The Mueller report (redacted) was released to the public this week. It is 448 pages long and is broken into two volumes. The first volume addresses conspiracy and the second obstruction.
In this week’s post, I am going to briefly discuss volume I. It begins with the statement that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a sweeping and systematic fashion. The investigation began due to this Russian meddling (not the Steel dossier or some political vendetta). The investigation identified NUMEROUS links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.
Even though, the investigation could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the campaign did not coordinate with the Russian government, it did nothing to protect the United States and the election process from foreign influence. It did nothing to protect our national security. Maybe the campaign was not legally obligated to report the foreign contacts, but it was morally obligated to do what is right and honorable.
Some of the reasons that the investigation could not conclusively prove coordination or conspiracy were that witnesses lied, invoked the Fifth Amendment and destroyed evidence in deleted emails and texts. The report stated that “The office cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on the events described in the report.”
Exonerate means to absolve (free from guilt) from blame of wrongdoing. The attempts to undermine, discredit and stop the investigation (better known as obstruction of justice) seem to be overwhelming evidence that the President believed that he had engaged in wrongdoing related to Russian contacts during the campaign. The Russian meddling / conspiracy portion of the report covers nearly 200 pages of information. Even though, charges of conspiracy were not recommended, there is plenty of evidence of wrongdoing by the President and the campaign. Exoneration is a FALSE CLAIM to hide the truth from the American public.
reilly m gray 