The Mueller Report is in: Trump may or may not have colluded

With the Mueller investigation over and the summary findings that we know so far it is time to reflect on a few things. First, does Mueller’s refusal to say whether or not Trump obstructed justice mean that he most likely did in fact obstruct justice? Second, do the many indictments that were handed out to Trump’s inner circle imply that he is guilty by association? And third, why, if we are so concerned about whether or not the Russian’s hacked the DNC’s emails are we not talking about the actual contents of the emails themselves?

In my opinion, Mueller’s avoiding making a determination on the obstruction of justice charge was basically dodging a political bullet. Many have said he prefers to leave it to Congress to decide or to the Attorney General but it is odd for someone who is known for his investigative tenacity to avoid answering one of the central questions of the investigation.

Pundits are taking this ball and running with it in two very different directions, on the one hand this is being interpreted as Mueller’s way of avoiding embarrassing the President because there is the outside chance that he really ‘didn’t intend’ to change the outcome of the investigation when he tweeted out comments recommending that Michael Cohen “serve a full and complete sentence,” and later on that same day praising Roger Stone for refusing to testify against him.

On the other hand, Trump has provided the evidence against himself for all-the world to see and just because he does it in such a blatantly public way does not make it legal.

But the worst part of all of this, in my opinion, is the fact that no one is really talking about the contents of the hacked emails. Did the President collude with Russia to do the hacking? It seems easy enough to connect the dots around the bigger picture; they all lead back to Trump. Just because there is no ‘smoking gun’ piece of evidence where Trump can be found directing the Kremlin to hack the DNC doesn’t mean he’s innocent. In June of 2016 at a press conference he said, “Russia if you’re listening, I hope you find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Were there dirty dealings between Trump and Russia over the years? That seems categorically undeniable. Were there business dealings between the two during the Presidential campaign? Three word, Trump Tower, Moscow.

But the bigger question underlying this entire investigation remains. What inside those hacked emails was so devastating to the DNC and to our Democracy in general that warranted this kind of investigation that went to such great lengths as finding some obscure hackers who were responsible for a few silly meme’s about Hillary Clinton but also about a lot of other unrelated things, and naming them in indictments? Was our political system really concerned about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia or was it more about the reality that no one is safe in the water anymore? With this open ended finding from Mueller one can definitely speculate that it was more about the appearance of an investigation and consequences and perhaps that was for geopolitical strategy rather than an intention to impeach the President, regardless of how many crimes he has actually committed.