Rather than relying on the interpretations of others, we all should read the Mueller Report for ourselves. NPR has provided a copy of the full redacted report online as have many others. It is quite a read and frankly loses some of its power when summarized by others.
THE REPORT
The first thing that hits you is the title: Report on the Investigation of Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. It makes you pause about the state of our nation. In the information age, our freedoms have become a vulnerability.
The report is in two volumes with the first section on Russian election interference and the interactions with the Trump campaign. The second volume is on the obstruction of justice inquiry.
The Russians interfered
The report begins with the unequivocal conclusion the Russians interfered with the election. Initially, President Trump did not accept this finding and, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, he barely acknowledges it happened. He resists accepting the Russians interfered because it raises questions regarding the legitimacy of his presidency. Whether or not the Russians coordinated with his campaign is irrelevant to the fact that they interfered to promote Donald Trump. This raises many questions:
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- First, why did the Russian favor Trump as a candidate?
- Do they believe he would be an ineffective leader?
- Or that he ultimately will weaken America?
- Or that he will make favorable deals with them?
- Or all of the above?
The idea that our sitting president was Putin’s choice candidate is very bothersome. Another question that arises from the Russian meddling, is whether Donald Trump would have been elected had there been no interference? This is basically an unanswerable question but given the margins he won by in several states, it is quite possible he would not have been elected without their help and the constant drip of emails released by Wiki Leaks.
Trump campaign communicated with the Russians but no evidence of COORDINATION
The issue of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians is the focus of volume I. Mueller lays out the definition they use for coordination. As the report explains
“… we addressed the factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign “coordinat[ed]” — a term that appears in the appointment order — with Russian election interference activities. Like collusion, “coordination” does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood coordination to require an agreement — tacit or express — between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other’s actions or interests.” (Mueller Report, Vol I, page 2)
The bold emphasis is mine. Basically, the investigation set a relatively high bar for coordination by requiring more than two parties to be involved. The report then spends over 100 pages documenting and accessing the Trump campaign’s contacts with the Russians. There were many, many contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The initial contacts began in 2015 and centered around a real estate deal. These talks continued “through at least June 2016” Mueller Report, Vol I, page 5. These financial deal contacts are, at best, inappropriate, when one considers he was actively campaigning to be president. Spring of 2016 appears to be when exchanges began regarding hacked Clinton emails. There were several contacts made after becoming aware that the Russians had Clinton’s emails. However, the report concludes,
“The investigation did not establish that the contacts described in Volume I, Section IV, supra, amounted to an agreement to commit any substantive violation of federal criminal law — including foreign-influence and campaign-finance laws, both of which are discussed further below” (Mueller Report, Vol I, page 181)
Although the report concludes that the interactions with the Russians did not rise to the level of coordination, the Trump campaign appears to have benefited from the Russian’s actions. Furthermore, the Trump campaign did nothing to stop the overtures or subsequent actions of the Russians and did not report these contacts to the authorities. Although not a legal requirement, everyone with a basic clearance is taught to report any overtures from foreigners, such as asking for a staff directory, that might be the initial attempts to get information or influence.
Many, many liars
Although the report finds “No collusion” as the president likes to tout, it hardly exonerates him or his campaign. In addition to their odd chumminess with the Russians, numerous Trump campaign officials lied to investigators. As the report states,
“The Office determined that certain individuals associated with the Campaign lied to investigators about Campaign contacts with Russia and have taken other actions to interfere with the investigation. As explained below, the Office therefore charged some U.S. persons connected to the Campaign with false statements and obstruction offenses”. (Mueller Report, Vol. I, page 191)
This raises the question, if there was no coordination, why the lying? I have not heard a good explanation of why so many campaign officials would lie under oath if there was no improper activities. It it very difficult to believe there was no nefarious actions taken.
My next post will address Vol II and the obstruction of justice inquiry.
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