Time for Mueller to put up or shut up

Last week was supposed to be earth-shaking in Robert Mueller’s special counsel probe, with the release of sentencing memos on three former members of the Trump universe – Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Yet Americans learned little new and nothing decisive about the allegations of Russia-Trump collusion that triggered this long investigation.

The main Russia-related news is the disclosure, in Mueller’s memo on Cohen, of a previously unknown attempt by an unidentified Russian to reach out to the Trump presidential campaign. Alas for conspiracy hopefuls, Cohen ‘‘did not follow up on this invitation’’, the memo says. Cohen says he was already talking to other Russians about a Trump Tower hotel project. Trump has said he shut down that negotiation in 2016 because he was running for president. So a Russian wanted to insinuate himself into the Trump orbit but nothing happened. Why drop this into a sentencing memo? We are left again with speculation about what else Mueller knows, not with evidence of any attempt to steal an election.

All of this argues for Mueller to wrap up his probe and let America get on with the political debate over its meaning for Trump’s presidency. He has been investigating for 19 months. The country deserves an account of what he knows, not more factual dribs and drabs in sentencing memos.