of Congress or in 2020 the American People care enough to remove him and stop this narcissist before he causes irreparable harm to all of us if he has not already.
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@Bruce Olson
I think that we need to get back to the business of the country. Let the investigations continue. Not just let, but encourage inquiry into Trump and his family and , more importantly, start focusing on the substantive issues we face going forward and legislating. Earn the vote. Encourage the Vote. Enable the vote.
He had Rosenstein make up a phony letter to explain removing Comey due to his actions with Hillary. An action he obviously loved. Then, he could not help a few days later admit that the real reason to remove Comey was the "Russia thing". What more evidence does one need to show a complete planned obstruction with a phony excuse? Seems the evidence is very obvious.
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We really don't need Barr's opinion. We the America people have seen the clear evidence of the president's efforts and words to impede this investigation. The law's one thing but the obvious fact is that we have an unfit president who is morally and ethically unsuited for the job he is in.
A president who can't stand anybody to know what his SAT scores were, all that time ago, doesn't need to be committing horrible crimes in order to feel moved to keep interfering with people knowing about him - obstructing justice even if what you want hidden is innocuous is still an assault on the rule of law. This has to get straightened out. (I'm not claiming he's not a criminal, you understand, just that even if it was about whether he put his used chewing gum in the bin or not, and he thinks it's worth wrecking the justice system so people don't find out ... well you get the idea.)
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So Barr is doing exactly what he was hired to do, defend the President. That is, now, not only the view of the President, but also of the entire Republican Party, and they are clearly going to ride this destruction of US Democracy and the Constitution, not to mention normal decency and morality, to its bitter end.
1
It was widely predicted that the Democrat/media industrial complex would melt down when Mueller announced that President Honest Don was totally innocent, but the fanatical degree to which the Democrat/media complex would reject reality was underestimated
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Why is the Editorial Board okay with just a four-page summation/release by A.G. Barr on Meuller's report? Why isn't the fact that it hasn't been released to the public a bigger deal? We don't have enough information to park this issue.
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You don't meet 5 times secretly with Putin since the election, with no other Americans in the room; you don't lie about Moscow construction deals; you don't openly obstruct and attempt to manipulate the investigation...unless you are colluding with the enemy.
Stop the lying.
The Nixon boys still causing problems for this Country.
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Until we have access to the Mueller report in toto I will not accept Barr's conclusion regarding obstruction of justice. In addition I expect the House to begin a full investigation into this report using their subpoena powers to call in Mueller, Rosenstein, Sessions, Barr, Comey, Stone, et al. along with accessing his tax returns.
I'll also expect the other additional cases to carefully investigate trump's finances. It's always about the money and we have been told over and over that no banks would loan him money except for Deutsche Bank. So let's have that laid bare. Once these questions are answered we can then make our decision. Until then color me skeptical.
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One reason why I admire the Japanese so much: They're a shameful people.
When they punish themselves (including falling into their swords) when they bring shame to themselves and their family.
There are many in the democratic party including news media presenters and executives who should apply Japanese-style of self-punishment.
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I won't say that I'm relieved in the least by the Barr summary - can't say the same for the Mueller report, since I haven't seen it yet - but the less than 48-hour review by the AG concerns me deeply for all the reasons expressed in the Editorial Board's op-ed.
I'm confused, as are most people who have watched this case carefully, and I await the release of Mueller's entire report, which the American people deserve to see. Any effort by Trump or his minions in Congress to block the release should be vigorously fought by the Democrats and other patriots in Washington who understand that despite what Sarah Sanders would like us to believe, transparency doesn't mean accepting Trump's inane tweets as gospel.
I'm not aware of anyone addressing this issue, but what about Roger Stone's involvement in this mess? He has yet to be tried for his involvement in the alleged coordination between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign, and we don't know how legal THAT coordination was. Why did Mueller's investigation wrap up prior to Stone's trial? It seems to me that Stone is key to this case...
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Mueller’s conclusion that collusion did not occur proves that the investigation was NOT a “witch hunt”. He prosecuted those where evidence of a crime existed (Manafort, Flynn, Gates, Cohen) and did not pursue others where no or insufficient evidence existed. So rather than a witch hunt, the investigation appears to have been a sober, rational and fair minded exercise in justice.
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Barr's logic wrongly assumes that Trump can only have been trying to obstruct the investigation into conspiracy. Thuis no conspiracy no obstruction.
Trump is a lifelong professional criminal whom has managed to avoid arrest or charges. What if he were trying to drive authorities down that conspiracy path so the authorities did not follow a different path to the crimes he is obstructing investigation into?
Whatever is going on he was clearly terrified of Mueller looking into his personal finances and family business.
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A glimmer of hope: If the Mueller Report had implicated Donald in criminal activity, his base -- the police and bikers -- would be all fired up and Republicans would be more motivated to vote to protect their guy from the witch hunters.
As it is, with no criminal charges, it's the Democrats who will be motivated to the polls.
As for the primary candidates, they will have to adopt Nancy Pelosi's perorations and campaign on positive popular policies while we wait for whatever comes next. God spare us.
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C'mon, we know this is exactly why Barr was installed as Sessions replacement. The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. I suspect it will be months before the public sees any part of Mueller's report. In the meantime the White House and its cronies along with the opportunistic Republicans, and especially Fox News, will spin the total exoneration line and paint the Democrats as witch hunters. Fortunately there is plenty for the House and the Southern District of New York to investigate. Impeachment was always very unlikely, but Trump will still face legal justice once he is dethroned.
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@PTNYC
Please stop with the delusions. If the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming, Mueller would've recommended prosecution.
Maybe Mueller's investigation wasn't a witch hunt, but one has to question what evidence that FBI had to go on to tacitly spy on a presidential candidate. Either they were utterly incompetent or politically motivated.
@Elliot
I was referring to the circumstantial evidence of why Trump promoted Barr to AG. Of course he had to be confirmed, but Trump had assurances from Barr about how he would behave with the Mueller and the report.
Of course, the report should be made public with no censorship. But the Times should also do some soul searching for it pushed the collusion story and kept suggesting that Trump was too close to Putin. As Matt Taibbi argues Russiagate is the new WMD scandal. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/russiagate-is-wmd-times-a-million
What so many MSM did will contribute to public distrust in the media--which are indeed a key pillar of democracy. The Times never dealt with the reports by other journalists debunking its stories, Greenwald, Maté, Porter.
The eagerness to get rid of a terrible monstrosity, as Nathan Robinson calls Trump, is understandable but should not have interfered with journalistic ethics.
The truth is worth it and if the truth is that Clapper once again lied then the Times should have debunked it. If the truth is that Trump is a conman and cheat but not a Russian puppet the Times should have told it like it is.
The MSM keep deploring fake news but play games with the truth, often by omission rather than commission. In the Russiagate joke, as Chomsky called it right from the start, the Times staked its credibility and now has lost a lot of it. And handed Trump a symbolic victory (which may not last long considering all the other crimes). Apologies are in order instead of an attempt to paper over the cracks.
“This was an illegal takedown that failed.” Thank you for your concern.
For all of the disappointment Democrats and trump haters are experiencing re exoneration of the President....millions of Americans felt the same way when comey exonerated Hillary on the intentional and criminal destruction of 30,000+ emails.
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@Pvbeachbum except that Hillary is a criminal who clearly committed crimes but was not prosecuted for political reasons by a far left FBI
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If we care about the rule of law, we should now start to investigate those who pressed this narrative falsely. If you hate Trump lies, then you hate lies, period, right? You don't want Obama admin to get away with refusing to accept the results of an election, to cash in an insurance policy they had no right to even discuss. You want to know what was said by Clinton to Lynch at the Phoenix airport. You want to know why the FBI switched the words negligent to extremely careless, even after they got carefully scrubbed or meticulously destroyed phones back from Clinton and her aides. You want to know why your fellow Americans were unmasked in violation of their constitutional rights. You want to know why Obama claimed one month that the Russians couldn't matter in an election and did nothing to warn anyone defensively about it, then on the first Wednesday in November 2016 was outraged at what they had done. You want to know why Obama communicated with Clinton on her private server, then denied knowing it existed. You want to know who leaked to the press the dossier. You want to know who would record the President without due process. All this and more you want to know. Unless you are not an American first, but partisan first. Then you don't care about the lying at all. You just care about who is doing the lying, and the rule of law is on its way to the grave.
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I can't believe that so many of you refuse to accept the reality that Trump & Co. did not collude with Russia. I guess you think Mueller is a Russian plant too. Yikes.
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The investigation is not complete without calling in the Trump to answer questions under oath.
Send in the subpoenas !
Why wasn't this done????
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As always, it boils down to character and integrity. Nobody can outslime Trump.
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Mueller reported he was Russia’s useful fool. Investigation of his crimes is hardly over.
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Thanks for this editorial.
You have the temerity in your very first words to call the new Attorney General, a distinguished, highly reputed lawyer and civil servant, "Trump-friendly"? How dare you! I stopped reading it after that.
Where are your apologies for misleading the American people about all this daily based on fantasies and falsehoods? Apologies are owed to us as your treaders for not finding and reporting the truth and for refusing still to do that. It is long overdue to ask you, in words that you should ring in your memory, have you no shame?
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To those who excoriate the NY Times for reporting on the Mueller investigation and are demanding apologies; I applaud the NY Times for reporting on the news and the rigor that they vet the coverage. The NY TIMES has been an on-going subject of Trump's vicious attacks and attacks on reporting the truth. Trump's attacks on and blurring the lines of truth have proven to be dangerous to our democracy, which is dependent on an educated and informed electorate. The NY Times attempts to inform.
I look forward to the NY Times continuing coverage of all the other investigations that have spun off of the Mueller investigation. It is not over for Trump. In fact, it is a new beginning but this time he won't have an enemy (Mueller) to focus on, just relentless under cover inquiry and investigation into his apparent corruption and fraud.
Celebrate today, Mr Trump and his supporters because you don't know what justice tomorrow will bring. And the NY Times will be there to cover it.
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Barr's letter to Congress, "The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks."
Trump's appeal to Putin, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."
https://youtu.be/3kxG8uJUsWU?t=40
NO COLLUSION?
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This report just gave Trump the 2020 election!
Anything can happen between now and 2020 to prove Trump to be a demagogue who is unfit to be president of a democratic nation. For the good of the country let's hope it is not a catastrophic event. His days may still be numbered.
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@Max de Winter
You completely underestimate the level of opposition to Trump and for very valid reasons. The list has grown longer and longer. We Americans are waiting, and looking forward to voting. The question to you is, if Trump loses, will you accept it and move on? or not?
The House of Representatives voted 420-0 to RELEASE the entire report, minus highly secret information that would endanger a person or group of persons working for the United States of America. I would believe this would include all reference materials that were reviewed by the Special Counsels Office. If AG Barr does not release the report voluntarily, he must be subpoenaed to do so, and if that is refused, which most likely it will be, then it must go to the courts, ultimately the SCOTUS. Remember the 8-0 vote against Pres. Nixon when it came to the release of the WH tapes during the Watergate era regardless of which President appointed them. There was an allegiance to the USA and the Constitution in those days that spoke to no one is above the law, clearing the path to impeachment. This is no different, and Barr's 19 page dissertation against indicting a "seating President" is totally wrong, otherwise if left standing, it says "it doesn't matter what the President does while in power." That should be, and is, an extremely concerning stance that influences and effects all Americans. Enough! Do we have a republic based on democratic values, or not? It is time to stand up for all Americans. After all, the 420-0 vote has already.
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Not one word of contrition from the editors for making many people near-certain that collusion with Russians occurred?
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If the report has nothing on Trump, can we see the whole report please? Why the paraphrased sunnary?
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It is to be hoped that Americans will not allow their nation to slip down any further into ignominy under the Republican Party, which, after all represents only a minority of America's citizens.
This Trump man has injected poison into the lifeblood of your country.
It is hard to watch.
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Ending it all on March Madness weekend, after nearly two years of investigation, was the tip-off to me that some sort of fix was in. Not to mention Mr. Barr issuing his determination on Sunday afternoon. They are trying their best to bury the whole thing. Seems that Mr. Mueller lost his nerve, if he ever had any. Very disappointing. Perhaps it was foolish to hope for anything legitimate from a bunch of crooks and liars.
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This whole issue is so sad. Trump, a pathological liar selected Barr to be in his own image. Everything boils down to trust. Anyone skeptical of Trump simply cannot take him or is appointment picks as honest. It's not in their DNA. This ongoing dishonesty is going to lead to never endless investigations to get at the truth. Somewhere along the line, trust has to be reinstilled in our leadership and that does not appear to be forthcoming.
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Given Barr’s plain-view analysis it would seem that trump was legally on all fours when he said he could, with impunity, walk out on 5th Avenue, on a bright Easter Sunday, and notoriously shoot a dowager in her Easter Bonnet With All The Frills Upon It!
I think it turned out quite well for everyone: Trump himself didn't get caught up in the trap (like Clinton, Bill, not Hilary, did). But a bunch of associates did and some will end up serving time. Fairly stinky scandal, not enough to clear the room but enough to make it stink for a while (and sell eyeballs).
Look at it this way. Russia desperately wanted a compliant ally in the White House. Not because they wish to work with America for the betterment of both countries, but so the Russian oligarchs can get richer, at the trivial cost of Donald Trump ego-tripping on a few more gaudy status symbols.
But if you were Putin, would you work WITH Donald Trump towards this mutually-satisfactory goal? Would you trust an impulsive, foolish man who has no loyalty to anyone and can't keep his mouth shut? Or put your faith in his silly, bumbling collection of relatives? Of course not. You would 'help' them, but never trust them. And you'd carefully pave the way to controlling them, then removing them when that proved to be in your best interest.
Russia helped Trump, and will eventually destroy him. With pleasure.
As for obstruction of justice, AG Barr should be ashamed. He has joined the forces of corruption.
4
Trump is a bumbling bombastic snake in a suit. It wasn’t for lack of reception to the idea that Donny, Jr., Jared and others failed to collude.
Trump has tried to bully the Justice Department, undermine respect for our legal system and has tried to obstruct the wheels of justice. He fired Comey for lack of loyalty. He hated Sessions for not ending the Mueller investigation.
Now Trump will feel empowered to cozy up to Putin.
1
Russia, if you're listening, you won.
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No collusion, No Exoneration, and No more than four sentences from Robert Mueller--yeah, such an amazing report we get to see--or not...
In declaring there was no “collusion” William Barr it certainly seems apparent he is following in the footsteps of the infamous Attorney General of Watergate fame, John N. Mitchell.
....and we all know how history has shown how “truthful” John Mitchell’s defense of his president happened to be.
2
Stop it , you owe the president and the nation an apology for all the wrong reporting and you are still beating the drum , no interview with the president was granted because there wasn't any probable cause and all the gents who were convicted was for financial crimes from their past and nothing to do with Trump .
If you want to be a paper of record , act like one grafter the other side with the same zeal , there was a coup d'état attempt by the democrat justice department and FBI , no one cared till now but I got a feeling that things will change very soon and chants of lock them up will be loud and clear .
1
There really are only two major questions left to answer:
1.) What did Obama know? (one would have to be a child not to realize that this charade could not have taken place without Obama's knowledge)
2) When did Obama know it?
2
The Editorial board of NY Times should learn a lesson in fair and unbiased reporting. As an independent observer, I do think that the Editorial board has been misleading its readership and for the past several months misinforming the readers that there is some truth to the Russia collusion story and Trump was a puppet of Putin and that therefore Putin had put in his 2 cents to get Trump elected president of US.
From the day one of Trump presidency, many in the media were promoting the narrative that Trump did not deserve to get elected, that he did not win the election fair and square and that it was wikileaks and Putin in an underhanded or covert manner fixed the 2016 presidential election in his favor. The myth that was perpetuated by some in the media was that electoral college were a bunch of uneducated gullible fools who bought into the hollow promises that candidate Trump will not keep and America will be in a worse shape than he got it from Obama.
One of the NY Times headline today is A cloud over Trump's presidency has been lifted. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/24/us/politics/trump-mueller-investigation.html
A headline in BBC states Mueller report: The best day of Trump's presidency https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47688348
No BBC, the best day for president Trump was when he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the USA and he presented his vision for changing America and the planet and making it better and safer. Today that vision is a reality.
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It's over. Your newspaper, as well as others, is to blame.
The headline is the story. "No conspiracy, no obstruction." It doesn't matter what else you write. It's over. Your banner headline tells the trolls, "The Democrats just ran a bad candidate and can't accept they lost fairly!" and "Trump is totally in the clear!" and "It was all a witch hunt!" All of these are directly contradicted in the letter, but it doesn't matter. The headline is the story.
Any further investigations will be resisted and scoffed at: "What? I thought we were done with this. Haven't those libs given up yet?" Any question of divided loyalties about Russian sanctions and real estate? Private Putin meetings? Arranging wikileaks dumps? "No conspiracy." Any tax fraud or campaign fund misallocation or money laundering? "You libs are so desperate: No conspiracy!" It's bulletproof armor.
They won; they'll always win. Trump will win in 2020. They know how to play you folks in the media too well. It's over.
1
If ever there were a time for fake news this is it: "make" the evidence.
Incredible. Just incredible. Shameless, even.
The 'Cliff Notes' version of the report provided by Don the Con's hand picked AG is as valid as it is long.
The question remains what, if anything, is being done to insure 2020 is not a rerun of 2016 with Russian interference with our election processes? To me this is the most significant thing going forward. If Donnie has the backing of Putin, yet again, will Donnie be able to pull another rabbit out of the hat and win another tainted election?
The litany of bad governing since 1/20/2017 should be evidence enough that this clown show has to end. Children in cages, allies unsure of our support, the secret meetings with Putin and Kim, sociopaths in the WH, i.e. Miller, liars in the communications office and Robert Mercers flunkies in high positions all speak to the possible undoing of 250 plus years of the American experiment.
1
There are laws for the rich and the connected then there are laws for the citizen . And this situation, where the wealthy manipulate and manufacture results with no consequences is hy the moral strength of the US is fading.
You do not prosecute white collar crime. Or crimes against humanity.
Witness: IranContra, The Bushes, Cheney, Abrams, Kissinger et al. If these corporatists had been held to account you wouldn’t have a real estate sleazeball running your playpen for murders like Bolton and Pompeo.
Hate to be so harsh but we all know money screams, and it screams the most in the US Congress.
We have been had. We have been had by DOJ,Congress, Mueller, Fox, Barr and most profoundly of all, Trump. We, the American people, have been Trumped. There will be excuses by the busload as to why Congress should have done nothing about the life-long criminality of Don the Gross, the pint-size Mafia kingpin. now despoiling our once sacred White House. There will be hand-wringing. There will be grandstanding and noise and obfuscation enough to hide a herd of Bison. Mr. Mueller, who was so slavishly praised you would have thought he was Jesus-come-again, has finished his chores and slunk into silent retirement with nary a whimper. I am sure we will soon see him golfing at MiraLaGo with a generous handicap. Mr. Barr, an apologist for all things Trump, has loaded his vastly ample bulk into a limousine and sped into the night. We've been had, people. Again. But it ain't over yet. With the minimum of two more years and possibly six, there is ample time left to destroy what is left of our battered democracy, so just sit back, pop a beer and watch the flames leap and play. It's all for your amusement.
2
I remember watching a Cub's game in which Ryne Sandberg was at the plate in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and the Cubbies down a run. The next thing you hear from Harry Carey (groans in the background): "$3 million a year (which is what they were paying Sandberg at the time)... and he pops it up."
We paid Mueller for 22 months only for him to equivocate on obstruction???? His underlying analysis may be important, but the issue before the American public was...did he (Trump)... or didn't he (obstruct justice)? We want answers, not for Trump's handpicked Attorney General to pontificate.
Twenty-two months later...and Mueller popped it up. Only this is not just a baseball game on a nice summer afternoon. This was our democracy being flushed down the toilet.
Down the looking glass drain we go.
The Russians are dancing their happy dance while the fear of a bad recession here grow.
The Chinese take clever positions while we dither, allowing our country’s honor to be dragged behind a truck driven by Trump and his treasonous helpers.
Let's see...
A guy robs a bank, never gets interviewed by the friendly police department, who also don't interview the witnesses closest to him. The accused appoints the next DA, and a few days later, that DA says, gee, nice guy, wonder why we were hassling him...
Rotten to the core.
If Barack Obama had been investigated in this way, he would have been called in like Bill Clinton was.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
3
Like the greased pigs at a state fair Trump slips and slithers out of harms way - at least that's what he chooses to interpret and what we will hear about ad nauseum for at least two more years as he whips up and incites his base in an attempt to drown out what has to be the next right step, releasing the full report to Congress so that Barr's bullet points are embellished,and only then can it be said that justice has been served. In the meantime the charade and vindictive antics of an inept, unfit and corrupt tyrant will only continue.
1
President Trump is obnoxious and the obnoxious left can't stand it. Let's be clear: Trump was elected because neither political party would advance an acceptable alternative candidate. The current vetting process for candidates drives all candidates away from the political center. And the Democratic Party is on the verge of doing it again: with perhaps a couple of exceptions there is a mad rush of candidates who claim allegiance to socialism and other extreme platforms. All they are doing is driving away moderate Democrat voters. Truly, those who ignore history are destined to repeat it.
2
With few exceptions, every time Trump opens his mouth, or tweets with his little fingers, trash results. What decent man talks and tweets the way he does? Trump is a laughingstock among our allies - at best.
I don't see how we can survive another two years.
"That Mr. Mueller couldn’t find sufficient evidence that Mr. Trump or anyone involved in his campaign had coordinated directly with the Russians may be explained by the fact that they didn’t need to. They were already getting that help."
What a childish, silly, and whiny comment to make. It's unworthy of the NYT Editorial Board. "May be explained." Wow.
2
It’s time for the Times to move on. Trump has been cleared by the man picked to do it, so any further investigation of Trump would be pointless.
No, it’s time to go after the real criminal - Hillary Clinton and her Russian ties. Lock her up. /s
3
@Larry Roth You do know that Trump has gone into closed rooms and shared top secret data with Russians directly?
I guess what restaurant that Clinton was having lunch with her in laws is much more scary.
1
Mike Flynn is being protected.
My goodness, while Mr Mueller’s report did not conclude that the members of the New York Times editorial board committed a crime, neither does it exonerate them. Nor does the report conclude that Hillary Clinton commtted a crime, or exonerate her.
Does that mean that the DOJ and various Congressional committees should start investigating the Times and Hillary? Just where does the Times’ reasoning go ...or end?
2
Neither convict or exonerate is not the reasoning of the NYTimes. It’s the reasoning of the Mueller report. The Times is simply reporting that fact.
The moment of greatest hubris is also the moment of greatest danger. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. "
“while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
This is Attorney General Barr’s pithy summary of Robert Mueller’s laborious, voluminous report! I had a question, “If there is no crime, what is there to obstruct or exonerate?” Also, what next?
As is my custom in such enigmatic moments, I sought a séance with the wisest judge of all times, King Solomon of the Hebrews. His Majesty’s smile was as enigmatic as his words, “President Trump is the President, but make sure that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is with him during his meetings with President Putin”. A biblical scholar explained it to me thus, “The president speaks a lot but becomes speechless in front of those two persons”. I am sure there would be other explanations.
As for the GOP, the Trumpists would be delighted and the 'Never Trumpers' would be delighted only with an yearly "Trillion dollar Tax Cut". As for Democrats, there is lot of work: Health Care, College Education, Infrastructure, and 2020 elections!
1
So, now what are you suggesting NYT? That Congress pick up what Mueller let go.
In addition to Congress - American people also continue what Mueller let go....
What the...
I can tell you American people do not give two anything about Russian interference... In the big scheme of things - economy, globalization, poor healthcare, rising healthcare costs, growing inequality, pervasive discrimination - this Russian thing is small. It was small to begin with, and now with Mueller’s soy sauce it has become even smaller.
Media - we need balanced priorities. Not dogs barking at the wrong tree - repeatedly.
2
It’s a small thing that a foreign enemy tried to influence the results of our elections?
The NYTimes ought to be ashamed of itself, not having the ethical integrity to point out the one salient here: anti-Trump derangement has been allowed to completely color the journalism here for two years, it in turn has completely fed back and colored the public baseline of opinion. This is a travesty for the 4th estate - the same process has been running wild at MSNBC and to a lesser extent CNN. Those three are the clarions of Liberal journalism standards in America and they have gone rogue, and are responsible for the generalized use of the term "traitor" by Trump's opponents. A clear & strong statement on this hyperbolic lynching is required here to reset the machinery to ethical honesty. Instead it's diversion to side issues. I have read this paper for 44 years, if you don't address this misguidance you may never recover.
3
You do recall that Trump called Congressional Democrats traitors during his State of the Union speech simply because they did not stand and applaud one of his comments? Talk about loosely throwing around the word traitor.
@Andrew Wohl - Trump is a politician and that was political speech, and he pays the price personally come any election. This is the NYT and major media, who are NOT subject to any election, who are the standard barriers and need to be their own policemen. You do nobody a favor mincing and comparing instances, you in fact repeat the mistake. There is great release in admission of a mistake. Do it.
1
Give us the full Mueller report. Not some pre-masticated version by Trump's lackey Barr.
The collusion appears to be between Mueller, Comey, Barr, and Rosenstein. They’ve decided it isn’t in the country’s intelligence agencies’ interest to bring more charges against a corrupt regime, but to throw it back into the laps of “the people.” “The people” should decide at the ballot box.
Meanwhile, all “the people” see, on their way to work or the unemployment line, are the headlines “no collusion.”
Fox wins.
Socrates--we need some wisdom and hope----pls respond!
1
Not finding sufficient evidence of collusion does not mean it didn’t occur. Everything I heard PUBLICLY leads me to believe it did. Ditto for obstruction, ten times over.
More importantly, the report makes no attempt to explain why Trump is so deferential to Putin. It is still entirely possible that our president is Russia’s “useful idiot” or worse.
Now it’s up to the House of Representatives. And the SDNY.
1
Beware America! We have a President consumed by hubris. He thinks he is on top of the world. He will overreach and give into his Mussolini-like tendencies. At some point the Republicans will have to acknowledge this or be swept into the "dust bin of history." We will have to fight (not with guns as the right threatens) to keep a democracy. The way to win is to widen the opportunity to, and ease of voting. We have to resist gerrymandering and restrictions to voting on the state level. Let the Republicans crow today and they'll be crying tomorrow.
1
So our Teflon president thinks he is totally exonerated. He will never have a day in court because he and his family are above the law. Then the best we can do is not to re-elect him. We will succeed? Is this the beginning of Trump’s canonization? I feel that my new country is also a banana republic.
As Bill Maher said, I don't need Robert Mueller to tell me whether Trump is colluding with Putin - I have a TV set.
2
The Starr report on the investigation of Bill Clinton lying about sex was made public. Every last sexual detail was laid bare by Starr for every pervert to salivate over. So what’s the problem with making public the Mueller report which has to do with really serious issues including working with the Russians to steal the election and determining who Trump’s allegiance is to: Putin or America.
257
@Mary I meant "fat-shaming.
@Mary Notwithstanding the fact you should be aware that the Starr investigation was conducted under entirely different legal framework. You know why? Because releasing the Starr report was a TERRIBLE IDEA and set a horrific precedent. The current law governing special investigations was create to avoid the same mistakes in the future. Your specific Trump hatred doesn't change that.
2
@Mary
I thought that's why the practice was changed.
1
For those who don't like Trump, it's only 19 months until the 2020 Presidential election. Time for you to find a candidate that can beat him in a national election.
Thanks for some clear-eyed analysis.
1
Happy No Collusion Day!
The Mueller investigation is over and Mueller has concluded that there was NO COLLUSION between the Russians and the Trump campaign. And NO ONE was charged with ANY criminal activity in connection with Trump's presidential campaign.
Now the Democrats and their collaborators in the sensationalist liberal mainstream media, will scour Mueller's report looking for any words that they can quote out of context to accuse President Trump of uncharged corruption.
Condolences to my liberal/Democrat/Socialist/progressive/SJW friends.. Having a full-blown case of Trump Derangement Syndrome must be a miserable existence. You're in my thoughts and prayers.
2
OK, Trump has been cleared - Now is the time to investigate if the FBI initiated this farce for political reasons, and based on evidence of the FBI not being truthful in obtaining FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign some senior FBI folks need to be very careful
2
Thank God the Mueller investigation is finally over. Now Trump can concentrate on more important matters like, what was that emergency thing he was talking about building? Oh yeah, the border wall.
No relief, if anything, were more angry than ever. Trump and his band of criminals broke the law in bright daylight and got away with it. Is he or isn’t he guilty of all the crimes that his people did with his knowledge? He was not found guilty, but wasn’t exonerated either. You can’t be just a little bit pregnant, you either are or are not.
1
Although the Mueller investigation has not toppled the president, it has created a score lines on it's weakest parts. I expect the SDNY will crack this coconut in due time, and I'm hoping for it.
Why dont we trust William Barr’s summary? First of all, we really don’t know what Mueller’s report says. Secondly, we can see with our own eyes and ears that the Trump campaign took full advantage of Russian interference in the election and that the President is in Putin’s pocket. Whatever Mueller says.
And beyond that, there is plenty of Trump family corruption, incompetence, and the president’s massive narcissism that make him unfit for office and a dispicable human being.
1
America’s future and its freedoms lie in the hands of the SDNY now. If they fail to hold the Trump crime syndicate to account for their litany of felonies, then all is lost.
What disturbs me isn't that I was denied the outcome I expected, but there seems to be a sharp disconnect between facts in the public sphere and the conclusions of the report as reported by Mr. Barr.
1. Stone's January 2019 indictment spells-out a damning case for conspiracy with Russia via Wikileaks. Muller's team dropped this thread immediately, never convened the grand jury again, and filed their report as though the never came up. Why?
2. Trump Jr. went to meet with Russians to receive dirt on Clinton. They even made sure to let him know ahead of time that the meeting was part of the Russian government's support for his father. How is this not like any other meeting convened with the promise to commit a crime where the underlying crime (allegedly) did not take place?
3. Trump confessed to obstruction to Lester Holt and the Russian ambassador. Trump explicitly fired Jeff Sessions to get a loyal AG who wasn't recused from the Russia investigation. Yet Mueller said couldn't possibly know whether obstruction was committed. Did he need NBC's footage notarized?
Perhaps there's some facts in the Mueller report that will make all of this clear and seem very reasonable. If there isn't, then we'll need answers - fast.
As reported in the NY Times on January 8, 2019, " As a top official in President Trump’s campaign, Paul Manafort shared political polling data with a business associate tied to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday. "
I'm confused. Wasn't Paul Manafort campaign chief, and isn't that by definition "collusion"?
1
Whew! I am totally unrelieved!
1
The words “No Exoneration” or “obstruction of justice” were never going to have any traction with Trump voters. They have never and will never believe that there was any crime to exonerate or any justice to be obstructed. Trump and his family will always be “as white as the driven snow” - that’s why they voted for him and will continue to support him.
I despise Trump, but if Mueller’s extraordinary team was unable to unearth proof that there was collusion between the Trump team and the Russians then it didn’t exist. And politics aside, we should breathe a collective sigh of relief that the president wasn’t compromised by a foreign enemy.
Trump is vindicated. Now let’s beat him fair and square in 2020.
Another example of how our justice system works. If you're rich, white and Republican, the laws don't apply to you. Trump is living proof of that. He's a lifelong criminal and has never been held accountable. Now emboldened, the next levels of corruption and law-breaking will be devastating.
"This should provide some relief to all Americans who have harbored fears that a presidential candidate was conspiring with Vladimir Putin to subvert American democracy."
Oh man, did this statement give me a much needed laugh!!
What's so funny about it (I hope obviously), is that in a country of several hundred million people, there is probably not a single solitary soul that this would apply to (and hence no such people failing to feel relief). There aren't any "Americans who have harbored fears that a presidential candidate was conspiring with Vladimir Putin to subvert American democracy."
Americans fall into two camps: those that hope (and accordingly, generally have believed) Trump was guilty (hoping of course this would further deligitimize and exlain the 2016 election result), and those who support Trump, who have never feared that their guy is guilty.
Talk about oh-my-gosh pollyannism! If the Times or its staff means to pretend in any way to be "relieved" and not disappointed, then I just don't have the verbal skills to address such disingenuineness.
Actually, I think this is the Times' way of coyly admitting its disappointment. As if just about the entire staff hadn't been itching, aching, for Mueller to present a smoking gun to discredit the election and ground impeachment proceedings! I'm a Democrat: I fully admit how disappointed I am. I wanted the report to skewer Trump. I'm honest about it.
Trump is STILL a scoundrel and will get what's coming to him.
1
Trump is still the same deeply flawed, breathtakingly unqualified, intellectually and emotionally crippled president he was before Mr. Mueller wrote his report.
People engaged in magical thinking that the report would solve the problem have been fooling themselves, hoping for the easy, lazy way out.
2020 is and always has been the solution.
Trump has used the word EXONERATION. (and "proved" that he's a saint). Nixon said that "I am not a crook". Could that imply that supporting Trump is for crooks, too?
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There really is no reason for people to get upset over this. The DEMs need to keep their head down, try not to seem vindictive and move on showing the American people that they offer a far better form of inclusive government for all Americans. Before this report came out anyone with reason in the world knew trump was a crooked lying film flam man and they know he still is.
1
Who was the White House aide who reported stepping into the President's office and seeing him in the act of swallowing a piece of paper? And what about the private meeting in Helsinki with Putin, where the President took possession of the notes taken by the translator? Despite Attorney General's personal condensation of The Mueller Report, it does appear that something fishy is going on.
The information available was, and continues to be, enough.
This destroys my last shred of hope.
So now Trump is lashing out and wants the investigators investigated.
A real president, one who was without fear of investigation because he was truly innocent, would have said we need to discover if and how Russia interfered with our election. He would have said, I and my administration will support this investigation until every rock is overturned, because the future of our democracy depends on it.
But he didn't say any of that. He cast aspersions on Robert Mueller's character. He fired James Comey and the attorney general who recused himself. He acted all along as if he had something to hide and that perception was strengthened by the liars and scoundrels he surrounded himself with.
Donald Trump is incapable of telling the truth. He is incapable of leading. And although Mueller may not have found a smoking gun, I am still convinced that Donald Trump is a corrupt crook. I hope the State of New York will prove it.
1
Thank you for the clear-eyed piece, NYT!
Despite what one may expect from a typical AG in such matters, there’s nothing typical about the current AG nor the current Admin. And expecting them to understand the concept or even illustrate understanding of the concept of ‘impartiality’ is an exercise in ‘futility’ at best.
While there were no charges recommended by Mueller (as reported in the media), this report needs to be viewed in a broader context (after being released to Congress in its entirety and the public).
Firstly, the concurrent investigations in other jurisdictions (SDNY and possibly FL) along with indictments for half a dozen close aides directly involved with his campaign are the living proof of the culpability of the current WH incumbent.
Secondly, a political appointee hired by the WH incumbent to oversee his own investigation is the same person who questioned the very nature of the Mueller investigation before even assuming the role of AG. He is now ‘responsible’ for deciding whether or not to disseminate the report to Congress and the public.
Anyone in Law101 will tell you this lacks credibility and objectivity on a very fundamental level. Conflict of interest? Ethical dilemmas? Integrity of the process & investigation?
Of course, these are non issues for a ‘fascist regime’, but is this where the country is headed?
If America doesn’t correct course in 2020, this country will be beyond repair and simply unrecognizable for future generations.
1
I am certain that absolutely nothing happens in the upcoming months. Trump goes on unscathed, his family continues to rake in dollars, and Melania continues to be skinny, miserable and unwilling to leave lest she not get any money due to the prenuptial agreement.
And we, the people who are not the base, we get another big fat nothing except maybe a kick in the gut. Mrs. Pelosi may have a big stick but it doesn't reach to the other house in Congress. Mr. McConnell, dark, closed up soul that he is, will still block any attempt on the part of the Dems to do something with this report. Or any other report.
Stay tuned to 2020 when Trump has a gajillion dollars for a campaign, unlimited access to FOX and Twitter, and lots of loud noise to utter 24/7. The Dems, if they figure out what kind of message they want to offer, may or may not succeed. They don't want to offend "the base" -- they just want to steal some of those people away. Fat chance.
They should burn their bridges and go all the way left. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders say it the way it is but if the Dems don't win a big majority in both houses as well as the POTUS it won't matter much what any of them say, as we will be stuck (shudder) with DJT for four more years. OMG.
Democrats don’t have a base... Trump in office is living proof of it.
Democrats shred themselves apart on “principles” like climate, race, metoo, tree bark and so on it goes. The Bernie Bros and Sises stayed home in 2016 or even worse, threw a tantrum and voted the other way, because they got their feelings hurt.
Democrats are divided in tribes, hiding behind or sticking to their well thought out perspectives.
Trumpism prevails because all flavors go out the door when faced with only one unifying mantra:
NO DEMOCRATS AT ALL COST
I’m not looking forward to 2020...
Unless and until the full report is releasd Barr appears to be yet another bad trump actor contributng to the rendering of the American social fabric
The big question is “ what is he trying to hide?”
And any person( exclusive of rump) who believes this report makes this man presidential material is certainky as delusional as he is.
Barr’s reputation is on the line and like most others who work under trump his reputation is at stake. Does he really want to destroy it?
Barr has little wiggle room here to answer that question
Time is NOT on Barr’s side
Today’s Republican reaction to the Mueller report seemingly concludes that the 4-page summary should be cast in amber as the definitive statement that totally exonerates the president and obviates all other investigation, while also concluding that the detailed report is a biased piece of trash from a witch-hunt and should never see the light of public scrutiny (paraphrasing Devin Nunes). This makes no sense: the public must see the full report minus specific national security-related redactions. Further, related investigations into the multi-threaded streams of this president’s corruption must continue to their conclusion.
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I am no fan of Trump. But from a strictly legal viewpoint Mueller was probably correct.
There is no crime called “collusion.” There is conspiracy. The elements of conspiracy are (1) an agreement, (2) between two or more people, (3) to commit a crime. The facts are that the Russians did interfere in the 2016 election and solicited members of the Trump campaign to conspire, but there was no agreement. Hence, no collusion.
And the legal standard for obstruction of justice is very high, and the evidence just didn’t meet it.
So, not guilty, but also importantly not innocent. As Big Jule said in Guys and Dolls, “I reformed- 33 arrests, no convictions.”
Collusion? No. Back when Lyndsey Graham still had a brain he said the Trump campaign was so disorganized they couldn't collude with themselves, much less Russia. Corruption? Absolutely. The tentacles are spread so far we can't keep track. Barr's son-in-law was hired as an advisor to the White House counsels office the same week that Barr is confirmed as attorney general. Trump and Boeing are snuggled so tight in bed they can't come up for air and see that 189 people died in one of their planes. Half of middle America is under water while he tweets about a dead man. The list goes on ad nauseam. Throw these crooks out.
Barr’s statement appears to be the attempt to navigate the slim separation between annoying Trump and incriminating himself by false witnessing.
We are officially in the twilight zone.
Up is down.
Left is right.
Time for a beer.
1
Thank Mueller for burying the US as we knew it.
Unsatisfied with the conclusion and disappointed in Mueller, the Democrats are demanding to examine all documents for themselves. "We'll see about that!" The Times is smearing the Attorney General and is one step away from turning on Mueller as well. One time knight in shinning armor now fallen from grace. Mueller will find the loving embrace from the Democrats and the press only holds while he appears to do their bidding.
Seriously? -- "This should provide some relief to all Americans who have harbored fears that a presidential candidate was conspiring with Vladimir Putin to subvert American democracy."
Obviously, it does NOT provide relief because the only relief "Americans who harbored fears" were looking for was a strong case for impeachment.
Instead they got exoneration. Boo-hoo. They are NOT relieved and it is very ingenuous of the Times to say they are. They will be even more frantic to dig up some dirt, any dirt. Or manufacture some! And waste more tax dollars in their futile cause.
1
Just because no one left their fingerprints on the body, doesn't mean the body wasn't found. Maybe they wore gloves. At any rate we already knew that no matter what was found, DT has built a wall around himself with only those willing to ask "how high" when he says jump. His base as DT so arrogantly put it, would vote for him even if he killed someone in front of them. Had the Mueller report said DT was guilty of collusion, his base and his personal FOX advocates would have either called it fake news or inspire DT's followers to be ready to do violence unto those who stand in DTs way. As of now my take on the findings is simply this: We may not know what that awful smell sthe president reeks from, but we know he smells.
The editorial states: "Mr. Trump publicly urged the Russians to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails."
Question: Has President Trump urged the Russians to hack into Jared Kushner's and Ivanka Trump's emails and make them public?
1
This is becoming so sad. I would have infinitely more respect for the left if they just collectively apologized and admitted they were wrong all along. However this mixture of denial, whatabboutery, shifting goalposts, and pure manipulation is becoming cringe worthy.
There is no collusion. And no, there is no obstruction either because you can’t obstruct an investigation into a crime that did not occur.
You want to know how democrats can win in 2020? Stop obsessing over trump. Stop making everything about trump. And for God’s sake, give the man credit when he does something right (like with China for example, or getting serious about our problem of illegal immigration). I truly believe at this point that if Donald Trump said that 2+2=4 then liberals would claim that 2+2=5.
But maybe Democrats don’t want to win the presidency after all. Indeed it would require some actual policy substance beyond “no human is illegal” and “build bridges not walls.”
Take a look at Andrew Yang for example, the only serious Democrat at this point in time IMO. He talks about the economic issues that affect the working class. His website is rife with very detailed policy proposals.
Contrast this with Beto, a con artist and showman. Mark Steyn called him a wannabe “Hispanic skateboarding twelve-year-old.” I couldn’t think of a better description myself.
The NYT and Democrats falsely claim that Ms. Clinton lost because of Russian intervention.
This is an insult to the voters who elected President Trump.
Trump won definitively in the electoral college.
While Ms. Clinton won the popular vote- the winning margin was exclusively from California.
Ms. Clinton had knowledge of the electoral college map and had multiple expert advisers.
She spent twice as much as President Trump- but refused to campaign on the ground.
Her Senior campaign aides brazenly continue to appear as commentators on the cable news channels to defend the worst presidential race ever.
They should hang their heads in shame as should Ms. Clinton-
not because of their policies but for their documented gross incompetence as political operatives.
The big question is, is obstructing your exoneration a crime?
Barr is following the law as specifically written by the Democrats after prior independent counsel law displeased them so much.
This is a horrible day in the history of liberal democracy and Enlightenment values. The DOJ has essentially said that might makes right and that the end justifies the means.
As long as what you do is not technically illegal "beyond a reasonable doubt", you can do whatever you want, from intimidating witnesses to paying off mistresses. So much for democratic norms and honorable human behavior.
And what a horrible precedent to set. What is the incentive for any future candidate to abide by high standards of full and voluntary disclosure and transparency. Where does it get you?
Not to mention if you get to be president, you are even protected from criminal indictment.
What kind of a country is this?
Trump wins, America loses. This country will never be the same country pre-Donald Trump.
Mueller has betrayed this country. He abdicated his authority to Barr, a clearly partisan AG who is now behaving as yet another of DJTs fixers.
I am disappointed by Mueller, everyone said he had integrity. Yeah right. Integrity means doing what is right, not what is easy or expedient. I believe Mueller at best was thinking if he indicted Trump on obstruction it would create a national emergency and chaos. At worst he is just another Trump sychophant suckup. Problem now is we have a slow burning emergency and slow motion anarchy/chaos, with a president who breaks laws and ethics and precedents in plain site, gets away with it and keeps going. He will keep going and things will get worse. Democracy as we once knew it is over.
Buckle up folks Trump will now act unfettered. Thanks a lot enabler Mueller, for aiding and abetting Criminal Trump.
"...and anyway, most of Mr. Trump’s behavior took place in full public view..." So I guess he really could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
But it is a “Complete and Total EXONERATION,” because Trump said so, so now move on please.
The Warren Commission Report might be a precident.
F3
Great photo for this editorial, though the cloud ought to have been over The White House, at least for now and the foreseeable future an ethical and moral free zone. The sound of Trump's voice upon his return to Washington this afternoon reminded this reader of the yogi's brain teaser, what is the sound of one hand clapping?
William Barr's letter reminds me of J. Edgar Hoover's declaration that there was no organized crime in the United States.
One wonders how the Editorial Board of the Times concludes that Barr's letter does not do justice to the special counsel's investigation. Without knowing any more than the rest of us. Amazing analysis. Superhuman even.
This is terrible news for Stephen Colbert.
Maybe we'll need a Daniel Ellsberg on the case.
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If this article isn't enough to place daylight in anybody's perspective as to Trump's 'criminality' in obstructing justice, I don't kbow what will. Trump's vociferous lies and insults against the law have been pretty much constant, almost "normalizing" graft as a matter of routine, hence, trying to convince his base that he is being victimized. He is shameless indeed. And despicable. And Barr is all too friendly, supporting Trump's outrage, as he was designated Attorney General exactly because of his negative views of Mueller's investigation. If there is justice in this world, Trump, a most vulgar bully (a coward in disguise) would be in jail by now. And his family, and the republican party, complicit to say the least, ought to gain the wrath of the people. As of now, justice is not being served; trampled instead.
Ny times needs to follow Washington posts lead....."Legal experts question William Barr’s rationale for exonerating Trump. The attorney general’s personal history and his reasoning make this fraught."
If there's no evidence of collusion, but no exoneration of obstructing justice, how do we know that evidence of collusion was not suppressed?
23:05 EDT, 3/24
@mancuroc
I agree. Isn't the sole purpose of obstructing justice to conceal evidence of a crime?
Whitewash. Pure and simple. Barr's reputation is ruined for all time. Was it worth it, Mr. Barr?
1
Russia, if you're listening, release Trump's tax returns!
1
Trump is the lying-est president on record, the people around him have been indicted for their lies, and right after Barr's letter comes out Trump lies about being totally exonerated.
Nothing to see here, folks...
Trump's obstruction takes place in public: admitting it on national television, firing Comey, etc.
Barr concludes that, therefore, it isn't obstruction.
Strangely enough, bank robbers go to jail for committing their crimes in broad daylight.
Trump realized that a "back channel" to Russia was unnecessary: commit treason in full view: degreade Nato, meet with Putin publicly and hide what you say; undermine our relations with allies; challenge Congress; etc., etc.
We need an explanation: if you commit treason, collude, obstruct just, or just engage in price fixing, and do it in public, is that a get-out-of-jail-free card?
I guess so if your son-in-law gets a job in the White House.
It's time to concentrate on 2020 and sending the current occupant of the White House packing, along with his family of grifters and his Republican enablers in the Senate.
Trumps is personally detestable, but this editorial is purely sour grapes. The Times is adopting the Trump tactic of personal attacks when the facts found by the investigation it has touted for months aren't to its liking.
TIME TO MARCH, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
Who didn't see this coming when Barr was planet at AG? Who among us - informed, honest, democracy-loving Americans want to let The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren off the hook?
WE THE PEOPLE know corruption and conspiracy when we see it.
The Con Don denies too much.
Time to MARCH!
Trump’s legacy: Well at least he wasn’t a Russian spy.
A factor to consider...
Crimes uncovered by the Mueller investigation would have been pardonable.
Crimes uncovered under the other investigations cannot be pardoned.
The Democrats have been warned for months that Mueller had nothing, and now Mueller makes it official! President Honest Don is innocent! Instead of embracing reality, the Democrats are choosing to dive even deeper into insanity. Sad.
1
One of the reasons, the main one, that the report has so many Democrats on the floor, is becasue immediacy of impeachment, prison, bankruptcy and hopeful execution of the President, has been stayed. One of the reasons they had themselves in such a deluded frenzy, was because of the ratings bonanza of the medias kangaroo justice. Imagine what a fortune lies (pun) in that report? CNN would be interrupting 'special reports' with 'super-special reports'.
It's not unlike the frenzy they created around climate. They now have resorted into scaring children out of pleasant dreams. In a decade or so, in total defeat and retreat on climate, they will explain to those now little ones, that a greater Green Science' i.e. carbon capture -- has eliminated the CO2 threat. While reminding those same brainwashed minds, that is was a Green Science and not the fossil fuel industry that saved them.
1
The greatest hoax in US history finally came to an end today. I will remember all of the people who told me who certain there were that Trump hired the Russian Government to throw the election. I will believe none of them forever. The truth meant nothing to them. Nothing but political hacks.
1
This is so dangerous. Trump is taking Barr's letter as an opportunity, as stated in this very paper, to literally attack his "enemies," and who knows where this will end.
AG Barr has done a great disservice to the US, as he did during Iran/Contra.
This time though he's helping to empower a would-be dictator. Does he have even the vaguest clue what we're dealing with here?
Given Barr's memo last year about obstruction of justice by the president or the total lack thereof, Barr should have recused himself from interpreting Mueller's findings on obstruction of justice.
Are we going to miss the good old days of AG Sessions so soon?
1. Not surprised by the Mueller report conclusion. Donald Trump may be immoral but he is not completely stupid. He had time to move the right people in place to act as shields: AG Barr and supreme court justices.
2. How can Bob Mueller know for certain if there was no collusion if he never interviewed/questioned Trumps children: Eric, Donald jr or Ivanka or Jared?
3. I find it curious that Mueller would find crimes committed by Trumps associates when he was not looking for anything specific. Yet we are expected to believe that even if Trump was not guilty of collusion that he has not committed any other crimes before or after the election, only his associates? Give me a break!
Every people has the government that it deserves...
This entire editorial is based on a summation provided by a man who was appointed by, and serves at the pleasure of, Donald Trump. Forgive me if I withhold judgment until someone who doesn't work for Trump tells me what's in the report.
If your story about DB and the loans to Trump with the providing of knowingly false valuations from Trump Is true then he could go down like Al Capone- Tax Fraud and Bank Fraud. Plain and simple. Then there’s the charity fraud that is being investigated in NY State. Hmm. The clock is ticking. Unfortunately not fast enough to save the country from his administrations vast ineptitude.
After carefully considering the Mueller report for a nano-second Barr declares Trump exonerated.
The fix was in from the second Barr was confirmed as AG. Trump got his quid pro quo.
The hilarious part lies in the following catch 22: 1) Justice dept. guidelines prohibit the indictment of a sitting president, and 2) Barr will not release damaging material concerning any unindicted persons.
In other words, it's all a joke (on the U.S.). The Comedian would understand perfectly.
1
Trump will never let go of his witch hunt, and his obsession with the supposed exoneration will continue to demonstrate how utterly unfit and incompetent he is for the job. That has not changed. I just hope the Democrats point to the criminality of his incessant lying, incessant ignorance, and incessant golfing trips, costing taxpayers upwards of 61 million dollars since he took office. It's wrong. Trump and the Russians will forever be locked at the hip. No matter his intent at the time of the election, Trump's intentions now are very clear. Putin is his hero, and the United States is his toy chest to destroy. Barr will be fired or leave in the next six months... and the beat goes on.
1
Remember the Nixon "transcripts"and then the actual tapes? Release the whole report and please no 18 minute gaps or the like.
Once again in the life of Donald Trump, his most awful behaviors win out.
When it comes to consistently getting away with things that anyone with even an ounce of integrity would never dare, Donald Trump truly is “a stable genius.”
And now we begin the period where he will exact his retribution.
MAGA, indeed.
I think it would be a fatal mistake for the Democrats to continue the narrow focus on Trump. Yeah, he's creep. He is destroying our country, but nothing will change until and unless we win the 2020 election. We need solutions. Immigration, health care, education, and our role in the world. Can you imagine what it will be like in 2024 if we let him win again?!? Keep the focus on the issues.
This too shall pass. “The grass withers and the flowers fade”
The Democrats should turn away from the "deplorables" remaining in Trump's bunker. They are not worth the time and money to affect. Let them live with their choices.
Instead and obviously turn out the Democratic voters to save the future.
Everything is at stake: climate, health care, and our children.
Time to wake up!
Zero confidence in the results. Now, millions of Americans will be relegated to conspiracy theorists of the left....a convenient false narrative.
Democracy is what Democrats must focus on! One person , one vote is the way to defeat Trump. Get out the vote; register as many people as you can to vote. The vote comes after presenting a platform that explains Democratic solutions to obvious major problems like health care, minimum wage, environment,real tax reform,education, migration, AND the national debt run up by the GOP!
Trump & GOP want the Democrats to refocus on the Mueller issues. Huge mistake! Campaign as though Trump is already history.
Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the report and make it public."
For Democrats, this was a loss. I knew that once even the so-called GOP moderates voted to confirm Barr, it was over. And now, less than 6 weeks since his confirmation, it is over. Bet on Barr releasing very little of the obstruction evidence if he can find a scintilla of legal support for not releasing it. Impeachment was always extremely unlikely and is now out of the question. The Congress should continue to investigate; we deserve all the facts. Nevertheless, at this point, we must lick our wounds and live to fight another day. There’s more than 18 months to make a convincing case that Trump must not be re-elected. That is our task and must be our unrelenting focus.
1
It's exoneration enough. Time to move on.
27
@AACNY
Sorry Charlie. Just because Mueller is done does not mean the investigations of the crimes this administration has committed are over. There are a lot of crimes still being investigated here and the president is an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Cohen case. Seems like he will eventually be indicted in that case.
Then there is what Mueller did find. That may also generate investigations.
Face it everything we know Trump has done is far worse than lying about an affair.Don't forget that investigation was started as a look into a Real Estate deal for more than 2 years which they could find no evidence for being in any way wrong. The idea to go after Monica Lewinsky and take him down like that is why there is no longer a Special Prosecutor position.
I wonder when Monica is going to finally realize that Starr and Kavanaugh psychosexually abused her for their own satisfaction without regard to her young self in any way shape or form. They were willing to drive her to suicide to get what they wanted.
20
@AACNY
Assuming Barr hasn't spun his summary to a large degree, I agree. Not because I don't despise Trump, but because I want to see him trounced in 2020. Dems and those of us further on the left, Trump will be tossed out on his rear if we are united. Stay on target.
Impeachment proceedings will give us our sugar high, but it could backfire in a big way. Yes, investigate other garbage associated with Trump, but we need to be able to show those in the center, and who help decide in 2020, that we are capable of moving past this. Mueller has done his job. We need to accept that.
As Speaker Pelosi so eloquently put it, Trump is not worth it.
17
@AACNY
Forget about "moving on."
We can move on AFTER Mr. Trump is put in prison.
36
I'm sure this President is no different from the person he's always been. That should not come as a surprise. But this is what I would ask the American people to do ahead of the next chance they will have to choose. Read a biography of a great American President. That's what a lot of people did in the old days, before television. Read a biography of a great President, then ponder what attributes of character and qualities of leadership made that President successful, in the face of both good and especially, hard times for the country. The last one I read was Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of FDR, titled No Ordinary Time. Now there was a leader! Overcoming great personal hardship is typically an attribute, as it builds character. Formal preparation through education, experience and service is another. Understanding the power of a democracy to serve all the people at all the economic and health levels is paramount. And of course, it may be helpful to engage the enemy, but carefully and at arm's length.
After two years of tantalizing intrigue coming from this investigation, I am totally frustrated that it came up with a dud - if one is to believe Barr’s summary. But if in the end, there was nothing serious amiss then I guess that the main reason for the investigation was that no one could believe that Donal Trump got elected on his own. There had to be a better explanation than that the American people elected him of their own volition.
A basic intellectual/scientific axiom: "Lack of proof of a positive is not proof of a negative."
1
There is a better way.
Everyone is seeking the truth but why are most – from readers to editorialists – seemingly content to receive a “redacted” version of the special counsel’s report? If the attorney general’s letter is any indication – the summarily dismissal of the obstruction of justice charge within one day of receiving the report – there should be widespread concern as to whether the report will be “properly” redacted. Consequently, everyone – from all members of congress, the media, and especially the electorate – should insist on the immediate and full disclosure of the report. No “processing” (read censorship) of the report should take place.
If any redacting is to be done to meet requirements of the law, such redaction should be carried out with congressional oversight as represented by the heads of the two judiciary committees. This bipartisan, comingling of the two branches of government in this history-making initiative should not and does not infringe on the constitutional separation of powers. Moreover, the members of the committees should collectively sign off on the report with a covering letter that assures the American people that any redaction was done solely pursuant to legal requirements and not to suppress any inconvenient truths.
Anything less will be an affront to the American people.
I have so many unanswered questions, foremost among them: Why did Manafort give Russia their internal polling data? How did Roger Stone know about the leaks before anyone else did? Why is Mr. Trump so obsequious with Mr. Putin? I hope the full report answers these and other questions.
Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election, and Donald Trump publicly encouraged them to do so. Once in office, thanks partly to Russian influence, Trump has cow-towed to Vladimir Putin and has done everything possible to undermine our European alliances. This may not add up to a crime, but it adds up to something worse: we have a president who has wrecked our standing in the world.
1
There is a better way.
Everyone is seeking the truth but why are most – from readers to editorialists – seemingly content to receive a “redacted” version of the special counsel’s report? If the attorney general’s letter is any indication – the summarily dismissal of the obstruction of justice charge within one day of receiving the report – there should be widespread concern as to whether the report will be “properly” redacted.
Consequently, everyone – from all members of congress, the media, and especially the electorate – should insist on the immediate and full disclosure of the report. No “processing” (read censorship) of the report should take place.
If any redacting is to be done to meet requirements of the law, such redaction should be carried out with congressional oversight as represented by the heads of the two judiciary committees. This bipartisan, comingling of the two branches of government in this history-making initiative should not and does not infringe on the constitutional separation of powers. Moreover, the members of the committees should collectively sign off on the report with a covering letter that assures the American people that any redaction was done solely pursuant to legal requirements and not to suppress any inconvenient truths.
Anything less will be an affront to the American people.
This editorial falls squarely into the "Good try, but no cigar" category. As unlikeable as Trump is, did anybody really believe that he is guilty of treason? What'sthe upshot of all this? It will be two years of listening to him say "I told you so".
The Democrats and the Democrat-leaning press need to get their act together if there's any hope of disinviting Trump from the White House in 2020.
1
Please keep in mind two factors: First, we haven't had the opportunity to study Mueller's full findings to draw any conclusion regarding Trump's culpability. Second, Mueller was not allowed to conduct personal interrogations of Trump and his family members, i.e., the report was by no means comprehensive.
In other words, it would be a grave mistake to relax or stop our defense of our constitutional democracy.
Your last statement says it all.
To many Americans, this marriage to Trump is a bad one.
It is now clear that judges and certain departments won't help us as our 'husband' have stacked the deck with judges and people he is 'friends' with,
In public, as he is holding his (wife) and smiling brightly, he is pinching her hard enough to hurt, but don't leave any bruising nor marks.
As he is standing there smiling, surrounded by a whole host of people, he is calling her every name in the book, but no one hears the most vicious words but her and therefore all of the tears in her eyes are fake.
The actions he takes are subtle, but they have long-lasting effects.
Some of the best and most famous crimes are committed in full view of the public.
Passive/Aggressive??
We do have one choice.
We start focusing on getting out of this very bad marriage.
In about 500 days or so, we can do what the court won't do.
1
March 25, 2019
It is all about how we intend to live and work our election cultural process without having to go through the havoc of the Trump mismanagement that gave cause and rightfully for having to produce this exhaustive examination going forward.
Party national committees are best to engage in the design and the personnel that intends to give cause in right actions to develop successful campaigning and transparent rules that must be acceptable as times change with especially the nature of electronic hyper voters engagements - thus fair rules for all makes responsible results.
2
Democrats need to keep this simple: Russia took sides in a US election, and worked in secret to influence that election. We cannot let that happen again, and Congressional Committees need to stay focused on that objective.
2
While there may not have been any verifiable collusion in 2015-2016, I suspect there is today. The form it takes is not working to protect our electoral system from outside influences. I don’t see a presidential commission on the subject. In January when the CAI, the FBI and the DNI testified in Congress that further actions by Russia were to be expected in 2020 to engage in information warfare, the White House was silent. I remains so today.
2
I sincerely hope that Barr will release as much of the Mueller Report as is legally (and ethically) possible. However, its release will change NOTHING. Each "side" will still read into the report exactly what it chooses to see, parsing each word with Pharisaical (sp?) hair-splitting, and obtaining exactly the result it desires. No matter what.
This despite the fact that Mueller and his team issued--as I recall--some 2,800 subpoenas, interviewed some 500 witnesses, and probably had access to far more credible "evidence" than a public that it is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that it knows far more than Mr. Mueller, an experienced prosecutor with an impeccable reputation for integrity.
People who once were certain that Mueller was to be the nation's savior now suspect him of being a Republican stooge. People who once suspected Mueller and his team of registered Democrats of being political hacks ready to do a hatchet job on Trump now see him as a second George Washington.
And release of even the full report will do NOTHING to change either side's preordained conclusions.
Alas, this national nightmare is far from over. Indeed, it is only just beginning
So they didn't need to collude and while a charge of obstruction could have been brought Barr nixed it. Overcoming his horde of lawyers in court is far from sure so DoJ gives up on that one.
"One might expect Mr. Trump to feel happiness at Sunday’s news, but for him, that emotion seems to transform into a desire for vengeance." Seems to? Trump wants to prosecute Clinton - AGAIN. At least she had the strength, integrity and honesty to sit through difficult questioning and hearings, unlike Trump. Not exonerated, Mr Trump.
Mr Barr received the Mueller report on Friday afternoon and submitted his conclusions by Sunday morning. Mr Barr did not seem to use careful deliberation of new information but instead seems to have had predetermined conclusions that there could be no obstruction of justice because there was no crime that seemed to have occurred to base that seemingly crime on.
However, we absolutely know that Russia interfered in and debased our election (to an extent, with intent and results unlike any other country). We know that the Trump campaign (and likely Trump) cooperated with the Russian interference, whether or not it seemed to rise to the level of collusion.
Mueller clearly said that there was not exoneration for obstruction of justice. (Was he instructed to stop short of conclusions?) Barr, however, concluded that since the firing of Comey was public, it did not seem to be obstruction, regardless of the motive for the firing.
And all this careful thought and deliberation in less than 48 hours!
We the American people and legislators should have access to the information and evidence in the Mueller report.
2
Mr. Barr is a corrupt attorney general in the mold of Edwin Meese.
The sole purpose of both was not to administer justice but to protect the president from accountability for his misdeeds.
Aparently 40% of the United States is not just content with corruption in government, but enthusiatically embraces it.
That corruption is what the Electoral College has wrought.
American democracy is a futile dream.
@Jerry Engelbach
"American democracy is a futile dream."
I certainly hope not. Democracy is messy.
Democracy did not elect Trump. I agree that the electoral college twice in the past 20 years, has undermined democracy and majority rule but so has the Senate and McConnell.
I don't know why anyone would have expected the NY Times to reflect on how horrendous its conduct has been in this sordid "collusion" affair. Nothing about its operations over the past twenty years would suggest any level of humility.
The first rule of journalism, the very first thing you learn in journalism school, is that governments lie (all the time about everything). Yet the folks working for the Grey Lady pay this rule no heed.
Instead, the NY Times is a rag for propaganda totally under the control of the intelligence apparatus of the U.S. military forces, and in particular, those which profit from war. The reporters do not investigate; they propagate lies. Obvious lies.
Is it as simple as that (1) people are lazy, (2) the reporters at the NY Times are people, (3) therefore, the reporters at the NY Times are lazy?
Are they beholden to the military industrial complex? They want the job; and they especially want invitations to fancy cocktail parties, where they can gossip about each other and make fun of "fly-over America". Is this more important than their integrity?
How to explain this?
One consistent criticism they make in their "news" stories is that Trump never admits a mistake. Yet here they are doing that very same thing.
Not only do they fail to do the decent thing, the humble thing, and reflect on, and apologize, for a galactic screw up, they have actually doubled-down on it.
It is time for these folks to decide if they are dedicated to journalism.
6
@H. Torbet
You are venting your anger at the NY Times for reporting the news but not addressing the content in the editorial and in the disturbing issues raised in articles for the past 2 years nor Trump's conduct.
So you are fine that his campaign cooperated with the Russians and likely won as a result? You are fine with Trump aligning with Putin against our intelligence agencies and against our best interests?
You think it is fine and dandy for Trump to call to lock up Hillary? - and this is just this editorial.
Do you think Trump should have sat for questioning by Mueller? I do. If he was honest and not guilty, he would have.
So please, stop with being Trump's toady and attacking the media for reporting the truth.
@H. Torbet
Read Matt Taibbi's masterful dissection today of this rolling 2-year-plus carnival of media lies and manipulation in cahoots with disgraced intel agency officials.
Taibbi compares it to the Iraqi WMD fiasco.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/russiagate-is-wmd-times-a-million
"The biggest thing this affair has uncovered so far is Donald Trump paying off a porn star. That’s a long way from what this business was supposedly about at the beginning, and shame on any reporter who tries to pretend this isn’t so.
"The story hyped from the start was espionage: a secret relationship between the Trump campaign and Russian spooks who’d helped him win the election.
"The betrayal narrative was not reported as metaphor. It was not 'Trump likes the Russians so much, he might as well be a spy for them.' It was literal spying, treason, and election-fixing. ...
"There was never real gray area here.
"Either Trump is a compromised foreign agent, or he isn’t. If he isn’t, news outlets once again swallowed a massive disinformation campaign, only this error is many orders of magnitude more stupid than any in the recent past, WMD included.
"Honest reporters like ABC’s Terry Moran understand: Mueller coming back empty-handed on collusion means a 'reckoning for the media.'
"Of course, there won’t be such a reckoning. But there should be. We broke every written and unwritten rule in pursuit of this story, starting with the prohibition on reporting things we can’t confirm. ..."
1
@T-Bone
Thanks for the link to Matt Tabeii's article. I'll enjoy reading his take on this rolling media misfire.
1
Thus, in essence, Trump was willing to sell himself out and, by extension, his country, for a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Nice to know.
Commercialism and making a buck at any cost.
It motivated all the lies, all the subterfuge and all the double entendres.
Trump at his finest.
I am not sure if comforting is the right word for this kind of an outcome because, if anything, it is one hell of an indictment of our culture and how low we have sunk into the rabbit hole.
Comforting it is not.
The fact that Trump and his team did not even think about contacting the FBI about these Russian overtures is a reflection of that rabbit hole.
Then again, how is that exoneration and a quality you want in a president?
Then obstructing because you wanted a tower in Moscow and you didn't want anyone to know?
Worse, it demonstrates yet again that Democratic leadership simply does not know how to cope with these kinds of political mechanics.
They did not anticipate this kind of an outcome.
How could they not?
Everything about this election came down to Russian interference; an irrefutable fact which did not stop them from legitimizing this election.
That is the real crime!
We have no legal devices to challenge that kind of an outcome and we have a political system that already moved past it.
In the meantime, the slow moving coup continues and today things are looking a good deal brighter for that coup to succeed.
3
Bringing new meaning to “ lowering the Bar “.
What a surprise.
4
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Ha! I thought 'barre' as in a support device.
With Mueller having issued his report, it seems reasonable that all the Democrats in Congress would have started out their day tackling healthcare issues, drafting gun legislation, rolling out climate initiatives, and strengthening voting protections. If not, they should look forward to having Trump in office through 2024.
This is a farce. Barr decided on the obstruction of justice issue long before he became AG and the facts presented by Mueller were irrelevant to his conclusion. Proving collusion was always going to be a very difficult task, made impossible by the very obstruction of justice that "could not have occurred in the absence of the crime" which the obstruction may well have obscured!
If the Mueller report exonerates trump as both he and Barr claim, there should be no objection to releasing a slightly redacted version to the public. We shall see.
And now I must watch my MAGA former friends celebrate and gloat that their president has officially been cleared of blatant treason. All I can do is lament at how low the bar has been set for this conman president.
4
There is no crime of collusion in the Federal code. The crime in question is conspiracy. Is Trump doing the bidding of foreign powers like Russia and Saudi in exchange for money? Show us your tax returns Donald!
4
Thank God somebody "can do something about it"! To think that Mrs. Clinton would say out loud what was happening, that Trump's campaign was welcoming Russian espionage on our election months prior to the election and that Trump was a Putin puppet and have it proved true time and again, is just sickening, especially in the face of this report's conclusions. There may not be conspiracy charges that can lead to conviction, but there was definitely collusion. For some partisans to say, that the media needs to apologize, reset, earn back trust is just ridiculous. The media is why we know much of what we know about the goings on of Trump and his campaign with the Russian interference. Obviously, there was collusion! Junior took a meeting offering dirt on their opponent and was told by text it was a way the Russian government is helping Trump. Jared attempted to get a back channel to communicate with Russia without anyone knowing. How about Flynn offering to withdraw sanctions before Trump even took office? How about Manafort giving polling data to Russia so they could pinpoint voters in key states with their influence? This is ALL collusion. How about Trump himself working on building a Trump tower in Moscow till after the election? Then, Trump asking for Russians to find the missing emails? Justice still needs to be served. The day of reckoning will come. Please restore our trust in our government and justice system by finding out why all the lies and obfuscation?
4
I totally agree that Trump did not collude with Russians...therefore no crime. I. also agree with the logic that there is no grounds for obstruction of a non-existent crime. You must have a crime in order to obstruct the administration of justice for that crime...just common sense!
3
@Charlie,
Obstruction of justice includes the impeding of an ongoing investigation, regardless of the outcome of that investigation.
The Attorney General said there can be no Obstruction of Justice if they can't prove the underlying crime? What law school did he go to? It's beginning to look like Barr is putting his thumb on the scale. Time to release the report to the congress and the public and call Mueller in for an interview. As a citizen, this 4 page summary from Barr does not explain anything. I need to read Mueller's Report and to hear what Mueller has to say on the matter.
3
It didn't matter what this report said. Trump haters would still hate him and Trump "supoorrters" would still love him. The difference this reported did make is that Trump will now be around for another term for 4 additional years of this continued horrible divisiveness. Trump divides and conquers.
1
I am begging you to stop with any narratives about the Mueller report or the Barr letter. That isn't your path to victory in 2020. You know all you need to know about team Trump regardless of whether his crew conspired with Russians or whether his conduct met the definition of obstruction of justice. The more you scream this narrative of "collusion but Mueller covered it up or Barr hid it", the more you're driving wavering Republicans and independents to Trump. You have ample ammunition to make persuasive arguments. Don't eliminate your credibility by hanging onto this narrative.
2
@James,
Mueller himself said that obstruction of justice was not off the table.
The Times reported and commented on it.
What's the beef?
Again, I'll say it: there were plenty of criminal and civil proceedings that would have been successfully avoided had Trump shut this investigation down in its infancy. How can there be no evidence for corrupt intent with regards to a future proceeding? That this investigation uncovered heaps and heaps of dirt and illicit dealing is HIGHLY RELEVANT, Mr. Barr. In fact, it's just as relevant as the fact that there was no collusion.
Liars lie for all sorts of reasons. However, they tend to institute coordinated misinformation campaigns when they have something to get out of it. Like say, all of this headache would go away so he and his wealthy friends wouldn't get caught bilking the inaugural committee etc etc etc
There is substantial evidence that Trump lied and directed others to lie. Barr simply decided all that was okay because he wasn't lying to hide collusion. That needs to be put to the public (and is far more important to know than Hillary's emails) because it indicates that the mindset of their president is criminal.
2
Thank you for the clear-eyed piece, NYT.
Given the preponderance of fake news and alt. facts galore, the Mueller’s report needs to be seen in its broader context:
All the concurrent investigations at the state level and previous indictments of Trump staff and aides are living proof of the culpability of the WH occupant.
However, a very important fact such as the summary being provided by a political appointee (AG) cannot be ignored. To protect the integrity of the process and maintain impartiality, the entire report must be made available to Congress and to the public. Anything less will not be acceptable.
Given that AG Barr wrote a memo defending a DOJ practice (not a statute or law) of ‘not indicting sitting Pres.’ months before he assumed the position does not lend him or his report any ‘credibility’ much less ‘objectivity’ to his summary, to say the least.
While the ‘bar’ (no pun intended) may be high to prove beyond a reasonable doubt for an indictable offence for DOJ, the bar for someone vying for the highest office should be even higher and must include morals, ethics and an innate desire to serve the people and uphold the Constitution at all costs, not the desire to lie, cheat, bribe, ridicule, denigrate and coerce people into submission, just to get your way.
3
His campaign manager is in jail, his National Security Advisor is in jail, his personal attorney is in jail. aides are convicted, his first AG lied to Congress, he lies constantly himself, we heard him solicit criminal behavior in his "Russia if you're listening" speech, he admitted firing Comey to derail the investigation, there were scores of contact with Russians and multiple lies about them, etc etc etc.
Is he guilty of anything? Well, not necessarily.
164
@RickP, thanks for saving me the time to post this comment. I was thinking the same thing, but couldn't have articulated it so well.
We now know at least two things we know about President Trump. The first is that in his running of the most important country in the world the people he chose to help him were a bunch of crooks, several of which are in jail or are heading there. The second is that the Russians were eager to see him get elected and actively worked to bring this about, and although his minions were actively working with them his personal involvement was limited, and we don't think they ever progressed to cutting a deal--so I guess that adds up to "no collusion."
It's so sad that we have a President of the United States who's two years into his term, and his big accomplishment is that although he is besties with one of our scariest enemies and although they helped to get him elected it can't be proven that he personally conspired with them to make this happen. So that's how low we've sunk.
41
@Jerry Schulz
Yes, Jerry, Putin has studied us well, hasn't he?
Even now, Putin has weighed on Barr's report.
Why would he do that unless he had a vested interest in doing so?
19
@RickP
C'mon can't the man make a joke? Mueller said they were offered Russian help and refused it! That's a pretty strong indication of no obstruction. And that's what Barr concluded on obstruction - rejecting conspiracy is inconsistent with criminal intent.
The Editorial Board should have enough integrity to say we were wrong. But they join embarrassed CNN, MSNBC, Schiff, Nadler and Perez - "collusion in plain sight." Sad.
1
The Mueller report and Barr’s incomplete yet predictable answer on the question of “obstruction of justice” do nothing to exonerate Trump on the multiple observations that he is wholly iunfit for office. He lies, cheats, is cruel, a racist, petty, lacks empathy and uses the office to enrich himself. He is also a demonstrable “stochastic terrorist” through use of inflammatory, violent and divisive language.
(“Stochastic terrorism” is a recent term describing speech that can be expected to incite violence/terrorism. “Stochastic" describes the random nature of the targets.)
None of these attributes are crimes per se, but taken together they are powerful reasons for Democrats to lead America to a better place in 2020 and relegate the nightmare that is this Trump Administration to the dustbin on history.
Power, in a capitalist culture, with notable exceptions, is by its very nature, corrupt and corrupting.
Sure, "no drama Obama" had an administration with no indictments, but the truth is, from the days of the Slaver Washington running this country, we have been a nation of greed and 1%'ers running the country. It came into existence by murdering the Native Americans who lived here, and the super rich stay in power by owning the political system. FDR called out the rich for their corruption, saying a "government by big money is just as bad as a government by big mob".
Trump is just another big money-big mobist, in that long line. He is, I have to admit, a remarkably successful violator of the Constitution and the Emoluments Clause, one of the greatest in history.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
@Hugh Massengill
In our system no one has "power".
They have the authority which the people give to them to do the job they have been elected, appointed or hired to do and nothing else.
@magicisnotreal
from my dictionary: power | ˈpou(ə)r |
noun
1 the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality: the power of speech | (powers) : his powers of concentration | [with infinitive] : the power to raise the dead.
2 the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events: she had me under her power | the idea that men should have power over women.
• political or social authority or control, especially that exercised by a government: the party had been in power for eight years | [as modifier] : a power struggle.
• a right or authority that is given or delegated to a person or body: police do not have the power to stop and search | emergency powers.
• the military strength of a state: the sea power of Venice.
"A Trump-friendly attorney general’s letter doesn’t do justice to the special counsel’s investigation. Release his whole report."
And if you find nothing in the report that clearly implicates the President in obstructing justice, will you leave it alone? Will you apologize for two year's worth of daily attacks against Trump? More likely you will write another piece claiming Mueller didn't turn over every rock and Congress should finish the job because in your hearts you just know Trump is guilty of something worthy of impeachment.
Barr indicted more than 30 people. If he could have proved obstruction do you really believe he would not have done so?
18
@Beetle. Barr indicted more than thirty? Do you mean Mueller? We only have Barr's spin on Mueller's report, not Mueller's report yet.
18
@Beetle YES
2
@Beetle
Barr did not indict anyone. He wrote a 19 page opinion letter to the president claiming there could be no obstruction and otherwise stroking Trumps ego.
14
Oh, and I want to say, THANK YOU ROBERT MUELLER. I hope you get some rest with your family now. Whatever is in that report, I'm sure it's best that any investigation can offer.
71
We can boil the Russia scandal down to this: To advance his family's business interests, a presidential candidate and his variously compromised underlings encouraged a hostile foreign power to interfere with a national election, in exchange for sanctions, (money laundering and seizure), relief and the promise of a free hand in Ukraine.
That explains most of the variation in behavior of every bonehead in Trump's orbit, from Roger Stone and Paul Manafort to Michael Flynn, the president himself, and his useless adult children. In the end the lot of them will have achieved nothing other than a small and temporary boost in the fortunes of Fox News. Trump will leave office at the hands of the voters with what remains of his global racketeering and money laundering business in tatters and the Republican Party reeling from its decision trade the future of conservatism to a loathsome, lifelong con man in obvious cognitive decline.
1
I agree that Trump happily accepted flavors from Putin and his merry band of no good-nicks. The Clintons were even worse. Bill got a half million dollar speaking fee from a Russian bank. The Clinton Foundation happily accepted tens of millions of dollars from Russian oligarchs. Hillary signed off on a huge uranium purchase by Russia. Her campaign paid for a "dossier" on Trump filled with Russian created lies. A little bipartisanship is called for here.
2
Comey cuts a deal with Lynch and Obama not to prosecute Hillary who clearly was obstructing justice with all the treasonous things she did while Secretary of State and then as candidate. By comparison, Trump's Mueller report is like the results from a New York City parking ticket investigation.
1
The dichotomy in how people view the case against Trump will not be narrowed by Mueller's reported inability to exonerate him on suspicion of collusion with Russia. Mueller's findings would have had no impact on Trump supporters no matter how damning, and no impact on his critics no matter how exculpatory.
The antipathy to Trump goes well beyond arcane points of criminal law. People judge him, as are they entitled, by the whole of his actions, utterances and character. The majority of Americans will see him as no less fit to be their president now than they did a few days ago.
DOJ policy has it that a sitting president cannot be charged criminally even if evidence of guilt is overwhelming. And Pelosi had already dampened any public expectation that the Dems would push for impeachment once Mueller concluded his investigation. Her view is that it is better to face this widely disliked, badly wounded GOP Goliath than to risk that a stand-in might prove more a match in 2020.
I have to make one observation about Rocket Rod Rosenstein, and his role in making a determination about obstruction of justice. Rod wrote the memo justifying dismissal of FBI Chief Comey. But he was even more active in the removal process. He reviewed and edited Trump’s “Comey, your fired” missive; his edit, tellingly, was to remove reference to the on going Russian investigation. In other words, Rod knew of Trump’s motivation and actually assisted in concealing that motivation.
Rosenstein was not merely a witness who should have been recused; I question whether he was a conspirator who may have been accused. As cleared Trump of obstruction charges...did he cleanse himself in he process?
79
@Asher Fried
Rosenstein knew there was no basis for a special counsel. Barr was smart to keep him around to do what he knew was right in the first place.
Donald Trump was elected by The People to be President of the United States. He was accused of a serious crime (colluding with Russia to steal the election) for which he was found to be innocent. At this point, Democrats should consider it an injustice not to drop this matter out of respect for our democracy.
58
@Mark: The People chose Hillary Clinton. The electoral college and Putin chose Trump. Trump was found neither innocent nor guilty. And we still need to see his tax returns.
131
Trump was NOT found innocent. The investigation did not find sufficient evidence to indict.
68
@Mark
How dare you.
Barr already wrote an opinion piece before he was confirmed AG that Trump had no business being investigated. And he wrote the report he was hired to do for Trump. This is precisely what Trump selected Barr to do.
Barr's report ignores the rule of law and the country does what Mueller discovered. AMERICANS consider it an injustice to sweep crime under the rug.
Apparently you either don't give a hoot about America or rule of law.
61
We have a situation where the words of the investigator are far more credible than the words of the political appointee "above" the investigator. If this sounds familiar, it should.
Much of the country is still eager to hear the unaltered words of the investigator and nervous that they may be buried or further spun past the point of credibility. The country got to hear from the investigator in 2016, but might not have had different decisions been made.
Perhaps it is time to reflect a bit and put down the pitchforks.
1
At this point I thought nothing Trump or his supporters did or said could surprise me anymore. I was wrong.
We are now living in some bizarro version of reality where facts don’t matter, integrity and civility is considered a weakness to be exploited, and self interest is the only thing that matters anymore.
It’s beyond depressing.
LET IT GO...2020 is around the corner. Win fair and square.
You all have to realize politicians are not pure. They come in shades of grey. If you dig into any of them, HRC and Obama included, there's enough dirt.
So yes, Trump is a shady character, a little more than most other politicians, but for that to be elevated to impeachment is a bit much.
3
There is no getting around this one simple fact- WikiLeaks released the stolen DNC emails immediately after the release of the 'Access Hollywood' video. No reasonable person could conclude that this was just a coincidence. It has been established that WikiLeaks acts as a cut out for the Russian government, who have been affirmatively accused of interfering in the election on behalf of the trump campaign and having had stolen said emails the night after trump publicly called for Russia to do so.. So, Russia committed the crime and stole the emails, they passed them on to their cut out (WikiLeaks), and they were released at the exact time when they were needed after the video of the leader of the free world boasting about committing sexual assault. We, the American people, are supposed to believe this was all just a coincidence? The timing of these actions is such clear evidence of American involvement that I don't know how or why any reasonable person could know these details and arrive at any other conclusion.
@b d'amico
America hired an investigator with an extremely good record for non-partisanship. He had two years and an unlimited budget. He concluded that Trump had no involvement in the extraction or release of those emails. Russia may have opted to release them for Trump's political gain, but Trump was not involved. It's not a crime on Trump. Stop the whining. Move on.
By not releasing the whole Mueller report, Trump continues his obstruction of Justice.
What did you expect?
1
Questions:
1. Why wasn’t Mueller’s Executive Summary released?
2. Why didn’t Mueller subpoena Trump for a sit-down interview?
3. How many pages and exhibits are in Mueller’s report?
1
Barr's unilateral -- and I believe highly illegal -- exoneration of Trump is as much of a hoax and Trump's labeling of Mueller's investigation as a "hoax" over the past two years. In short, it stinks. As for "no collusion," Mueller seems to have ignored more than 100 contacts with Russians by Trump, his relatives and aides. Kushner trying to set up a secret back channel of communications with the Kremlin. Manafort giving polling data to a Russian agent. Trump kowtowing to Putin and refusing to believe his own intel agencies. Trump's delaying and showing extreme reluctance to implement Russia sanctions, then lifting same on Deripaska, one of Putin's tame oligarchs.
1
"The President was found to have no corrupt intent." Perhaps this was poorly worded. He is in fact a shining mountain of pure corrupt intent which he immediately displayed by stating that the "Totally corrupt Mueller probe" had totally " exonerated" him.
To be fair none of us can ever be totally exonerated since we all have sinned but Trump has studiously avoided honesty throughout his entire life even in the most trivial areas.
I find myself deeply disheartened that according to polling 45% of adult Americans view him as an honest man.
1
Apparently Trump was right, as long as it's broad daylight, he can do anything...
147
@Elyssia He didn't do anything.
@JQuincy: trump is a world class crook, and he WILL be held to account. He is also destroying this country and anything about this country that is decent. Unless we rid ourselves of this con artist, trump, and his reprehensible republican minions, you can kiss The United States of America good-bye.
8
I want to see the details. I want a public interview of Mueller. I think the obstruction continues. The American people should not rest until every last detail of this two year investigation (paid for by our tax dollars) is available. This sets an awful president. Do we really want to say its okay to get help from a foreign hostile government? Have secret meetings with them? Set up back channels? This is not okay, regardless of what Barr is saying now. Putin is getting every last thing he put his money on.
Democrats will not be able to help themselves. They will self destruct over this report. They need to make sure they are prepared for the entire report. Maybe it will make things worse. Interesting to read that the Barr letter does not accurately reflect the Muller report when the people writing this have not read the report either. Again, Trump Derangement Syndrome in full view.
2
Nancy Pelosi is already contacting the movers. She and most of the freshmen class are already packing it in.
1
I can just imagine how Barr spent hours going through the Mueller Report, with a little help from Rosenstein to add legitimacy to his interpretation, trying to manipulate it in every which way to see that there was no obstruction of justice and still, in the end, not be able to say there was no exoneration, which indicates to me that there is much more in that report we should see. And, as expected, from the man who could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still maintain the support of his base, it was Trump who came out yelling that he was completely exonerated. What a sham.
Remember what Michael Cohen said. Mr. Trump speaks in a code which everyone who works with him understands. This means nothing is said directly. Instead of saying "Mr. Putin you can commence looking for Hillary's deleted emails" he merely rephrased with "Russia, I hope you can find the missing emails." Instead of saying to Wikileaks "please fulfill your role as an arm of the Russian military and continue sharing Hillary's stolen emails" he merely said over and over, "I love Wikileaks". What if General Patton had said, "Germany, I hope you can fly over our current position and find the missing American troops" wouldn't this be colluding with the enemy?
Of course it is. So why are people saying we should breathe a sigh of relief that there was no collusion? I'm sure in the days of Capone, if Elliot Ness had said, "I can find no conclusive evidence that Al Capone is responsible for the murders and racketeering" that the people of Chicago would have breathed a collective sigh of relief.
So we can probably expect 6 more years of Trump's love affair with Kim Jong Un, his bromance with Putin, and the trashing of American hero John McCain.... At least we may not have to hear the "NO COLLUSION" mantra every day. Who would have ever thought our country would sink so low.
1
I agree With your analogy of Hillary Clinton as Germany working with all her might to co opt and undermine the Democratic Party and Bernie Sanders voters and the president as a whistle blower of that fact but you lose me on the rest.
@P
Gaslighting has that way of affecting people...You didn't lose me at all.
We are now fully engulfed in a war which will determine whether white supremacy shall be our governing and guiding principle. Lincoln knew well that the outcome of the Civil War did not mean that the South was defeated. He knew that there would be much blood spilled to eradicate slavery, and its long-lived after effects before our sins would be washed from the nation. As he said, less than a month before he was shot down by a white supremacist: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Any Democrat who mindlessly urges other Democrats to "reach across the aisle," is asking us to shake hands with the Devil. Always remember that.
My faith in American justice has hit a nadir. If you think the last two and a half years have been agony they will pale in comparison to the next year and a half of unrestrained Trumpism.
1
Okay...Trump didn't work with the Russians. That's done and dusted. But now, to celebrate, he says he is "going on the offensive"? That should not be a stretch for such an offensive human being. Right? Bring it.
So let’s just get this straight the New Trump collusion co conspirator is Mueller who is sitting quietly on the side while Bob Barr led by Trump releases a completely false summation of his report.
1
Attorney General Barr seems to have disbarred himself, at least in the court of public opinion. Barr has passed judgement but the jury is still out. Let's wait for the final verdict.
So a huge part of our electorate gives a sigh of relief as Trump and Mr. Barr declare him 'exonerated' and their hero declares a vendetta against his enemies for questioning this habitual liar has said or done. But the Russian meddling in our elections which resulted in their choice's election has not been stopped or even condemned by Trump. And why should it be from Trump's twisted view point. Russians could give him another term or the Moscow hotel he craves all for the small price of allowing the meddling to continue.
Skating on the edge of criminality has been Trump's specialty and if he can avoid jail, gain a cudgel to beat up on enemies and steal another election, what the hey. The nation can go to blazes.
Read Some History Or At Least The News Paper. The true direct link to Russian Medaling in the election Was Uncovered By The OBAMA Administration. Who promptly did nothing!!! A cross look and a stern warning oh yeah all behind the scenes. And who conspired to keep that under wraps by ....oh yeah the Democratic Party who were putting all their efforts to fix the election in favor of Hilary Clinton over Bernie Sanders and his voters.
Mr. Barr’s rush to provide a summary to the Mueller Report on Sunday makes me wonder if the release was timed to coincide with Trump’s return from Florida, a made in Hollywood image of resurrection, complete with clouds parting, a descent, and the door rolling away to reveal the risen President.
Why, the American public has a right to ask, didn’t Mueller subpoena Trump to testify as well as Donald Trump Jr.? Remember this: Bill Clinton had to testify on tape about his sex life...so why didn’t the same standard apply to Trump for something of such great national interest ? How can one infer intent without that?
How can they say no coordination when Manafort sent detailed polling data to Russia and that is only now being looked into? 100 hidden contacts with Russia, “back channels” being set up and a foreign policy which inexplicably meets Putin’s wish list (obsession with removing sanctions). How can there be an indictment against Stone and DOJ still days no coordination?
At the end of the day three Republican men made the decision on Trump: should not a decision of such import have been made by a bipartisan group? We have heard Republicans cry foul at the slightest sign when all along Democrats need to assert their right to have the same standards apply!
We the people deserve an explanation - We also expected the Special Counsel to do his job - make a determination on obstruction.
What signal does this give to those who will cheat in the future!!
My faith in our democracy is gone.
1
>> the president could not be guilty of obstruction unless there were an underlying crime to obstruct.
What would it mean to "obstruct a crime"? Your terminology is off. The thing that's obstructed is the prosecution of a crime, not the crime itself.
All a prelude to the investigation within the investigation : is Robert Mueller really a Trump stooge hired to replace a James Comey sincerely dedicated to taking the elected president down for suspected collusion and corruption ?
Or perhaps Mr Mueller was afraid of sipping some radioactive tea someday as retribution for his services…
Conclusion : this is another event in recent American history which will remain permanently mired in murky waters, like the JFK assassination or the 9/11 attacks, opening more questions than providing answers.
2
What is more important than knowing if the President of The United States is a crook? How can any American NOT want to know why there were so many lies told about contacts with Russia? How can you trust a government that clearly has not been an advocate for most Americans? Does this mean it is okay to collude with a foreign government (work on building towers, share 40 pages of polling data, attempt to withdraw sanctions, and arrange a backdoor channel to communicate) as long as they can't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt? Justice still needs to be served. The day of reckoning will come.
The letter states unequivocally that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. If Republicans in Congress refuse to do anything to stop foreign interference in the future, they are 100% colluding in the death of American democracy. Furthermore, if even the letter from Barr states unequivocally that Russia interfered with the 2016 US presidential election, we can only imagine what the actual Mueller report had to say about it.
Neither the Mueller report nor the Attorney General's four-page summary of it provide me with even an ounce relief. In fact, there was no need for a Mueller report at all.
In the months since the presidential campaign, time and time again evidence has presented itself pointing to campaign collusion with Russia.
Trump's behavior in the debates against Hillary Clinton offer one example. His behavior on the podium in Helsinki with President Putin provide another.
The change in the GOP platform leading up to the election is a third. The blatant lies about negotiations with Russia about Trump Tower Moscow is yet another.
No collusion? Who is kidding whom? Collusion is as plain as the nose on our face. And we haven't even gotten to obstruction of justice yet.
2
If all this canoodling with the Russians and lying about it was just a coincidence, why was the Republican Platform changed at the last minute away from protecting the fragile democracy of Ukraine toward favoring Russian expansionism?
So many unanswered questions.
1
"The justice system doesn’t work when people lie to authorities, no matter why they do so."
So if we can't get him for obstructing justice, maybe we can get him for obstructing injustice.
I can just about hear Kafka guffawing in his grave.
1
Under the “ reasoning “ of Mr. Barr, Nixon would have been completely blameless. Release the entire Report, let the American People decide. Or is that now verboten ?
SAD.
1
While the Editorial Board offers opinions in addition to facts, this editorial is just plain wrong-headed. It is certainly fair to say (the Barr letter points out that "While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." It is also fair to note that Donald Trump's assertion that the outcome is a "Complete and Total EXONERATION" is not only patently false, but continues his ridiculous Twitter behavior. But we (sadly) expect more from the Editorial Board than we do from Trump. There is something almost shrill about the Board's rush to say "yes, but..." Please, Board members, give us a moment to read the transmittal letter, to discover what the Justice Department will release (and to whom) and to ruminate on the result of this eagerly-awaited, two-year investigation. You folks are beginning to sound almost like Trump.
2
A poor case of "sour grapes." After acknowledging the finding of no conspiracy, the Board goes on to cite reasons for collusion? After praising Mueller they then condemn him for punting on the obstruction issue. Join the embarrassed CNN, MSNBC, Schiff and Nadler who all said collusion was there in plain sight. It takes integrity to say, Yes I was wrong!
2
It should not be missed that had Trump uttered any of his too-numerous-to-count lies to Congress itself, he would, indeed, have been guilty of a crime. That he may have, therefore, gotten away with his compulsive prevarication on a technicality conveniently misses the point.
1
Trump is clearly above the law. Mueller didn’t subpoena or interview Trump. I thought Mueller would protect the rule of law. I was wrong.
1
Is Mr. Barr or Mr. Trump aware of the Constitution?
Congress needs to question the President under oath before the Congress, and Congress is required by the Constitution to have all the facts of the case.
Was Mr. Barr auditioning for his next career path,
The replacement for judge Jeanine on "Fox News"?
And now we can only imagine what dirty tricks are coming--think the Pegasus spyware tool and worse--to derail any Democratic hopes of winning the presidency in 2020, no matter where the nominee sits on the political spectrum. As long as the incumbent benefits without having to lift a finger of his own, millions of Americans will be perfectly satisfied. We might as well just elect Roger Stone and be done with it.
1
Isn’t it odd that the Mueller Report appeared soon after the House Committees sent document requests to 81 individuals and agencies? Isn’t it odd that the WH to date has refused the request? With AG Barr’s digested summary, quoting mere sentence fragments from Mueller, the WH may well stonewall forever. And Trump will be seeking revenge in his typical fashion. More dangerous then ever, I’m guessing he will attack House Democrats next.
Isn’t it odd that Trump was never interviewed by Mueller?
Where is the pressure coming from to make this all go away? Who is the Puppet Master?
God help us.
Corruption in government and in officials has always been infuriating. This type of corruption may not be illegal (unlawful) but would be something over which some elected or appointed officials would be forced to resign.
Having power does not mean individuals can abuse that power. This is why even the appearance of corrupt or unethical behavior is supposed to avoided by elected and appointed government officials.
I would I agree Americans should be relieved there was no direct evidence of Trump Campaign criminal conspiracy with Russians attacking our elections. The public has a right to see the Special Counsel’s report involving counterintelligence investigations to assess if there was unethical or corrupt conspiracy. In addition, the public has a right to see the evidence “on both sides” involving obstruction of justice, which may not be criminal but may suggest abuses of Executive powers.
None of this absolves the President from the appearance of unethical, near-treasonous, inhumane, corrupt, actions and policies since the Inauguration.
I did not vote for Donald Trump based on his previous decades of corrupt and unethical practices and I would not vote for him in the next election based on this and his actions and behaviors as President.
It is Congress’ obligation to curb abuses of presidents; and all voters must embrace this country’s values and democracy or lose their freedoms and liberties. Dictators take these away; Donald Trump wants to be a dictator.
It is so obvious that trump obstructed justice, and he should be impeached for not only that, that but also for doing anything Putin wants him to do. His presidency has been so outrageous, we have forgotten what a President stands for.
Democracy!
Mueller punted on obstruction and Barr gave Trump a full pass, a do not stop doing what you are doing. I am disgusted with the justice system.
I read Barr’s partisan summary very differently. One of the few quotes from the report, “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities” doesn’t provide the complete quote. The [T] replaced a lower case “t” with the upper case “T”, which indicates that the full sentence hasn’t been quoted. Why not? Might it say, while there’s extensive evidence that members of the Trump campaign and inner circle were in contact with Russians who were connected with the hacking of DNC emails, the investigation did not establish ... We don’t know. But it’s a selective use of a partial quote to convey a particular point of view. Moreover, another quote, “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him” is also a partial quote. Again, what preceded it? Apart from that, a statement that the report does not conclude that Trump committed a crime doesn’t mean he didn’t. It’s just a statement that the report didn’t conclude that. And what was the standard of proof applied by Mueller to reach that conclusion? More important, the report also DOES NOT EXONERATE HIM. Why not? What is the basis for that statement? As Schumer and Pelosi said in their statement, this puff piece raises more questions than it answers. Other than the question of whether Barr would issue a white wash “summary”. The answer is, sadly, and decidedly, yes.
1
So much for the "13 Angry Democrats" working for
Mueller.
At the end of the day, it's night....
Mueller is a republican, and I think that fact of
loyalty to the party won out.
If you think trump was reckless up until this point,
just wait and watch.
Twenty Two months of work, producing volumes of paper, indictments, and convictions; this all gets read, reviewed, and encapsulated into a four page letter, in what 30 hours, by a man who wrote an 18 page essay on why the Mueller investigation was a sham, which got him the job as AG. I am not an attorney, but this sounds kind of like a preordained conclusion of Mueller's report. And regardless of this report, Trump is still a despicable human being, an incompetent know nothing President, and crook. Let's see the whole report and we the people will decide.
1
The people who support Trump are going to say Mueller's investigation proved Trump didn't collude with Russia. End of story.
The people who loathe Trump are going to say there was plenty of collusion and Barr sided with Trump. End of story.
There will never be any meeting of the minds on this. Looking for one is hopeless.
The AG report definitely doesn't absolve this president of any crimes. I would, however, like to see Dems concentrate on so called kitchen table issues important to voters. If Dems can win the 2020 election, we can then proceed with further investigations. He won't be able to pardon anyone, he cannot claim executive privilege. I'd like to understand why so many people lied and were willing to go to prison to protect this "individual 1". What answers can be found in his tax returns? I'm convinced that some of the Russian answers lie in those documents. Let this so called 'president' spew his vitriol and let Dems concentrate on winning in 2020.
This "no exoneration" claim is sure reminiscent of NYT's polar-opposite interpretation of Hillary's "exoneration" by James Comey. It's a marvel they could view that as an exoneration, but not this, when the degree of investigation of Trump was many orders of magnitude greater than that of Hillary.
4
This is just what Trump supporters will use to think he's their true savior, once again.
So all the collusion before this report was released, will be ignored.
Trump can go on having secret meetings with Putin.
2
I firmly believe that Mr Mueller has done a great job. I also never expected him to find any evidence of serious wrongdoing on Trumps part.
The Russians did whatever they did without Trump's help or collusion. Trump probably knew what was happening, and because it suited him he let it happen. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Russians wanted a Trump administration - full of cronies and incompetents who would be easy to manipulate and woefully inexperienced. The Russians know that the Trump organization will want to be in Moscow and a long term relationship with a current and former president will be a great long term asset for Russia. Putin is playing chess, Trump is playing checkers.
the next generation of Trumps and Kushners will do well in Russia, you'll see.
I understand this is an editorial, and the Editorial Board is absolutely sure Trump is the worst thing for this planet akin to an extinction level event. I read this editorial hoping to get some insight and self reflection on how we could have gotten the collusion part so wrong. Not only were these missing, but the article is replete with the same, tired arguments that I am sure Mueller and his team have beaten to death, to no avail. And what don't you get about obstruction - there is no underlying crime of collusion and Trump said/tweeted all those things in public. Here are some same, tired arguments for you - Stop beating this dead horse. Know when to walk away. Or take heed - two years from now, when Trump has been re-elected and Congress in Republican control, Democrats will still be obsessing about this the way Republicans obsess about Hillary's private server/emails. That will truly be sad and tragic.
The press and Democratic party politicians response to Donald Trump's administration reactions to the Barr summary should be "Donald Trump met the minimum expectation of a U.S Pres., i.e.; he is not a traitor. That, is according a to summary by AG Barr... that's a Good President". "Now let everyone see the whole report - including Donald Trump's written responses to the questions of Special Counsel "
Mueller was cautious to a fault! It was his job to find illegal acts and bring them to justice. He punted! He punted on the issue of Obstruction of Justice. Yes, to lay out clear grounds to impeach Trump takes REAL courage - in the face of Trumps bombast and more importantly the temperament and character of too many of his ardent supporters. Mueller showed no courage here.
Time for Dems to unify their ideology around a candidate who can outwit a boorish and illiterate President who has simply not lived up to his promises - instead who has hired not the “best people” (as he promised) to run our country in fragile times, but instead either public servants who resign or now convicted criminals. If the Dems can’t figure this out, then they will not earn the leadership they wish.
The Dems have the all facts to win the debate of the how well this government has been run. Who can convincingly deliver this message?
It won’t be easy. And unity is required.
Barr was hired for one purpose, and he delivered. SDNY is coming. This is far from over, sadly for our nation. Trump must go.
1
So here we are.
The country gets to decide in less than two years if we want another four years of this.
Handwringing and teeth gnashing is wasted energy. Pelosi is right about impeachment—he’s just not worth it.
It’s now time for the democrats to get their stuff together, and go full bore on voter registration and getting their base out. It’s the only way to win—Lord knows Trump will spend the next two years at rallies amid cries of “Lock her up” getting his base out.
1
Que in conspiracy theories! Democrats’ tiresome pushing of the “collusion” narrative has alienated rational people, such as myself, who recognized long time ago that there was no grand conspiracy between Putin and Trump. This is not how Putin operates. All he wanted was to sow chaos and weaken Hillary who would have stood up to his war in Ukraine. In the age of the social media, all you need is a couple of trolls and a gullible, uneducated, hysterical population of your target country to achieve these goals. What would the “collusion” be about? Putin does not like Trump. He tried to help Sanders in the primaries. In a way, Putin is the ultimate “anybody but Hillary” voter. And now when the whole thing was revealed as the nonsense it is, Democrats are doubling down by descending into the rabbit hole of hysteria, speculations and wild conspiratorial thinking. If they keep it up, Trump will have four more years and Putin will have had a grand victory. If they want to keep the moderate voters who gave them the midterms victory, they will forget about Mueller and impeachment and try to find an appealing centrist presidential candidate.
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In less than 48 hours Trupmp's owned Attorney General du jour was able to condense Mr. Muller et. al's magnum opus into 3 1/2 pages?
Most likely the most important judicial document of this century gets annotated to the general public?
We must have somehow slipped back into the Twight Zone of the "land of the free and the home of the brave".
I loathe Trump. But remember that a Democratic Attorney General decided Hillary Clinton didn't violate any laws with her email improprieties. Don't accuse me of false equivalence or whataboutism.
It's called POLITICS.
And it will go your way when you win elections and regain power.
So focus there.
They got Al Capone on tax evasion charges. I suspect a similar fate awaits Trump "the exonerated."
Fair's fair; this editorial is a lesson to us all. Unfortunately, the Electoral College doesn't count us all equally.
"the attorney general briskly decided that Mr. Trump had not obstructed justice. Why not? Because there was no underlying crime to obstruct, Mr. Barr said, and anyway, most of Mr. Trump’s behavior took place in full public view"??????
I am not a legal expert , but I don't think that would fly with most courts of justice. If a terrorist kills a number of people in full public view, it doesn't constitute a crime ? come on! It just doesn't make any common sense.
Cross your fingers.
Remember: Trump gracefully submitted his tax returns.
Our judicial system never “exonerates” anyone. The best it can do is say “not guilty.” Innocence is presumed by the Constitution.
Heres the problem with releasing the whole report - investigative authorities dont do that - for anyone, as policy. When someone is investigated and found not guilty, releasing all the unproven allegations would besmirch a persons reputation. If someone accused you of cheating on your taxes, or murdering someone, and you were investigated, and the result of that investigation found no proof to warrant the claim, would you want every employer to know you were investigated for cheating on your taxes? Or investigated for murder? We are innocent until proven guilty in this country. If we allowed the details of salacious accusations to go public for anyone ever investigated, a persons reputation could easily be sullied by just making an accusation. It wouldnt be fair to the accused, especially someone falsely accused, for such information to be made public. We know you folks want your pound of flesh, and are looking to hurt Trump by taking the details of this investigation and dragging him through the mud, but such an exercise runs counter to the protections our legal system provides to its citizens. Hes innocent. Get over it. If you couldnt see this investigation was a sham from the start, I dont know what to tell you.
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Trump is still Trump....the man of 9,000+ lies; the man who would be king. He is just going to be more emboldened. He and his family are benefitting from his tenure at the expense of America’s reputation.
I am so depressed and feel hopeless about our country. For the most part, I'm done reading the papers or watching PBS Newshour, etc., I will no longer stand in public for our national anthem.
I am ashamed, ashamed, ashamed of this country and of our president and the GOP party of our blue collar, uneducated people (who I used to take pride in and believed they were not v smart but were benevolent and our country needed them).
In some regards, if we end up in some type of civil war, I'll be on the front lines.
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Well there is another crime Trump can be charged with. It’s called Treason and is defined in 18 USC Section 2381 as follows: “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.” Is Trump guilty of that? Of course. But don’t worry, he’ll con others into paying the fine for him.
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Huge disappointment but there is much more to follow. I take heart in Senator Nadler’s words this afternoon.
However, my Disappointment that the Jr/Jarad/Ivanka trio were not indicted for meeting with 12 Russian officers who were there specifically to sway the election gives off a Very bad fish smell. Something is very wrong here; while they are out cheering themselves, going scott free, we all saw and heard what they did and we know it was collusion with Russia. They weren’t invited to a birthday party.
Hopefully, a Mark Felt-like hero emerges out of the shadows of the FBI and provides a full, unredacted version of the Mueller Report to WikiLeaks for the American people to read for themselves.
The Editorial Board is reduced to insisting that the President has not been totally exonerated which even if true falls far short of what they obviously were hoping for. The country remains strong. The threat was not real. But the Editorial Board is not happy.
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Mueller failed to subpoena Trump, Trump Jr., and Kushner. Game over. Cover up complete. They get these guys on the cover up and obstruction of justice not on original actions. Mueller eager to punt to DoJ on obstruction charge but with no testimony from principals...
Poof... nothing to be see here folks, move along now. Laughable but Mueller can now enjoy retirement in full embrace of reconstituted establishment.
My take --- Trump just won reelection.
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"It’s no surprise that he and his allies are once again floating the idea of prosecuting Mrs. Clinton"
Well of course, it was Hillary that slapped the sanctions on Russia!
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Somehow I think that Mueller's dithering purity is out of sync with the realities of truth, justice and the American way in the Trump era. One Dudley Doo-right was more than enough.
Like the quarterback doesn't have to collude with his wide receiver, same team.
But giving Trump the benefit of doubt on every nuance in the report, and giving him a formal certificate of non collusion, at a bipartisan black tie dinner, we would still have a problem.
Simply put the President of the United States is still an uncontrollably mendacious, vengeful, cruel, purposely ill informed, functionally incompetent, rabble rousing, braggart. And he is the commander in chief of the most destruction capable military force ever put together in the history of civilization.
Besides, colluding with the Russians on electioneering is child's play when compared to colluding with the fossil fuel industries, and monarchies to forestall any initiatives to combat global warming that would harm them. There is no crime on any books tantamount to purposely acting to enhance the warming rather than to fight it.
This is what you get when Trump puts his Fox in the Henhouse. Barr was placed there for the specific task of undermining the Mueller Investigation report and it has worked.
So much for an impartial delivery of the report to Congress.
The House needs to keep up the investigation so we will know once and for all the complete story.
Or is this going to be a repeat of the JFK Assasination report.
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On this dark day, one has to ask the first question: why did Putin want trump in the first place?
And the second, why did trump choose Barr?
Answers to that lead to obstruction of justice and a compromised president.
Hurry up SDNY, Schiff and Nadler. An angry, depressed nation awaits this!
Well this is disappointing. Why didn’t Mueller insist on interviewing trump in person? He got away with his attorneys answering his questions for him. I’m scared that trump twisting this into an “innocent” conclusion will fire up his craven base even more.
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The desperation of the attorney general to clear his boss of even the slightest crime is more than reason enough for the House to keep its investigation going. I expect William Barr to do his utmost to bury the Mueller report, allowing not Democrat in Congress, let alone the American people, to see it.
Every vote for Trump is a vote for Putin.
Remember Putin is not constrained by term limits so he can afford to take the long view strategy in his Information Warfare targeting the U.S. in order to divide her population against itself.
The electoral college makes the U.S. weaker against his attacks.
The cable news cycle makes the U.S. weaker against his attacks.
Political polling science exposes the weak spots... you don’t even need to poll anymore if you know how to analyze the twitter data...
Big data, social media, technological disruption to the business model of the fourth estate will be the downfall of liberal democracy... and it is our democratic ideals which prevent us from doing anything to stop it... it feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
So if you lived next door to a man who had many associates CONVICTED of federal crimes. Not by Comey, not by Mueller, not by Sessions, not by Democrats, and not by the press. ALL convicted by juries of their peers (or pled guilty). And that neighbor is accused of being involved in some nefarious behaviors, so he gets investigated. He is found "not guilty" not by a preponderance of the evidence, but due to a lack thereof. I ask....is that someone you would invite over for dinner on a regular basis and attend house parties at his home? I remind everyone....that person is not your "neighbor", he is the president of the United States. And if you think he will say: "I get why I was investigated.,. Some of my associates did things they should have not done. Ok, it has been determined I was not involved. So lets move on to the problems the country faces". But, no, this person will try to kneecap all those who wanted him investigated. Trump is a nasty, mean, terrible human being.
He is the kind of man who has an affair while his wife is breastfeeding his son. Don't forget that. His colors will be on full display. Day in and day out. He may be 'innocent' of the charges. But he is certainly guilty of all character charges against him. And the evidence fully and totally supports that. Beyond a reasonable doubt.
The reaction of the NYT's editorial board, as well as most of its readers contributing here, is fully predictable. Like it or not, the Mueller report is in fact a 100 percent vindication for Trump specifically to the 'collusion' issue which has been the main focus of this investigation. There may be some issues beyond that and we'll all get to see if/when the full report is released.
The American people at large have long since become numb over the Russians-under-every-rock obsession from the Left. I am no fan of Trump whatsoever, but face it: this is a win for him.
1
The White House is celebrating the release of the summary of the Mueller report, but let's take a step back and observe that even if the Trump campaign didn't actively conspire with the Russians as they hacked and interfered in our election, it gladly stood by and accepted help from a foreign, hostile government in the hacking and interference in our election. It didn't refuse that help. It didn't report the crime to the FBI. That is decidedly unpatriotic, and it continues to astound me that Trump's so-called "patriotic" supporters accept this. How low can our politics sink?
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@DanBal The hacking started under Obama, remember?
"Uh, I told Vlad to cut it out." said the stern and serious Mr. Obama in June of 2016. Oh, all the while, Comey, Clapper, McCabe and the rest of the merry band of criminals conspired to spy on a presidential candidate, a first in American history. So, what's that again about "patriotism", and "low politics"?
@DanBal The hacking started under Obama, remember?
"Uh, I told Vlad to cut it out." said the stern and serious Mr. Obama in June of 2016. Oh, all the while, Comey, Clapper, McCabe and the rest of the merry band of criminals conspired to spy on a presidential candidate, a first in American history. So, what's that again about "patriotism", and "low politics"? Finally, according to these losers, they choose to "spy" on Mr. Trump during the campaign by suggesting they were "aware of efforts" to conspire with Russia. So...what was Trump supposed to "report"? Geez.
@DanBal
What Barr says is that if you do it in broad daylight you don't have corrupt intent.
I'm sure that comes as a surprise to bank robbers.
17
What's amazing--still--is the willingness of an entire party to shill for propaganda, if not outright lies, that the president puts out. The Republican rush to prematurely silence further action on the Mueller report--whatever it says--is despicable and disgraceful, the latter a word frequently used by "The Great Divider" (the former might be, if it was part of his limited lexicon).
This should let the more objective among us--if there are many--as well as those biased to see prez crime (obviously very many), become aware of the political fights that will naturally ensue, esp if revelations of the real Mueller report (and not the Barr summary) insist that we don't forget the legitimacy of the investigations and their need for continued pursuit, where necessary. And if, by Mueller's lack of proper context (if that's so), he's failed to provide Americans with a meaningful means of interpreting the president's actions, then we'll need the legal establishment to provide a better consensus to do just that.
What a rotten party the so-called "Grand Old Party" is.
1
This is probably a worse outcome than most realize. Russians would have been bad indeed. But if there's no collusion, there is no one else to blame for the sorry state of this presidency other than America itself.
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@Catalin Sandu And now, the precedent is set to welcome any hostile foreign power to help one American candidate to defeat and undermine another American candidate in a U.S. presidential election. I'm sure the Founders would be celebrating at this turn of events.
4
@Alan,
The U.S. does it all the time in countries all around the world. Not very nice, doesn't feel so good does it?
3
A key reason there is no underlying crime to obstruct is that there was obstruction into the investigation of that very underlying crime. We know the entire campaign lied about interactions with Russia on a wide scale level. Why?
2
Reading the column and the posted comments generates no surprise; the tribal elders and their loyal warriors remain in their respective swimlanes, irrespective of the news over the weekend. The NYT Editorial Board and most of its readers still hate Trump; someone alert the actual media, if anyone can find it. On one hand, demonstrating that facts don't matter is depressingly symptomatic of a society that has been dumbed-down by our unsurprising willingness to blindly follow demagogues on all sides of any issue, left and right. On the other, at least there is predictability to all of this; philosophical consistency allows strategies to be developed and Pyrrhic victories over those Americans who aren't of our personal tribe to be contemplated. Psychologists probably have a name for this and historians will find analogues of defunct societies that exhibited similar affliction. All I might suggest is that the current state of our country is no way to run a railroad; there will eventually be a collision.
3
Thank you, very well said. This is not the end. It should have been clear to anyone watching Barr do his public genuflection and kiss the ring of the boss for all to see in the oval office in front of the cameras a few days ago to quickly realize we were not going to get the transparency required by the history of the moment. Barr has effectively shown us that he is deeply partisan. 2020 has become very important and all Americans need to be told over and over again that they can expect a vicious campaign of disinformation from Trump and the Russians going into the election. We must get this corrupt lot out.
9
The report leaves me wondering if this country will ever overcome this presidency. In my opinion, collusion has been openly proven on 4 different occasions.
1) The Trump Tower meeting, where Don Jr., admitted to seeking dirt on the Clintons. That is collusion. Furthermore, Trump gave a speech right before the meeting promising a major press conference about all the dirt on the Clintons the following week. This couldn't be just a coincidence.
2) Cambridge Analytica, funded by the Breitbart Mercers, was doing data analysis to maximize Russia's social media campaign to divide our country.
3) Paul Manafort shared polling data with Konstantin Kalimnek. That is obviously a member of the campaign colluding.
4) Erik Prince, of Blackwater and brother of DeVos, took a meeting in the Seychelles to establish a back channel line of communication with Russia.
And that's just the openly proven information, many other instances certainly draw suspicion. How could this country be so naive and blind to this fraud of a human being we have sitting in our highest office. It is so disheartening.
17
@BullMoose2020 There are critical moments in a nation's history that test its character. The US has failed that character test.
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@BullMoose2020 : Nope...no collusion.
1. Meeting went no where, nothing there
2. Private research is perfectly legal
3. Polling data can be purchased anywhere, by anyone
4. Erik had nothing to do with the election.
1
@BullMoose2020--
" In my opinion, collusion has been openly proven on 4 different occasions."--BullMoose2020
Unfortunate that Robert Mueller was just so darned incompetent that he couldn't see what is so amazingly clear to you. (That's sarcasm, in case you missed it.)
Sigh. This is what we get to look forward to for the next year and a half: armchair quarterbacking at every turn of the detailed work done by Robert Mueller and his stellar team, by shade-tree "lawyers" who know ever so much more than Mr. Mueller.
It's gonna be a tough year and a half to get through.
Some days peanuts; some days shells. For all of our celebrated advancement through democracy, we live in a world of “spin.” If Democrats are going to persist still with a focus on Trump’s involvement with Russians for winning the last election, we’ll likely wind up with Trump again. Who can say what Barr’s motives are? He may be Trump’s “boy;” he may not be. Trump may provide “fugitive from justice” a new understanding ... for example, consider what he got away with for years through his “fixer,” Cohen. Trump is not known for his trustworthiness ... in fact, the opposite. However, to pursue the legal case against Trump in his presidential quest in exhausting argument will be a waste of time and effort for Democrats. Sure it’s galling. Democrats need a better rallying point than this for the future’s sake ... something of their own that is timely for the nation and compelling.
4
Those that believe in the certainty of The AG’s report and decision should have no hesitation in releasing Mueller’s report as it should back up their own argument. Those that do not should be allowed the chance to read Meullers findings to see why the facts may agree or not with what they are suspicious of in this presidency. Will this bring our country together, I’m not sure. But this continuation of secrecy and more misinformation certainly will not.
4
So in reality, Trump is above the law. He blatantly encouraged the Russians to hack emails and they did. How can this alone be ignored?
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@OpieTaylor of course Trump is above the law...as are the other rich and powerful in this country. The law in the US only applies to the 99.9%...not to the 0.1%.
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@OpieTaylor If former president Obama would have acted and lied like Trump the GOP would have been removed Obama from office a long time ago! Shame on Barr, Mitch McConnel, his ilk and the GOP to tolerate Trump's lying, amorality and crude behavior.
14
@OpieTaylor You're right-- this report, or at least Barr's interpretation of it validates that this President and his gang can engage with total impunity in the following acts: Calls for Russia to hack Hillary's e-mails; admission that he fired Comey to "make that Russian thing" go away; Refusal to admit that the Russians interfered with the 2016 election campaign despite extensive evidence from US intel to that effect; over a 100 secret contacts with the Russians which they lied about; the meeting at trump Tower to accept dirt on Hillary from the Russians; a constant string of insults and attempts to weaken the integrity of Mueller, the Justice dept., the FBI, Jeff Sessions (where is mym Cohn when I need him?); Trump's subservient deference to anything Putin against the intelligence reports of his own administration, and a long list of other actions and lies too long to enumerate. Yet, Mueller concludes that this amounts to nothing proving that yes, indeed, this President is totally above the law.
Willll TRrump issue contrite apologies for the way he maligned Mr. Mueller, the Jusdtice Dept., and the FBI, after they handed him such a gift? And, will he shut up and stop stoking the fires of vengance and dissent event after he has won in this battle?
9
Mueller did not punt on the issue of obstruction and indications of criminal activity on the part of Trump and others. For example, there were referrals to New York prosecutors by the Special Counsel regarding potential criminal activity on the part of the Trump organization, which was outside his mandate.
I think the President and others on both sides should keep that in mind.
7
Okay Congress, the ball is in your court. We're counting on you to do your jobs.
10
@erikah: Or are you just counting on Congress to "Get Trump" any way they can?
In the words of Queen Elsa, "Let it go!"
The worst thing Trump has done is turn so many wonderful, thoughtful writers into boring hacks who trade in offering variations on a theme. Too many columnist, opinion writers, and even the very spirit of the NYTimes has been lost in the past 2-3 years in the drone of assumptions (Indictments are coming!)
Sure I still subscribe as I have for decades. Sure I still read it almost cover to cover, share articles, but it's been the RUSSIA preoccupation that has overshadowed and clouded the focus here and, sadly made much of the writing so predictable.
Now maybe, other subjects can be given some time (ISIS defeated got a short mention a day ago, and has all but disappeared from the paper). Here's hoping.
7
@profwilliams indictments did come...just not for collusion. However, there was clearly obstruction...why if there was nothing to hide?
1
@Imperato LET IT GO!!!! .... But I see you can't. Oh, well, enjoy your little corner, and when you're ready friend, set yourself free and enjoy life.
Dear America: a President cannot obstruct justice. Prosecutors have discretion; exercising discretion given by law cannot be a crime. Period.
Liberals will try another way to impeach Trump, as they have no ideas to run on other than ‘take from the rich’ and ‘racism is evil, but white men are terrible and diversity matters’. Whatever that means.
Too many participation ribbons were clearly given out to too many Democrats who are so sad life did not give them a participation mansion and fortune. Sorry kids; life makes you earn those.
Talk more about free healthcare for all, and increase taxes on the rich. Please. It will give me 3 more judges on the Court in Trump’s second term. Which is guaranteed since the Democrats are running a gaggle of losers who, if cast in a movie, would be panned for being too sad for real life.
5
@EWG - Dear Democrats: This is the reason we should not even try to reach out to Trumpsters. They are still drinking the kool-aid.
Oh, and EWG, the people you are talking about are called Progressives, not Liberals. Try to keep up with what is actually going on in the country you allegedly love. Turn off Fox News.
And I never got a participation ribbon. I'm too old. And I did earn everything I got. I just want an even playing field for everyone in America, not just those who get money from Daddy.
As a former prosecutor, it is hardly surprising Trump was obsessed with Barr's appointment. It was essential that Barr and not Rod Rosenstein oversee the release of the Special Counsel's Investigation Report.
It is nothing short of an outrage for Barr to insulate Trump by refusing to release the Mueller report to anyone, even Congress, yet declare within 48 hours of his receiving it that there was no obstruction of justice when what little is known of the report establishes that it specifically drew no such conclusion.
It appears that Trump and Barr believe that with the GOP's help they can simply end this. All they've done is made certain that a brutal and protracted fight will ensue which will destroy what little credibility the DOJ has, while permanently damaging American democracy. However, none of it is surprising. This is precisely what Trump selected Barr to do.
For Trump and his cohorts, and most specifically Barr here, the rule of law is absolutely meaningless. If there's any doubt, consider that it was Barr who stated before he saw a shred of evidence that he thought there was no basis for investigating Trump or the Trump administration in the first place, despite the fact that at that time Special Counsel Mueller's team had already indicted or received guilty pleas from 34 individuals and 3 companies directly working for Trump, or directly associated with him.
Little wonder Barr refused to recuse himself. The fix was in from the moment he was confirmed.
583
@Robert B Exactly. And it’s not like any attempt was made to pretend otherwise. Brazen. Just like a crime boss who believes he is beyond the reach of the law.
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@Robert B I am certainly not a lawyer and have nothing to do with law however, I answered a previous commentator at the NYT similarly, namely that Trump knew why he nominated Barr and was sure the Republican Senators were more than willing to confirm Barr. He is a friend of Trump and will defend him until "death do us part". Barr is totally biased. He implied from the beginning that he would NOT recuse himself and defended Trump even before he was nominated hence, I did NOT trust him from the get go.
36
@Robert B
Was Barr not involved in effectively covering up Iran-Contra?
27
Wasn’t this outcome obvious during the Barr confirmation hearings? He was as hard to pin down as the Cheshire Cat, while his intent was unmistakable.
Sadly, this gives Trump the fig leaf he’s been yearning for . . . something he can spin for his base or anyone else not paying attention.
Three things need to happen now: 1) the investigations Mueller spun off need to be fast-tracked; 2) the Mueller report needs to be released in its entirety; and 3) we all need to brace ourselves for the coming outrages, because Trump—believing he’s gotten away with it again—just had his vision of himself reinforced.
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@angus Yes, you are spot on. Trump and his ilk will now rail against the democrats and anybody that dares to rail against Trump. This will become a brutal campaign and nothing like the US has seen before. If Trump succeeds and wins the 2020 election the US as a democratic Republic will cease to exist. We all then can thank Mitch McConnell and Barr for our country's demise.
16
if Mueller said Trump colluded with the Russians, the Dems the lefties and apparently The NYT would accept it on face value. Laud it as the single most important document put on this earth. Written in stone from the arbiter of truth and justice Bob Mueller. But it did not. So it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. it’s two years of missed opportunities by Mueller or Bob Barr must have white washed it for Trump. Mueller sits by while his work is twisted to its opposite conclusion. All at the same time screaming look see it proves he is almost guilty of something. How unhinged are you people.. The fact is that it was a two year investigation done at great expense by a guy the dems favored and they found nothing that the NYT and the left assured all of their readers and the left lemmings was just under the surface so nefarious and damaging that it would be plain to see under the bright light of a special investigation. Well who was so blinded by their own pre determined truth the mis led left or the President who continually and steadfastly said it’s waste of time mostly validated and predicated by a false piece of opposition research.
Look, Mueller won’t twist facts to reach a targeted conclusion. Nor would he ignore blatant malfeasance but he can’t force that into a criminal definition. He left the obstruction charge open because it is debatable and Barr chose to close it. The House can reopen it but the Senate will slam it shut. Unless there’s sufficient findings in the full Report to wedge that obstruction charge open enough to allow a full hearing of it’s contents. It will remain debatable but it’s a debate we deserve to hear.
4
I'm surprised AG Barr reached a conclusion of no obstruction of Justice. I believe that is a call for the Congress to make after reading the entire report themselves, and I can't believe that AG Barr gave what most likely is detailed and lengthy report read it and analyzed it to make a summary in such a short time.
I think the questions regarding obstruction, is still there and when Barr says Mueller says Trump didn't "knowingly" collude with the Russians, did he talk to various members of the campaign colluded unknowingly or attempted to collude unsuccessfully.
I think any person with any common sense why it seems too convenient to have many of the campaign meetings with Russians, contacts with Russians, Roger Stone contact with Julian Assuage and Wikileaks regarding Hillary Clinton email dumps, Trump's comments regarding Hillary Clinton email dumps by Russian and subsequent actions taken , continued lying about Russian contacts by Micheal Flynn, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Don Junior, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, and Paul Manafort, all delineated here in the OP ED piece doesn't settle anything; what it does makes this whole unseemly episode with Trump guaranteed to continue and it's necessary to see the entire report.
4
On the face of it, with all of the heated conjecturing stripped away, the premise that "Trump colluded with the Russians to secure his election" is fantastic. And so it was.
8
Let's face it no matter what had been said Trump would have declared victory, Having declared the investigation a witch hunt. With his deep base there is no winning. they believe what they want too. The real Win will be the next election if a viable candiate can be found and sold to the swing states with electoral college votes. That will be what matters.
5
Obviously you have read not a single line in the NYT today. It was a witch hunt the president is not being indicted or impeached for colluding with the Russians and you are saying The right believes only what they want to believe... Read some news and look in the mirror.
@Kmh1920 A very big “if”
Psychiatrists can assess the decline of Trump's mental state due to his Twitter comments, feuds and uncoherent ramblings at CPAC or his rallies. The average citizen can determine through his swooning over Putin, late change towards Russia in the Republican Convention,the Russian Ambassadors in the Oval Office a day after firing Comey his denial of Russian influence in the 2016 election despite proven other wise, his refusal to testify there are too many coincidences for him not to be involved with the Russians. Were Kushner, Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric interviewed ? The blatant arrogance of Don Jr and Eric for 2 years is explained they we're assured a sitting President is above the twists of the law
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It should be reminded that Barr's summary is almost word for word drawn from his previous memo issued last year when he was criticizing the investigation. Interesting about that, eh? Did he just dig up his old memo, add a couple of quotes from the investigation report, update a few other lines and submit that? And these guys what us to believe that we've had a premature conclusion all this time?
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Forget impeachment, obstruction of justice, collusion, etc. The citizens of this nation only need to pay attention to November 2020.
Vote.
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Yes forget it because it’s false you will actually have to win an election to get the Presidency.
There exists a method utilized by the federal government to mold public opinion through manipulation of the press and television industries. Germane to this case was the first use of the national press conference on the Friday just prior to election day, 2016, in which F.B.I. Director Comey discussed the Hillary Clinton email investigation that likely swayed opinion in the electorate. The public is mostly home and watching television on any given weekend, especially Sunday mornings.
Just this past Friday, another prelude to a weekend, former F.B.I. Director Mueller submitted his report amid fanfare to the Justice Department and Attorney General Barr hastily submitted his summary to Congress, again amid a wide audience on Sunday.
These are just two circumstances in which public opinion was molded by the issuance of big news on a Friday to be the national topic of discussion on a weekend for the largest audience.
I've observed many other situations in which attempts were made to mold public opinion on a weekend to large at-home audiences. Trump manages to have tweet storms on weekends as well. He and his administration have demonstrated a remarkable knowledge of propaganda techniques, most notably as they employ brainwashing rote to constantly impress themes on the public.
From campaign to today, this has been a psychological operation and Trump is the real coup leader, not those he accuses by projection.
America has been taken over by the Republican military party.
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Considering the wording of AG Barr's report, it should seem obvious to all that Barr is being political. He's playing to Trump's base when he states: "no collusion..." The rest, as Shakespeare tells us, is silence. We all hear what we want to hear and every attorney knows that. So the first thing Barr says is 'no collusion.' Trump grabbed this and ran as will his base, already evidenced by the many calls to C-SPAN this a.m.
Everyone needs to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and try to remember the words of the American Philosopher, Yogi Berra: "it ain't over til it's over."
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@Elizabeth, you are right it’s not over until we know Obama was the instigated in this Russian collusion from the beginning. Hillary would have been his puppet.
Or “until the fat lady sings”. Well the fat lady has sung. Bob Muellersv best efforts of two years work millions of dollars spent to uncover the blatant truth just hidden under the surface of collusion by the President has come out. No collusion.
I am as anti-Trump as anyone. No you and we the American public don't know that Russia and Putin did the things you say because the American public has never been presented with any evidence of them, only allegations.
We do know, now, that the Times, the mainstream media, the conspiracy mongers like Rachel Maddow, the Democratic party leadership, the Schiffs and the Warners, et al., have engaged in a McCarthy-style, yes, witch hunt.
We know that the FBI failed to advise the FISA court of the corrupt provenance of the Steele dossier. We should wonder whether officials of intelligence agencies have misled the American public about the Russians over the last two years plus.
We know that this anti-Russia hysteria has led us closer to war with a nuclear-armed nation. You and others who have trumpeted this campaign share the blame for that.
We also know that this campaign has also resulted in censorship of alternative media/political views, on the left and the right, and of social media.
The above is what truly what has damaged the interests of the American people.
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@Donald Horn
Yes, and lets not forget the willing role of Schiff,Maxine and Nancy, all elected by voters in your state.
Are they now going to get on with the Peoples Business or continue with this vindictive charade? I think I know the answer to that.
We need to know what Russia did. The Justice Department must release the full report. Americans need to know what happened.
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At the least Trump and his campaign aided and abetted the Russian subversion of our elections.
This is worst than a crime since it implies that Trump and his minions enabled an adversary power to influence our election. He has repeatedly lied about that fact. Why? In my opinion he committed treason and did not report his contacts with Russia to the FBI for that reason. Yet he has supported the Russian line repeatedly trying to weaken NATO, our European allies, and having bizarre affairs with other authoritarian leaders like Kim and the Saudis.
Congress must continue to investigate Trump so that the truth will emerge and the American voting public can ultimately determine the extent of his treachery.
The Mueller report must be open to the public to read and is just the start of a path to justice and the truth.
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Donald Trump *obviously* interfered in the investigation on numerous occasions:
-Constant attacks on the Dept. of Justice and its investigators, the “black budget” intelligence agencies the Judiciary and the Democratic Party, referring to those not with him in language of a king: “disloyal” and “enemies”.
Good elected officials don’t let politics get in the way of friendship, and the good and honest ones respect those good, honest ones whose opinions are 180 degrees opposite.
What they DON’T like is each knows s/he’s got to be on top of the game when debating.
This is politics as it’s supposed to be in this nation - “my opponent is not my enemy - and we are also loyal to the Laws Institutions and People of the US.” These folks view politics as the way of convincing others their view is right, or that neither absolute is right and getting the best deal in a compromise is their job.
-Firing government leaders like the former FBI head, appointed by GW Bush, found perfect by Obama - dismissed for refusing to declare fealty to Trump. Loyalty to the US is what we need, not loyalty to a man in office.
-Confusing his money, that of the Organization and the Foundation, and continuing to meddle in the affairs of the above, consistently routing emoluments from foreign officials and US companies seeking audience through his rat’s nests of corp.s, llc.s, relatives, partners, friends and shells into his hands, lying about his involvement.
No crime?
Or did Barr swear fealty too?
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@Eatoin Shrdlu Wrong. He never stopped the investigation and never prevented anyone from being interview by Mueller. If he hadn't attacked to DOJ for a bogus investigation (as we have just seen), no one would have defended him and the attempt to overthrow a duly elected president might have been accomplished.
Great. If there is no collusion and no obstruction then the American people should be able to read the full Muller report and come to the same conclusion. If the White House and Barr will not fully pull back the drapes covering the windows and let the sunshine in, I am afraid the smell of rot will not leave Trump and his administration. A full aeration is needed for the public to clear air.
We citizens are not children and we paid for this report. It is therefore our right to be able to judge what went on during these very unsettling times and not allow the implicated to claim what they want as if they were give a full exhortation of their actions and the right to claim a moral victory.
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@Leon
The FULL Mueller report needs to be released immediately. If it is not, millions of people around the country need to take to the streets and make clear that it is our right to know the truth, the whole truth - not just one (likely biased) man's summary/conclusions. The future of American democracy may very well be determined by how we respond now.
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And if Mueller said Trump colluded with the Russians, the Dems the lefties and apparently The NYT would accept it on face value. Laud it as the single most important document put on this earth. Written in stone from the arbiter of truth and justice Bob Mueller. But it did not. So it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. it’s two years of missed opportunities by Mueller who white washed it for Trump. All at the same time saying it proves he is almost guilty of something. The fact is that it was a two year investigation done at great expense by a guy the dems favored and they found nothing that the NYT and the left assured all of their readers and the left lemmings was just under the surface and would be plain to see under the bright light of a special investigation. Well who was so blinded by their own pre determined truth the mis led left or the President who continually and steadfastly said it’s waste of time.
@Leon plenty of citizens are children...some are criminals.
I think it’s time to move away from this investigation which will likely not lead to anything and instead focus on the 2020 election and removing Trump because he isn’t what we need as a President l.
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Question. Doesn’t Barr’s argument that there can’t be obstruction because of no underlying crime completely fall apart in the case of Manafort (where multiple crimes were committed) and Trump having make noises about pardons?
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"Behavior took place in full public view." Does obstruction of justice require secrecy? What is of concern is the brazenness of obstructive behavior being done in public. Or perhaps those behaving as such in public were just doing what they normally do and have no sense of what is obstruction of justice.
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"His investigation lasted almost two years, issued more than 2,800 subpoenas and roughly 500 search warrants and heard from a similar number of witnesses. If he couldn’t find any links, it’s doubtful anyone could."
That is not necessarily true. Mr. Mueller's mandate was to investigate collusion with Russia and Russia's meddling in 2016 election. That language specifically restricted Mr. Mueller from investigating other countries' involvements in such a conspiracy. And, if Mr. Trump was smart enough to do his "co-ordinations" with Russia through a chain of intermediaries in other countries, then proving "intent to conspire" for everyone in that chain becomes extremely difficult and, more importantly, Mr. Mueller's commission needs to have jurisdiction to subpoena witnesses beyond the US borders.
So, one could suggest that either Mr. Mueller was not allowed to look beyond the US borders or he may have simply decided that there were too many political minefields along that roads.
Btw, throughout his life, it has been Mr. Trump's practice not to do directly anything that has a whiff of illegality himself. He has always relied on intermediaries to do his dirty deeds.
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Not releasing the report to congress in full and a redacted version to the public is evidence that the report is pure spin to protect Trump and that Trump is guilty.
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So let’s get this straight the new co conspirator, Bob Mueller, will sit by and let Barr contradict his true findings.
It's over Democrats. Time to buckle down and get through the next two years, refine the Democratic field of candidates to pick the person who has the best chance of removing Donald Trump from the Oval Office.
This is no time for platitudes and wishful thinking (think Beto O'Rourke). It's Christmas early in the White House, and Trump has just been handed a huge gift.
Yesterday I unplugged: I turned off my cell, shut down my PC, turned off my TV. I will re-engage - I am a patriot - but the Democratic playbook needs serious fine tuning if Donald Trump is going to be limited to one term.
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If this report makes it clear that the President did nothing wring, it should be released to the public immediately and the president should welcome that.
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A succinct and compelling account of what's gone on, thank you. However, I think we (the loyal opposition) may need to work towards getting more of the Mueller report released. Whatever comes out, it seems unlikely to persuade the majority of Americans that Trump is impeachable. We may need to focus our efforts on not letting Trump get his revenge. He should thank his lucky stars he listened to his lawyers enough not to submit to personal questioning by the FBI, where he would surely have tripped himself up with lies.
It's another sad day for America.
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@Leslie M America, RIP.
Republicans investigating Republicans comes up with basically a nothing burger. Is this a shock to people? That a newly minted Attorney General nominated by Trump and confirmed by a Republican Senate, who has publicly written a document that in fact indicated what his predetermined opinions were on the unitary executive at least when that executive is a Republican, somehow digests the entire Mueller report in a few days and then provides Congress with a short bullet pointed memo that indicates there will be no indictments, cannot prove any crimes, should not be seen other than what it is - a whitewash. Can anyone imagine what Republicans would have said if Hillary's daughter met with the Russians, her campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, national security adviser, attorney general, and many others had had over 100 contacts with "Russians" during the campaign and after, who were connected to Putin by no more than one degree of separation at the most? It is what it simply is. Trump's campaign manager shared polling data with the Russians directly- why and for what purpose? There is only one purpose - to collude. Period. Why did so many lie? If there was no collusion then why the lies? The only reason was to cover it up. You would tell the truth otherwise if it didn't matter. Not with jail as a potential outcome you don't lie. We will see what happens but don't expect justice. We are in a war, and might makes right, can't everybody see that. Been that way for 40 years.
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@Mark
Loretta Lynch and team investigating Hillary and come up with nothing. How do you feel about that? Mueller was a saint till this come out.
I desperately wanted the Mueller report to incriminate Trump and move us closer to removing him from office. The fact that it didn't is a depressingly bitter pill. Perhaps seeing the full report will make that pill easier to swallow. In the meantime, however, I am uncomfortable with pundits and journalists grasping at every straw they can find, parsing every word in Barr's letter, looking for a different meaning that what is there. Please wait for the full report rather than engaging in wishful thinking about its contents.
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You, friend, have an honest intellect.
@EWG Thank you.
I always thought this blind faith in Mueller, the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, was always a little misplaced. Trump has been aided and abetted by the Russians for many years. Follow the money, which is what this president is all about. If having meetings with Putin with no other Americans present, such that no one in our own government knows what they really talked about, is not evidence of collusion, then I need a new dictionary. They helped him without him saying any actionable words about it. I give Trump his due as a clever showman and entertainer. Has he been helping America in the meantime? Give me a break.
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So the Attorney General believes that obstruction of justice isn't a crime unless it is successful? So if I go to rob a bank and am apprehended before I get out of the bank with a single dime, I haven't committed a criminal act? That logic eludes me.
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Give it up. No crime. Obstruction of justice to cover up the absence of a crime, with primarily public comments; now that's a very powerful avenue of pursuit. Meanwhile there are significant problems which require bipartisan solutions.
PS I didn't vote for Trump.
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@Tom, I didn't vote for Trump either, and he really is a criminal.
Russia offers help to the Trump campaign. The campaign happily accepts, and has numerous communications about the issue. The goods are delivered, and used extensively. Then the whole thing is covered up and lied about. If this does not qualify as "collusion" or a crime, then the US has more problems with it legal system than we all thought.
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@Diego no, it exposes the US legal system for the fraud it is.
Putin's anti-democracy campaign would not have been nearly as successful as it was had it not been for a willing demagogue with the megaphone of media to broadcast the emails stolen from Putin's and Trump's opponent. The coordination was in plain view for all to see. The intent was to destroy democracy. In this Putin, and Trump and their authoritarian followers continue to openly press their win and put blame on those who seek the truth and justice. Obstruction is their nature. The tyranny of kleptocracy is their game.
11
This weekend I learned the hard lesson that integrity is not equal to, and does not always coincide with, courage.
What we know of Mr. Mueller’s investigation suggests that it was methodical, careful and thorough (except for his failure to insist to interview the President in person, for which there is really no excuse). We all had heard of his flawless character, and his refusal to respond to the many taunts of the Administration suggested that he was living up to his reputation. That is the integrity piece.
But to leave without conclusion the issue of obstruction of justice? To leave that decision to a new Attorney General who had already announced his predisposition to defer to Executive authority? To leave the American public hanging and allow a President to continue to disparage our institutions and reduce our ability to bring peace and stability to the world? Why? To avoid having to make a hard decision? That was a lack of courage. Sadly, very sadly, it appears he was not up to the challenge that was placed before him.
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@Berry clearly, Mueller lacked the intestinal fortitude to do so if Barr’s summary is accurate.
Trump is the no-nuance, no-collusion Twitter king.
Meanwhile, Mueller is analyzing evidence, splitting hairs, and writing long reports.
Truth is too complicated.
Barr distills to an executive summary, and Trump provides what the no-nuance public can digest: a tweet.
There you have it. Case closed.
7
I have been astounded by the public obsession with the Mueller investigation since its inception. Whether Trump intentionally or inadvertently sought or released information to Russia is insignificant when compared to his host of despicable actions, actions that have a far greater impact on Americans. His impact on America in other areas, including but not limited to, racism, anti-Muslim hatred, anti-LGBTQ positions, climate change, taxation, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, religion, abortion, taxation, international relations, worship of foreign dictators, immigration and decency in general doesn't seem to bother half of our citizens. Why would anyone think dabbling in secret negotiations with an enemy would change their thinking?
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@Disillusioned I think Mueller has opened the door for Congress to take action. We do not yet know what is in the Mueller report; we only know what AG Barr seems to want us to know which is, oddly, exactly what Trump wanted to hear. Politics, anyone?
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