My Summary of the Mueller Report

My Summary:

The Russians did it, the Trump team bungles everything, there were many instances of obstruction that Congress needs to follow up on, and the President recalls NOTHING.

The Russians Did It

            The Russians used social media to influence 126 million Americans with propaganda that highlighted divisions in the country, and later assisted the most divisive candidate, Donald Trump. This had real world implications, including people attending rallies in real life.

            The Russians also hacked a bunch of Democratic Party officials and offices. They then leaked this information to Wikileaks. Wikileaks coordinated with members of the Trump political team. This included giving stolen passwords to an anti-Trump PAC website to Donald Trump Jr. and leaking the Clinton Campaigns playbook. Imagine competing against an opponent who knew your every plan and schedule; that would be incredibly unfair.

The Trump Team Bungles Everything

            One thing that comes across loud and clear in the report is that the Trump team is decidedly not the Best and the Brightest. They bluff to no end, claiming authority they don’t have; they claim that they attend meetings with people when all they did was google the person’s name; they make assumptions about what is going on that just aren’t true, but keep going because why not… 

            A crazy example that points to all of these tendencies: Papadopoulos meets a Russian academic, who won’t pay attention to him at a party, until he starts bragging that he is high up in Trump’s organization (which he is not). Then the Russian sets up a meeting with Papadopoulos and two other Russians, one of them a woman. Papadopoulos brags to the Trump team that the Russian academic, who didn’t really want to talk to him, is his good friend. Then he tells the team that the woman at the meeting he is at is in fact Putin’s niece. She is not. Later Trump Junior looks up the name of one of the Russians on Wikipedia and tells the team that he just got off the phone with the person… but in actuality all he did was google the guy’s name… this kind of thing happens A LOT in the report! In general, it seems that the entire Trump team is incapable of making true statements.

There Were Many Instances of Obstruction that Congress Needs to Follow Up On

            Discerning whether a President can obstruct justice is a complex constitutional question, above Mueller’s pay grade, so to speak.

            Defining what Obstruction of Justice is, however, was not nearly as hard. Mueller defines Obstruction of Justice as having three parts, an obstructive act, a nexus between the acts and an official proceeding, and corrupt intent. In other words, did the person do something, that would harm an official proceeding, and was it intentional? 

            Mueller then lays out 14 instances where the President’s actions could be an Obstruction of Justice and analyzes them with the above three criterion. Then he goes on and says these 14 instances, looked at together, could establish a pattern of the President attempting to Obstruct Justice. Mueller then asserts that no one is above the law and congress ought to look into these 14 instances of Obstruction of Justice.

The President Recalls NOTHING

            Finally, we can read the President’s written responses to Mueller’s questions. In a very short couple of paragraphs the president claims that he doesn’t recall specific events 30 times!