I have always believed that no one would get Trump in a room talking about using Russian assets to win the 2016 election. The guy doesn’t use email. He operates his business in an insular fashion. He rewards displays of loyalty with favor. He surrounds himself with dishonest and unethical people. A guy like that can have a lot of things done on his behalf without leaving much of a trail beyond the hearsay of dubious individuals.
So let’s look at what Barr concluded from the Mueller Report (and assume that this is on the up and up):
1. The Russian Government Did Actively Try to Interfere in the 2016 Elections
2. The Trump Campaign was Approached with Offers of Collusion
3. There is No Provable Evidence that the Trump Campaign Colluded
4. The Absence of a Crime Make the Evidence of Obstruction Difficult to Place in Context
There is an inherent admission here that there is a case to be made for obstruction, but not in the context of the scope of this investigation. So the question is why obstruct?
I know I am joining the the choir of speculation, but I’m guessing that federal prosecutors in New York know this answer. Perhaps Trump didn’t have direct knowledge of Russian intent, but that doesn’t mean he wanted stones overturned in terms of financial dealings. Based on the charges already leveled, I think it is fair to assume that Manhattan real estate might be among the largest criminal syndicates in the world, and the people in Trump’s orbit were there for a buy in to the biggest game in town.
I won’t predict where this goes, because in an industry which encompasses tens of trillions of dollars, the money probably goes in everyone’s pockets.
Still, I fear Trump will ride this outcome to better poll numbers in the next few months. There will almost certainly be a backlash against the Democratic Party and the media, who well be viewed by many independents as feeding into a false narrative. This next part will suck.