This is, after all, the reason I was hired.
Neither the Congress nor the the American public has seen the report created by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and at this point it’s difficult to know how closely the summary document prepared by Attorney General William Barr reflects the contents of that report. But—assuming Barr is not outright misrepresenting the contents of Mueller’s conclusions, or spinning those results beyond recognition—there’s nothing to say except that statements coming on Sunday have been deeply, deeply disappointing.
No matter what information trickles out from this point, no matter what action other prosecutors may take, the nation has missed a singular opportunity to address a festering cancer. That opportunity will not return. And the manner of its dismissal, a letter that’s already being heralded on the right as complete exoneration, no matter what the text says, is certain to empower even more undemocratic, disruptive, and simply ugly behavior.
Donald Trump got a pass. He will walk away from this not just free from consequence, but emboldened in the idea that he really is above and beyond any rules. And on the possible charge of obstruction, he got a very special intervention from Barr, who had advertised this part of the pass in his job application to be attorney general.
It's very hard to pretend that the summary as Barr has written is is anything other than severely disappointing, as well as confusing. After all, we already knew that Russia had made extensive efforts to reach out to the Trump campaign, and those efforts were welcomed. From Donald Trump, Jr. eagerly inviting Russian operatives to stroll into campaign headquarters, to Paul Manafort ferrying polling data to a Russian agent, to George Papadopoulos working both ends of the campaign-Russia pipeline, there was never a moment where Donald Trump’s campaign was anything other than enthusiastic and receptive about the idea of working with Russia.
And for the investigation to end in such a state seemingly leaves a thousand threats still unresolved. What about Erik Prince’s meetings in the Seychelles? Why did Jeff Sessions hold a multi-hour private meeting with the Russian ambassador when no other Senator did the same? What about the dozens of connections that seemed to exist between the Bannon-created Cambridge Analytica and both Russian operatives and WikiLeaks?
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