The Mueller Report Did Not Clear Donald Trump

Donald Trump is trying to justify his commutation of Roger Stones sentence, and he's doing it by once again attacking Mueller's investigation and the report of that investigation. He wants people to believe that the investigation was a hoax" and a "scam" -- and that the report cleared him of any wrongdoing. That is just another of his many lies!

Here's what Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann, and Melissa Hilzberg of msnbc.com had to say about that:

The Russia investigation, which began this summer four years ago, is back in the news — with President Trump on Friday commuting Roger Stone’s prison sentence, with Robert Mueller’s op-ed defending Stone’s prosecution, and even with Jeff Sessions’ Senate runoff tomorrow in Alabama.

And despite everything that’s happened since Mueller concluded his probe in early 2019 (including Trump’s impeachment over Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic), that investigation remains one of the biggest political scandals in generations.

Here are the indisputable facts:

1. 1. Trump and his campaign asked for Russia’s help in the 2016 presidential race. ("Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing"; "If it's what you say, I love it.")
2. 2. Trump and his campaign got that help — in a contest decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. ("Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks.”)
3. 3. Roger Stone lied about his contacts with Russian intelligence and WikiLeaks. (“He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases,” Mueller wrote in his op-ed.)
4. 4. The president commuted Stone’s prison sentence, despite White House aides disagreeing with the move. (“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” the White House said on Friday.)
5. 5. And Stone admitted his objective was protecting Trump. (“[Trump] knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t,” Stone told NBC News analyst Howard Fineman before his sentence was commuted.)

Yes, some of the liberal theories about Russia investigation never came to pass (Michael Cohen didn’t travel to Prague; that “pee tape” appears to be fantasy).

And, yes, Mueller concluded that his investigation didn’t establish “that that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” (Though note he said “Russian government” and not intermediaries like WikiLeaks.)

But what did happen was a bigger scandal — involving a foreign adversary — than we can remember for any recent administration or major presidential campaign.

“An American private citizen worked with foreign spies to damage one presidential candidate and help the other,” David Frum writes of Stone in The Atlantic.

“That president accepted the help. When caught, the private citizen lied. When the private citizen was punished, the president commuted his sentence.”

Robert Mueller Responds To Trump's Lies

Trump is at it again -- spouting lies to try and justify his action. This time it's his commutation of the prison sentence of Roger Stone.

Trump said Stone had been "treated very unfairly", and blamed the Mueller Report -- calling it a "scam" and a "hoax".

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller (pictured) has kept quite since releasing his report, and tried to stay out of the media spotlight. But evidently, this latest barrage of lies from Donald Trump was just too much.

Here is Mueller's response in an op-ed for The Washington Post:

The work of the special counsel’s office — its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions — should speak for itself. But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.

Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood. By late 2016, the FBI had evidence that the Russians had signaled to a Trump campaign adviser that they could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to the Democratic candidate. And the FBI knew that the Russians had done just that: Beginning in July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails stolen by Russian military intelligence officers from the Clinton campaign. Other online personas using false names — fronts for Russian military intelligence — also released Clinton campaign emails.

Following FBI Director James B. Comey’s termination in May 2017, the acting attorney general named me as special counsel and directed the special counsel’s office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The order specified lines of investigation for us to pursue, including any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign. One of our cases involved Stone, an official on the campaign until mid-2015 and a supporter of the campaign throughout 2016. Stone became a central figure in our investigation for two key reasons: He communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers.

We now have a detailed picture of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election: hacking and dumping Clinton campaign emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate. We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Stone among them. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.

Uncovering and tracing Russian outreach and interference activities was a complex task. The investigation to understand these activities took two years and substantial effort. Based on our work, eight individuals pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial, and more than two dozen Russian individuals and entities, including senior Russian intelligence officers, were charged with federal crimes.

Congress also investigated and sought information from Stone. A jury later determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks. And he tampered with a witness, imploring him to stonewall Congress.

The jury ultimately convicted Stone of obstruction of a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress and tampering with a witness. Because his sentence has been commuted, he will not go to prison. But his conviction stands.

Russian efforts to interfere in our political system, and the essential question of whether those efforts involved the Trump campaign, required investigation. In that investigation, it was critical for us (and, before us, the FBI) to obtain full and accurate information. Likewise, it was critical for Congress to obtain accurate information from its witnesses. When a subject lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s efforts to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. It may ultimately impede those efforts.

We made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law. The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false.

Did Mueller's Testimony Matter? - We Don't Know Yet

(Photo Of Robert Mueller being sworn in, from wired.com, is by Jonathan Ernst / Reuters.)

Robert Mueller's log-anticipated testimony before two congressional committees (Judiciary and Intelligence) is over now. Did it matter?

Democrats were hoping his testimony would move the public to support impeachment of Trump. Republicans were hoping it would not. The media pundits are all over the place -- some saying the testimony was devastating for Trump, while others say it was boring and not consequential. Who was right?

I think Dan Rather is probably the closest to what I think. He says we don't know yet, because we haven't heard from the people yet. He writes:

A favorite saying I heard long ago and have often repeated is "No president is bigger than the country."

This thought returned this morning as I took stock of two sets of headlines: those coming from the Mueller testimony and those coming from Puerto Rico. 

In the first, we have a struggle to make sense of what took place yesterday on Capitol Hill. Was it a dud or did it lay out a striking case of criminality? Was it the death knell for the Russia investigation or will it spark hearings, oversight, and even a possible march towards impeachment? We must keep in mind that hot takes are often wrong, especially in a nanosecond news cycle like the one we live in where where we're tossed and spun more than a ragdoll in a washing machine. And the major reason why hot takes turn out wrong is because the future matters and it has yet to be written. 

That brings me to Puerto Rico, where the headlines aren't ambiguous at all. An unprecedented surge of popular protest, at a scope and scale that is almost unfathomable, chased a government from office. We saw, very literally, the power of the people. Their voices were so loud, so clear, so impossible to ignore, dismiss, or belittle, that they collectively bent the future to their will. 

And therein lies a lesson for what happened in Washington. We may have heard from the pundits about what yesterday meant, but we haven't heard from the people. Will there be an outpouring of energy and outrage, in phone calls to elected officials, at town halls, at public demonstrations and in campaign fundraising? Or will there be a general shrugging of shoulders? Will the Democratic leadership in the House see action or apathy? 

Despite how historically unpopular this president is we have seen very little mass demonstrations since the immediate aftermath of his election. And I suspect that's because a lot of energy (and money) has gone into a political response as demonstrated in the 2018 elections. Will that strategy largely continue looking into 2020? Or will the aftermath of what we heard yesterday foment a new direction? Those headlines have yet to be written. They're impossible to write at this point because we haven't heard yet from the people that really matter, the broad and diverse electorate that is bigger than any president.

Mueller's Statement Tosses The Ball To Congress

(This cartoon image is by Chris Britt at creators.com.)

Robert Mueller addressed the nation in a short speech on Wednesday. And the cartoon above sums up what he said very well. Republicans (and Trump) don't want to admit it, but Mueller's speech can be summed up with three bullet points:

* Russia substantially interfered with the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, and they will do it again in 2020.
* Donald Trump is guilty of multiple attempts to obstruct justice.
* Congress needs to address both of those facts.

Here is the full transcript of Mueller's speech:

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here. Two years ago, the acting attorney general asked me to serve as special counsel and he created the special counsel’s office. The appointment order directed the office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. This included investigating any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.

Now, I have not spoken publicly during our investigation. I am speaking out today because our investigation is complete. The attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public. We are formally closing the special counsel’s office, and as well, I’m resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life. I’ll make a few remarks about the results of our work. But beyond these few remarks, it is important that the office’s written work speak for itself. Let me begin where the appointment order begins, and that is interference in the 2016 presidential election.

As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers who are part of the Russian military, launched a concerted attack on our political system. The indictment alleges that they used sophisticated cybertechniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake online identities and through the organization WikiLeaks.

The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate. And at the same time, as the grand jury alleged in a separate indictment, a private Russian entity engaged in a social media operation, where Russian citizens posed as Americans in order to influence an election. These indictments contain allegations, and we are not commenting on the guilt or the innocence of any specific defendant. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The indictments allege, and the other activities in our report describe, efforts to interfere in our political system. They needed to be investigated and understood. And that is among the reasons why the Department of Justice established our office. That is also a reason we investigated efforts to obstruct the investigation. The matters we investigated were of paramount importance. It was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of their government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.

Let me say a word about the report. The report has two parts, addressing the two main issues we were asked to investigate. The first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from Russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign’s response to this activity, as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. And in the second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the president.

The order appointing me special counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. We conducted that investigation, and we kept the office of the acting attorney general apprised of the progress of our work. And as set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.

The introduction to the Volume II of our report explains that decision. It explains that under longstanding department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited. A special counsel’s office is part of the Department of Justice, and by regulation, it was bound by that department policy. Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider. The department’s written opinion explaining the policy makes several important points that further informed our handling of the obstruction investigation. Those points are summarized in our report, and I will describe two of them for you.

First, the opinion explicitly permits the investigation of a sitting president, because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents available. Among other things, that evidence could be used if there were co-conspirators who could be charged now.

And second, the opinion says that the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. And beyond department policy, we were guided by principles of fairness. It would be unfair to potentially — it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge.

So that was Justice Department policy. Those were the principles under which we operated. And from them, we concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime. That is the office’s final position, and we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president. We conducted an independent criminal investigation and reported the results to the attorney general, as required by department regulations.

The attorney general then concluded that it was appropriate to provide our report to Congress and to the American people. At one point in time, I requested that certain portions of the report be released and the attorney general preferred to make — preferred to make the entire report public all at once and we appreciate that the attorney general made the report largely public. And I certainly do not question the attorney general’s good faith in that decision.

Now, I hope and expect this to be the only time that I will speak to you in this manner. I am making that decision myself. No one has told me whether I can or should testify or speak further about this matter. There has been discussion about an appearance before Congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress. In addition, access to our underlying work product is being decided in a process that does not involve our office.

So beyond what I’ve said here today and what is contained in our written work, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to speak further about the investigation or to comment on the actions of the Justice Department or Congress. And it’s for that reason I will not be taking questions today, as well.

Now, before I step away, I want to thank the attorneys, the F.B.I. agents, the analysts, the professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. These individuals who spent nearly two years with the special counsel’s office were of the highest integrity. And I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American. Thank you. Thank you for being here today.

Most People Think Trump Lied About Russia Investigation

These charts reflect the results of the latest NBC News / Wall Street Journal Poll -- done between April 28th and May 1st of a national sample of 900 adults, with a margin of error of 3.27 points.

It shows that a significant majority of Americans know that Donald Trump has been lying about the Mueller investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election -- by a 23 point margin. And a plurality say that the Mueller Report did not clear Trump of wrongdoing -- by a 13 point margin over those who say it did.

But the nation is not ready for impeachment. Only 17% said impeachment hearings should begin now, and another 32% said investigations should continue to see if impeachment should happen (for a total of 49%). About 48% said Trump should be allowed to finish his term.

It looks like the public wants the verdict on Trump decided in the 2020 election.

Mueller Criticizes Barr's Attempt To Whitewash Report

When Robert Mueller submitted his report to the Justice Department, Attorney General Barr released a 4 page summary of the report that gave Trump a pass on everything. That summary was disingenuous at best, and an outright lie at worst. And it did not make Mr. Mueller happy. He sent the following letter to Barr that criticized the summary.

The Mueller Report Paints A Picture Of Corruption

(Cartoon image is by Patrick Chappatte in The New York Times.)

Donald Trump is still trying to claim the Mueller Report has completely exonerated him of either collusion or obstruction of justice. That's ludicrous, and could only be believed by anyone that hasn't read any of the report. The report actually paints a portrait of corruption by Trump -- corruption that should result in his impeachment.

Paul Waldman (in The Washington Post) gives us some things the report revealed (and none of them are good for Trump and his associates). He writes:

There are some things that were matters of dispute or insufficiently documented before, but are no longer in question. Let’s run through them:

Vladimir Putin very much wanted Trump to become president of the United States, and undertook a comprehensive campaign to make sure it happened. At this point, Trump might be the only person left in America who disagrees with this fact — or pretends to, anyway — but Mueller’s report makes it irrefutable.

Trump, his family and his campaign may not have set up a criminal conspiracy to cooperate with Russia, but they were eager to accept the help. This, too, was widely known, but Mueller provides exhaustive detail on just how enthusiastic Trump and those around him were about Russia’s interference in the election: There were not just extensive contacts with Russians they hoped would help them; they also gleefully welcomed Russia’s cybertheft from Democrats. As the Lawfare team puts it, the best that can be said of them is that “the Russians and the Trump campaign shared a common goal, and each side worked to achieve that goal with basic knowledge of the other side’s intention.”

The president’s attempts to obstruct justice were comprehensive and far-reaching. Mueller’s report documents in extensive detail the actions Trump took to subvert the investigation, including urging officials to pressure the FBI, trying to fire the special counsel and lying to the public. We can argue about the degree to which Trump could be held legally accountable or whether the intervention of his aides (or more often, their refusal to act) kept those actions from crossing the line into criminality. But there is no longer any question that Trump attempted to obstruct justice.

Everyone around the president, and the president himself, acted as though they had something to hide on Russia. Donald Trump Jr. lied about the infamous Trump Tower meeting. George Papadopoulos lied to the FBI about the outreach from Russia that began the investigation. Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. Michael Cohen lied to Congress about the effort to secure Trump a multimillion-dollar deal to build a tower in Moscow. Paul Manafort lied about his relationship to the likely Russian intelligence asset to whom he passed polling data. Roger Stone allegedly lied about his contacts with WikiLeaks. President Trump lied seemingly every time Russia came up. If they were all innocent, they certainly weren’t acting like it.

Trump regularly instructs aides to lie to the public. Trump told Rod Rosenstein to claim that firing James Comey was his idea. Rosenstein refused, but Sean Spicer later told the lie to the press. Trump dictated a false statement to Hope Hicks for Trump Jr. to release about the infamous Trump Tower meeting. He instructed Donald McGahn to arrange for Mueller to be fired, then when the news got out, told McGahn to publicly deny it. He told Reince Priebus to tell K.T. McFarland to write a false email claiming that Trump never spoke to Flynn about Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador. If you’re having trouble following all this, that’s okay — the point is that Trump regularly ordered his aides to lie; sometimes they complied, and sometimes they didn’t.

There are also doubtless times when Trump aides lie on their own initiative, within a White House culture in which lying is just what everyone does. Sarah Sanders claimed that “countless” FBI agents contacted the White House to express support for the firing of Comey; she admitted to investigators that this was false (though she now claims it was a “slip of the tongue,” another obvious lie).

Nearly everything Trump called “fake news” turned out to be true. While news outlets might have made the occasional mistake (as they do on any story), over and over again important revelations were greeted by the president with the cry of “Fake news!”, only to be corroborated by the Mueller report. For instance, Trump claimed that reports that he had shooed other officials from the room so that he could speak to Comey about Flynn were fake; Mueller concludes that the known facts "support Comey’s description of the event.” Trump called reports that he ordered Mueller’s firing fake; these are extensively documented in the report.

Trump has no concern about whether his actions are illegal or unethical. While we have a lengthy record demonstrating Trump’s unethical and even lawbreaking ways — running scams that steal people’s life savings, abusing small businesspeople, committing tax fraud — the Mueller report documents how he brought that lack of moral compass to the Oval Office. It shows his boundless willingness to lie and have others lie for him, his complete disregard for any norm of integrity or propriety, and his belief that the entire U.S. government exists to serve his personal ends. . . .

This is a president who is deeply, profoundly corrupt in every sense of the word. While we can argue about what should be done about the facts laid out in the Mueller report, that is no longer in doubt.

It's FACT That Russia Attacked The United States In 2016

The Russian government attacked the United States in 2016. That attack was on the essence of our democracy -- our electoral system. This is not supposition. It is a FACT. And so important a fact that it was the first sentence in the Mueller Report.

It does not matter whether you think the rest of the report condemned or exonerated Donald Trump. Both sides should be able to agree that Russia attacked us, and we need to do something about that.

Congress did pass additional sanctions against Russia (even though Trump refused to impose those sanctions). But that is not enough, and it wouldn't be enough even if Trump had followed the law and imposed those sanctions.

We need to take action to protect the sanctity of our voting system. Russia hacked into the data bases of the voting systems of at least 25 states in 2016, and was able to access the voter rolls. Did they alter those rolls? We hope not, but they may well do that in 2020. It is not believed that they were able to change any state's vote totals, but could they also do that in 2020? They now know they can access those systems.

The Senate Republicans recently killed a bill that would have helped states to update their data security regarding voter rolls and voting. Why did they do that? Do they want a foreign power (who has been our enemy for decades) to interfere in our elections? Is that OK with them -- as long as that foreign power does it on behalf of the Republican Party? Are they so afraid of Trump's base of deplorable that they refuse to protect our democracy from foreign invaders?

I must admit that I don't understand their actions or their fair to act. I am a Democrat, but in the past I have always thought of the Republican Party as patriots who just disagreed with me on policies. That is no longer true. I now question their patriotism.

Russia attacked us. We must act to defend our democracy. We must stand together in that. How can any true American disagree?

A Part Of The Mueller Report Will Be Released Today

(Cartoon image is by Ed Wexler at cagle.com.)

Attorney General Barr will hold a press conference today to release what he calls the Mueller Report. But make no mistake, this is not the Mueller Report. It is only the part that "Whitewash Willie" Barr and Donald Trump want you and Congress to see.

You can bet that the report will be heavily redacted, and only the portions that make Trump look less guilty will be readable. This is nothing more than a cover-up -- perpetrated by Donald Trump and his hired whitewasher.

We can expect the House Democrats to issue a subpoena for the full report -- maybe as early as Friday. That's a good thing, and it's what a majority of registered voters wants to happen. Note in the chart below that 52% of registered voters think Congress should have the full unredacted report.

This chart shows the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 13th and 16th of a national sample of 1,186 registered voters, with a 2.9 point margin of error.

The Incredible Hypocrisy Of Congressional Republicans

(This caricature of the Republican elephant is by the inimitable DonkeyHotey.)

Just a couple of weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted 420 to 0 to demand that the Mueller Report be made public. Every Republican voting supported the idea, and none voted against it.

Why did they vote that way? Because they, like most other Americans, expected the Mueller Report to present mainly a negative portrait of Donald Trump. They thought that by making the report public they could cherry-pick some parts of it that might not be so bad for Trump -- and by trumpeting those parts loudly, they could obfuscate and confuse. It was their faint hope of covering for Trump.

But then came Attorney General Barr's four-page whitewash of the Mueller Report. This week, the House Intelligence Committee voted to demand the full Mueller Report from Barr. Barr wants to give that committee a heavily-redacted version, but the committee is against that. They want the whole thing.

How did the Republicans on the committee vote? Every one of them voted against receiving the full un-redacted report. They no longer want the report to be public, but only the whitewashed version by Barr to be seen.

Why did they change their opinion? Because they liked Barr's four-page whitewash. Now they are afraid that the report contains material that would be damaging to Trump, and they don't want that information to reach the public (or change enough congressional minds to make impeachment possible).

That shows an incredible degree of hypocrisy. When they thought they could use the full report to help Trump, they supported its release. Now that they think the full report would hurt Trump, they oppose its release. They have no interest in helping the American people to learn the truth.

Only 29% Say Mueller Investigation Exonerated Trump

After Attorney General Barr's released his four-page summary of the Mueller Report, Donald Trump was quick to claim he was completely exonerated. And he has repeated that claim many times in the last few days. Do the American people believe that?

In a word -- NO! Only about 29% believe Trump was cleared of wrongdoing by the report -- about the size of his base. A plurality of 40% say he was NOT exonerated, and the remaining 31% say they don't know.

The chart above is from a new NBC News / Wall Street Journal Poll -- done between March 25th and 27th of a national sample of 1,000 adults, with a 3.1 point margin of error.

Polls Agree - The Public Wants The Mueller Report Released

Robert Mueller has completed his investigation, and submitted his report to the Justice Department. But, so far, no one has seen the report except for executives in the Justice Department. Attorney General Barr released only a short summary, and has said it could take weeks before a redacted version of the report could be provided to Congress or the public.

Trump has boasted that the report completely exonerated him of all charges. That is not what Barr;s short statement said, and likely is not what the Mueller Report said. If it really exonerated him, why are Republicans (like Mitch McConnell) try to block the report's release?

I smell a rat, and I think the general public does, too! The chart above shows the results of four recent polls on whether the Mueller Report should be made available to the public. In all four polls, the public (and Democrats and Independents) want the report released overwhelmingly. And in three of the four polls, a majority of Republicans agree.

The polls are:

The Ipsos / Reuters Poll -- done on March 25th and 26th of a national sample of 1,003 adults, with a 3.5 point margin of error.

The Politico / Morning Consult Poll -- done on March 25th and 26th of a national sample of 1,978 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.

The Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between March 24th and 26th of a national sample of 1,500 adults, with a 2.8 point margin of error.

The Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between March 21st and 25th of a national sample of 1,358 voters, with a 3.3 point margin of error.

Huge Majority Of Voters Want Mueller Report Made Public

Robert Mueller has concluded his investigation and submitted his report to the Department of Justice. But no one in Corngress or the public has seen any of that report. The only thing made public is a four page summary of the report by Attorney General Barr (a Trump appointee and apologist).

Did the report exonerate Trump (as Trump has claimed)? Did Barr's summary present a true picture of what the report found? No one knows right now -- but the public wants to know.

The chart above represents the results of a recent Fox News Poll -- done between March 17th and 20th of a national sample of 1,002 registered voters. The margin of error is 3 points.

The poll was completed  two days before the Mueller Report was sent to the Department of Justice, and four days before Attorney General Barr released his very short summary of that report -- but I doubt these numbers have changed in the last few days.

The poll showed that an overwhelming majority of registered voters (80%) want the Mueller Report made available to the public, while only a tiny minority (11%) do not. That's a gap of 69 points in favor of making the report public. And that is the overwhelming response of every demographic group (including Republicans).

Pelosi And Schumer Issue Joint Statement On Barr Summary

Donald Trump is claiming the dubious Barr summary of Robert Mueller's report gives him a complete and total exoneration. That is ludicrous. I will not believe that until the entire Mueller Report is released.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also have their doubts.

Here is the joint statement they released on Barr's summary:

“Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers.  The fact that Special Counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay.  Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report.

“And most obviously, for the president to say he is completely exonerated directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility.

“Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents so that the Committees can proceed with their independent work, including oversight and legislating to address any issues the Mueller report may raise.  The American people have a right to know.”

Barr Releases A Ridiculous Four-Page Summary Of Report

(Caricature of Attorney General Barr is by DonkeyHotey.)

Attorney General Barr has released a four-page summary of the Mueller Report (and most of page one is taken up with addresses of those he sent his letter to). The letter doesn't give us any of the evidence -- just Barr's opinion that no collusion occurred and no obstruction of justice occurred.

Frankly, the Barr summation has the distinct smell of a white wash. And the only thing that will eradicate (or verify) that odor is the release of the entire Mueller Report.

What do you think?

It's Not Time To Celebrate (Or Be Disappointed) - Yet

Robert Mueller has submitted his report on the investigation into Trump to Attorney General Barr. It's not yet known if we will ever get to see that report. Barr has said that he's only required to submit to Congress his summation of what's in the report -- not the actual report.

Will he release the report (as the huge majority of Americans want him to do)? Or will he try to whitewash the report to avoid embarrassing Trump? We'll just have to wait to see.

But one thing is clear now. It's not time for celebrations or disappointments. Whatever is in that report, it does not end the investigations into Donald Trump and his family/friends.

There are numerous investigations just getting started in the House of Representatives. And there are investigations still going on by the federal 2nd District of New York, the state of New York, and New York City. The investigations into Trump are far from over.

Here is just part of what Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare had to say about the release:

The president should wait before popping the champagne corks over this and tweeting in triumph. Yes, in the best-case scenario for the president, Mueller is not proceeding further because he lacks the evidence to do so. But even this possibility contains multitudes: everything from what the president calls “NO COLLUSION!” to evidence that falls just short of adequate to prove criminal conduct to a reasonable jury beyond a reasonable doubt—evidence that could still prove devastating if the conduct at issue becomes public.

There are other possibilities as well. It’s possible, for example, that Mueller is not proceeding against certain defendants other than the president because he has referred them to other prosecutorial offices; some of these referrals are already public, and it’s reasonable to expect there may be other referrals too. In this iteration, what is ending here is not the investigation, merely the portion of the investigation Mueller chose to retain for himself. It’s possible also that Mueller is finished because he has determined that while the evidence would support a prosecution of the president, he is bound by the Justice Department’s long-standing position that the president is not amenable to criminal process. On the obstruction front, he may well have concluded that, while the president acted to obstruct the investigation, he cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the president’s obstructive acts were not exercises of Trump’s Article II powers. It’s also possible that Mueller has strong prudential reasons for not proceeding with otherwise viable cases.

My gut instinct is that it is some combination of these factors that explains the end of the probe. Without knowing the reasons the investigation is finished, it is impossible to know how to assess its end—and nobody should try.

Finally, we also know other one big thing: There is a report—some kind of, as Barr describes it, quoting the relevant regulation, “‘confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions’ he has reached.” About this document we admittedly know little. Barr said in his letter that he is reviewing the document and “may be in a position to advise [Congress] of the Special Counsel’s principal conclusions as soon as this weekend.” How capacious this initial accounting will be is known only to Barr himself. But Barr has also promised to make as much of Mueller’s findings public as he can consistent with the law—a promise he reiterated in his letter Friday evening. So it’s reasonable to expect, though not to be complacent in the expectation, that over time, the underlying factual findings and legal analysis will emerge.

All of which, as I say, shifts the conversation from what Mueller will do to what he has written in explaining what he has done—and what he has not done. Vindication for the president will take place only when we learn that the facts contained in the report exculpate him. The end of the Mueller probe could well prove tomorrow to be merely the creation of a factual record for the next act of this drama.

House Votes 420 To 0 To Release Mueller Report To Public

It has been a serious question as to whether the general public will ever get to see the Mueller Report when it is submitted. The bill creating the Mueller investigation only said the report would be submitted to the Attorney General -- and Attorney General Barr has refused to commit to making the report public. Instead, he has said he would give Congress a summary of Mueller's findings. That could be anything from a full accounting to a whitewash that hides the important findings.

That's not good enough for the public. A recent Politico / Morning Consult Poll showed that 68% of registered voters want the report made public (including 59% of Republicans). And that poll is not an outlier. Other polls have shown the same thing.

It looks like the House of Representatives agrees with the voters. On Thursday, they voted 420 to 0 to ask the Attorney General to release the Mueller Report to the public -- with 190 Republicans joining 230 Democrats voting to release the report. Four Republicans voted present. Five Democrats and three Republicans did not vote.

I admit that I was surprised that no Republican voted to keep the report secret. Did the polls scare them, or do they think the report will clear Trump of wrongdoing? I don't know, but this vote (while not binding) will put more pressure on Attorney General Barr to release the full report.

Public Says Trump Is Dishonest About Mueller Investigation

For the last two years, Donald Trump has attacked the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by Robert Mueller. He has called it "fake", a "witch hunt", and "politically-inspired by Democrats" (even though the Special Prosecutor is a Republican that was appointed by a Republican).

It has become obvious to many that Trump is scared of what that investigation might reveal, and is doing his best to mitigate the damage it might cause him once it is finished (and hopefully released). Is he being successful in denigrating the investigation?

No. As the top chart shows, only 37% of the public (his deplorable base) believes he's being truthful and honest when he attacks the investigation. About 58% say he is NOT being truthful and honest. The public is not buying his lies.

And the public wants to see the final report (see bottom chart). Only 9% want the report kept secret, while another 21% think only a summary of the report should be released by the Attorney General. But a whopping two-thirds of the population (66%) want the full Mueller Report to be released.

These charts reflect the results of a new NBC News / Wall Street Journal Poll -- done between February 24th and 27th of a national sample of 900 adults, with a margin of error of 3.27 points.

Public Overwhelmingly Wants Mueller Report Made Public

Will the results of the Mueller investigation be made public? Attorney General Barr has not promised to do so. He has said he would release what he could, and sadly, he is not required to release the report to the public -- but only his own interpretation of what the report found. Considering the Republican whitewash of Trump in the past couple of years, that is not good enough.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is committed to making the report public. He has said that if the report is not made public, he will subpoena it and call Robert Mueller to testify before Congress -- and if the subpoena is not honored, then he's prepared to go to court to force its release.

He has the backing of the public. As the chart above shows, an overwhelming majority of Americans (registered voters) wants the report made public (68% to 10%) -- a gap of 58 points favoring release of the report to the public. If the Republicans try to hide the report, they will just anger the public. And that includes their own base -- 59% of whom want the report made public.

The chart above reflects the results of a new Politico / Morning Consult Poll -- done between February 22nd and 24th of a national sample of 1,994 registered voters, with a margin of error of 2 points.

Who Does The Public Trust More - Trump Or Mueller?

Donald Trump has done his best to destroy the American public's trust in the Mueller investigation. He has called it a hoax, a witch hunt, and a Democratic effort to damage his presidency. But he has not succeeded in doing anything except make it look like he is terrified at what Mueller may discover in his investigation.

The public still thinks the investigation is proper -- and more important, they say they would believe Mueller over Trump. That trust of Mueller over Trump is by 23 points among all adults, by 76 points among Democrats, and by 28 points among Independents. The only group that would believe Trump over Mueller is the Republicans -- by 57 points.

Republicans remain out-of-step with the rest of the country. That's not going to help Trump in the next election.

The chart above is from the Washington Post / Schar School Poll -- done between February 6th and 10th of a national sample of 841 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.