And it turns out that on May 16, 2016 -- months before the Russians pushed the button on their election attack -- Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy adviser, told Australian diplomat Alexander Downer that he had been informed by a Russian cut-out that Moscow could assist the Trump campaign by anonymously releasing information damaging to Clinton. His memory, though, was hazy on whether he shared this news with anyone inside the campaign. (He would tell an Aussie diplomat but none of his colleagues?)
In the summer of that year, Papadopoulos and other Trump campaign aides discussed setting up a meeting in September that would occur with representatives of the "office of Putin." That is, they considered this outreach to Putin while Putin was attacking the United States. The meeting never occurred. Papadopoulos declined to assist Mueller's investigators in deciphering his handwritten notes about this potential get-together. He said he could not read his own handwriting. Moreover, Mueller notes that he never was able to get a full explanation of what Carter Page, another Trump foreign policy adviser, was up to when he visited Moscow in July 2016.
Then there's obstruction. The report is full of details about actions Mueller investigated when trying to ascertain if Trump obstructed justice -- and legal experts and commentators will chew over all the details and legal interpretations. But in a concise, one-paragraph conclusion, Mueller notes that "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state." There is no such stating.
Trump defenders and Russia-gate skeptics on the left will certainly point to this report and wave the Trump-did-not-conspire-directly-with-the-Russian-government-hack-and-dump-and-social-media-attack flag. But Mueller has demonstrated that the president is a liar. He has shown that Trump and his campaign made it easier for Moscow to pull off its attack on American democracy by asserting there was no attack. He has raised troubling questions about Trump's adherence (or lack thereof) to the rule of law. He has added details to the known narrative of puzzling interactions between the Trump camp and Russia. He has reminded the public that an election was attacked by a foreign adversary (to help Trump) and that the president has not fully acknowledged that.
Mueller has demonstrated that the Trump-Russia scandal is neither a hoax nor a conspiracy theory. He has not exonerated Trump. He has shown that even if Trump has not committed crimes, the president of the United States is guilty of many serious misdeeds and transgressions.
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