If you’ve turned on the news or picked up a newspaper in the past two years, then you’ve surely heard about the Mueller report before. In any case, it covers Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the possible collusion between Russia and President Trump. It also looks into the relationships that President Trump has had with Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Michael Flynn.
It came as a surprise to many that when Attorney General William Barr reviewed the Mueller report he only found inconclusive evidence that President Trump violated the law. Of course, there are tidbits of information that could paint a bigger picture, such as a voicemail or text message, but all in all, the report pretty much only points out lengthy legal arguments as to whether or not the president obstructed justice.
It’s clear that Mueller has no intentions on charging President Trump with any kind of charge, but that doesn’t mean that the report wasn’t any less entertaining. Especially, when Donald Trump was told by Jeff Sessions that a special counsel had been appointed to his investigation.
Despite the fact that charges weren’t brought up against President Trump, there are plenty of people that aren’t going to changes their minds as to whether or not Trump is guilty of misconduct. For example, when the jury for Paul Manafort was in deliberation, Trump had said that Manafort was a “very good person” and that “it’s very sad what they’ve done to Paul Manafort.”
Trump’s comments could have been seen as a way to “engender sympathy for Manafort among jurors” if they had heard what he said. But “alternative explanations” were given for Trump’s comment, such as he “genuinely felt sorry for Manafort,” or he was trying to sway public opinion, not the jury.
Also, it’s been decided that even though “there is evidence” that President Trump knew that Michael Cohen had lied to Congress about continuing the efforts to get a Trump Tower approved in Moscow, the evidence that is available “does not establish that the president directed or aided Cohen’s false testimony.”
Even though the report mostly tells us what we already know, barely touches the most damaging parts, and shows that there isn’t enough evidence to charge the president, it does provide a bit of insight to the whole situation. Trump’s actions could have been viewed as obstruction when he fired Jim Comey, when he requested the White House counsel to have Bob Mueller fired, and when he directed Corey Lewandowski to ask Sessions to limit the scope that Mueller had during his investigation.
When a reporter stated that there was a large majority of FBI agents who supported Comey’s firing, Sarah Sanders said: “we’ve heard from countless members of the FBI who say very different things.” She then told Mueller’s office that it was a “slip of the tongue” that happened “‘in the heat of the moment’ that was not founded on anything.”
In written answers, President Trump told Mueller that he didn’t know about the meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and a lawyer from Russia ahead of time. In 2017, after talking with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Hope Hicks and another aide decided that the involved emails would eventually be leaked and they should be released. When Hicks read the emails she became shocked and immediately knew that they looked “really bad.” Hope, Jared, and Ivanka Trump pressed the president to release the emails, but he didn’t think that they would ever be leaked.
As soon as the New York Times clutched onto the story, President Trump explained that they should say that the meeting was in regards to Russian adoptions. Donald Trump Jr. disagreed, saying that the word “primarily” should be added because they briefly discussed Hillary Clinton: “If I don’t have it in there it appears as though I’m lying later when they inevitably leak something.” Soon enough, The Times got a hold of the emails, causing a whole lot of bad press for the president.
