Porterville Recorder

On the Mueller Report

- Len Andrews Portervill­e

If one is going to write about the Mueller Report, one should probably have certain facts at hand. One such fact is that the report most certainly was released to the public, and can be found at https://www. justice.gov/archives/sco/ file/1373816/download

Upon reading some of it, one might discover “(T)he Special Counsel’s investigat­ion establishe­d that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidenti­al election principall­y through two operations. First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidenti­al candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidenti­al candidate Hillary Clinton. Second, a Russian intelligen­ce service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents. The investigat­ion also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign. Although the investigat­ion establishe­d that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorall­y from informatio­n stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigat­ion did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinate­d with the Russian government in its election interferen­ce activities.”

There are other things one could discover. In the Introducti­on to Volume II one could learn that the Special Counsel’s Office was never going to charge Trump with Obstructio­n of Justice because of separation of powers considerat­ions.

One could learn that “If (The Special Counsel’s Office) had confidence after a thorough investigat­ion of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstructio­n of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusive­ly determinin­g that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingl­y, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Or one could remain independen­t of these relevant facts, and pretend that Trump was “exonerated”.

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