In the aftermath of the Trump Victory Lap on the basis of the Barr Summary of the Mueller Report, in saner circles, there seem to be two prevailing opinions: one is to view the Barr Summary as a total whitewash and focus on demanding the full release of the Mueller Report, the other is to accept Barr’s conclusion that there was no collusion and focus on obstruction of justice. I disagree with both, and think it’s time to move past Mueller and focus on new investigations.
I’m all for getting the Mueller Report made public, but I’ wouldn’t put too much stock into it. Even if we don’t know what’s in it, we do know that Mueller didn’t indict key people like Don Jr. or Jared or question them deeply. Let’s face it, the Mueller investigation wasn’t as wide-ranging as many thought.
One can speculate on the reasons. Maybe Mueller did a partisan con job for the Republicans: catching small fish while giving the big fish a way to escape, and wasting the Democrats’ time. Or, a more subtle con job meant to protect dark state secrets: remember that Trump became dependent on Russian oligarch money, but was seemingly of no concern for US services, during Mueller’s sting at the CIA (at the end of last year, Sam Seder speculated half in jest that maybe Trump was left alone because he was used as an unwitting conduit by both sides, but it’s odd at any rate that he was left alone for so many years in spite of all his not so subtle and high-profile dirty dealings). Or Mueller believed he can’t indict a sitting President and wanted that work to be finished by Congress. Or he thought going after Don Jr. or Jared or Trump himself would have led to his immediate firing, and he saw no other way to get them than to limit himself to leaving as many hints as possible to other investigators.
But either way, more important than releasing the full Mueller report is to push on with those other investigations. And, while I remain convinced that there was some level of collusion in undermining the 2016 elections, I feel confirmed in my belief that the focus should be elsewhere: Trump’s finances, his financial dependence on foreign investors, the fact that his real estate business works as a de-facto money-laundering vehicle for those investors.
Unfortunately, seeing the earlier scepticism on impeachment and the lack of a developed media counter-strategy against Trump’s pretend victory lap, I fear Pelosi doesn’t realise that the strategic importance of further investigations. In particular, going for impeachment. As I argued on dKos several times, I think there are a number of reasons impeachment is useful even if Republicans will prevent Trump’s removal from office at the end, the top one being to pre-occupy the White House, thus preventing them from doing greater harm by governing. Steve Bannon already declared that after the cloud of the Mueller Report lifted, Trump will be “unleashed”, and his new push to abolish ACA is the first indication.