Mueller report into collusion a stunning victory for Donald Trump

The report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller is a stunning victory for Donald Trump and a huge rebuff to the overblown hopes of Democrats that it would be a game-changer for his presidency.

The summary of the Mueller report issued today by Attorney General William Barr clears the president and his aides of any collusion with Russia and says there is no legal case to support obstruction of justice charges against him.

For the president could hardly have hoped for a greater vindication. Even though Mueller hedged his bets on the question of obstruction of justice by declining to exonerate the president, the fact that he did not recommended charges is also an important win for Trump.

It is a devastating defeat for the Democrats and for much of the US media who had hoped, prayed and frankly expected that Mueller would somehow find a silver bullet to end or at least cripple Trump’s presidency.

The fact that Mueller did not find such evidence is a failure of their expectations, rather than any shortcomings by Mueller who appears to have been the lone person in this whole affair to have conducted himself with professional dignity.

The Democrats invested far too much hope in the snippets of anecdotes which they — aided by liberal networks like CNN and MSNBC — conflated into what they said were obvious examples of collusion and obstruction.

These include the written notes of former FBI chief James Comey about his alleged interactions with Trump and also the so-called Trump Tower meeting between Trump family and aides and a Russian lawyer to hear dirt about Hillary Clinton.

Taken in isolation, these issues raised fair questions for sober investigation by Mueller but Trump’s opponents were too quick to add two and two and come up with six.

We will learn more about the report as more of it is released in the weeks ahead, but there are three big takeaway from Barr’s summary.

Firstly Mueller found Russia was actively and comprehensively trying to interfere in the 2016 US election. Russia wanted Trump to win and Hillary Clinton to lose. This is no surprise, but Mueller’s work has exposed the Russian groups that carried it out and issued several dozen indictments against those people involved. US national security is better off for this aspect of Mueller‘s investigation.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller “appears to have been the lone person in this whole affair to have conducted himself with professional dignity”. Picture: Tasos Katopodis/Getty

Secondly, and crucially, Mueller found that neither Trump and his team aided or co-operated with this criminal effort by Moscow. This supports the public evidence that was available and ends speculation that there was other evidence out of the public view which Mueller would somehow find.

Thirdly, Mueller draws no conclusions on the issue of obstruction of justice, saying he did not find enough evidence to sustain such a charge but specifically adding that he did not exonerate Trump. Barr has examined Mueller’s evidence and says the Justice Department will not pursue charges.

This non-decision by Mueller on obstruction will anger Democrats but it appears to be a fair call given the duelling nature of the evidence he was faced with. The obstruction of justice claims stemmed largely from Trump’s dealings with former FBI chief James Comey. For example Comey alleges that Trump tried to wrongly pressure him to stop the FBI’s probe into former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. But Trump denies the conversation. In the absence of further conclusive proof about both the exchange and the president’s intent, Mueller had little choice but to take no action.

Similarly Trump’s decision to sack Comey at the time that the FBI was heading up the Russia investigation presented a dilemma for Mueller. Trump admitted in an interview afterwards that the Russia issue was on his mind when he sacked Comey, but mostly Trump in public stuck with the official reason that his sacking was linked to his handling on the Clinton email scandal.

In the absence of further evidence, it would appear impossible for Mueller to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump was ‘acting with corrupt intent’ in sacking Comey.

The bottom line of this report is that it provides the Democrats with no reasonable grounds to impeach the president. Trump’s future will almost certainly be decided at the ballot box in 2020 and his prospects are now much better than they were yesterday.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia