March 22: On This Day In 2019
OTDI 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivers the findings from their two-year investigation into the 2016 election and Trump’s efforts to illegally work with Russia to boost his chances.
The Special Counsel’s report, consisting of 448 pages of detailed analysis, was “astounding in its sweep.” They “describe a president who was preoccupied with ending a federal investigation, a White House that repeatedly told misleading and changing stories, and a presidential campaign that was in repeated contact with Russian officials for reasons that are not always clear,” as the NYT summarized.
Later, a Senate report went even further, detailing, for example, how Trump’s campaign chair secretly fed data to one of Putin’s henchmen, presumably enabling Russia to successfully target key U.S. voters and tip the Electoral College to Trump.
Mueller eventually netted 199 criminal charges, 37 indictments or guilty pleas, and 5 prison sentences.
But you would never know any of this OTDI when the report was finalized. That’s because Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General did something quite unusual: Instead of releasing the full report to the American public which had paid for it, or to Congress which had demanded it…he decided to keep it only to himself. For several days, he only issued a memo to the public which declared, perhaps not surprisingly, that his boss was cleared from prosecution.
Trump and his MAGA followers declared “total vindication.”
However, the Mueller Report was in no way a total vindication. In fact, Mueller laid out the case for Trump having committed flagrant obstruction of justice violations. So as Mueller put it: “If we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.” They, pointedly, did not say it.
What protected Trump from prosecution? A pre-existing policy, from the Nixon-era, which says that the U.S. government will not pursue actions against sitting presidents. Yet again, good and unearned fortune shined upon Donald Trump.
BTW: Trump had hired Barr as Attorney General earlier that year in part because Barr, as a private citizen, argued that Trump was being unfairly attacked. Trump realized Barr was likely to protect him, and Barr got the gig.
Barr later spoke his true feelings about his boss, saying Trump is a “horror show” and unfit to be president.
Sources/Links for further reading
The NYT overview of the Mueller Report
AG Barr’s memo “summarizing” Mueller report
Mueller’s statement about the report in May 2019
NPR report in 2022 on aides advising Barr not to prosecute Trump
USA Today quotes Barr post-presidency
Axios summarizes too, and has the stats
Summary: Mueller Report released. Trump Administration efforts to hide its damning findings begin