Mueller Report 2 - All You Need To Know

NO COLLUSION! Exoneration! "Nothing to see here!"

Trump's lackeys are crowing about how Mueller's "witch hunt" did not nail its target.  

On that, if you read absolutely nothing else about this sad affair, this is what you need to read in the Mueller Report - from the end of the Executive Summary...

"The investigation did not always yield admissible information or testimony, or a complete picture of the activities undertaken by subjects of the investigation. Some individuals invoked their Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination and were not, in the Office 's judgment, appropriate candidates for grants of immunity. The Office limited its pursuit of other witnesses and information-such as information known to attorneys or individuals claiming to be members of the media-in light of internal Depa11ment of Justice policies. See, e.g., Justice Manual§§ 9-13.400, 13.410. Some of the information obtained via court process, moreover, was presumptively covered by legal privilege and was screened from investigators by a filter ( or "taint") team. Even when individuals testified or agreed to be interviewed, they sometimes provided information that was false or incomplete, leading to some of the false-statements charges described above. And the Office faced practical limits on its ability to access relevant evidence as well-numerous witnesses and subjects lived abroad, and documents were held outside the United States. 

Further, the Office learned that some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated-including some associated with the Trump Campaign---deleted relevant communications or communicated during the relevant period using applications that feature encryption or that do not provide for long-term retention of data or communications records. In such cases, the Office was not able to corroborate witness statements through comparison to contemporaneous communications or fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts. 

Accordingly, while this report embodies factual and legal determinations that the Office believes to be accurate and complete to the greatest extent possible, given these identified gaps, the Office cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report." 

Mueller's report notes that there is not enough evidence to charge anyone with conspiracy; specifically, with coordinating with the Russians to subvert American democracy in favour of the Trump Campaign. The reason why there is no evidence is in the quote above - because the attempt to subvert this investigation and to take measures to hide illicit activities when they were undertaken, were ultimately successful.  

On this, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence...of conspiracy. Or, just because Mueller can't prove it, does not mean it didn't happen. The reality is that he simply could not assemble enough evidence to charge people - and it is clear from the Executive Summary that there is evidence of illicit and conspiratorial coordination. Trump therefore successfully subverted the investigation - that is all you need to know. 

This successful subversion happened in the following ways.

1. Liars. People lied to the FBI to hide their illicit activities. We know about Papadopoulos, Flynn and Cohen. As noted in this blog repeatedly, the key fish that Muller had to land as a fully-cooperating witness was Manafort. It didn't happen. 

No coordination? How about this...

The Report outlines how Manafort fed polling data to persons known to be associated with the Russian state for months on end. This is what you would do if you wanted to help the Russians gauge the success or lack thereof of their campaigns of disinformation.

He also met with Russians and at their bequest put forward a plan for Ukraine that would have changed US foreign policy and essentially handed the Eastern part of the country to Russia. As noted here before, this was the obvious quid pro quo for Russian help in defeating Clinton. 

But Mueller could not prove this because Manafort would not cooperate - he even lied when he was supposed to be cooperating, meaning even more jail time! It is possible that Manafort feared his Russian friends more than his FBI enemies. In the end, the pigeon-in-chief got away, and with him went any chance of finding out what these people were really up to.

2. Inaccessible Evidence. Certain people "took the fifth" and refused to provide evidence on the grounds that it could lead to a criminal conviction. When Mobsters do this, no one has any problem noting that this means crimes were committed.  So please understand - There are crimes here that Mueller could not prosecute, which is the plain meaning of people having "taken the fifth." A number of criminals associated with Trump got away with it...so far.

One of the most interesting parts of the above quote is this..."The Office limited its pursuit of other witnesses and information-such as information known to attorneys or individuals claiming to be members of the media-in light of internal Department of Justice policies."  

So Mueller believed that certain members of the "so-called" media had information germane to the investigation, but he chose not to pursue them because of Department of Justice policies. I think this is obviously referring to Sean Hannity, who we have since learned knew about the infamous June 9, 2016 meeting between Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr., and the Russian lawyer a week before it happened, and did not report on it. "Fair and Balanced"... in favour of a criminal conspiracy against one's own country?

3. Deletions and Encryptions. I guess Trump learned from Hillary and the Democrats! Simply put, if you have embarrassing e-mails, for goodness sakes do what Hillary did and delete them! Better still, make sure no one can ever access them in the first place by using encryption services!

Understand that this means that the Trump Campaign took measures to hide its activities from authorities even while the campaign was on. They weren't hiding their dinner plans and off-colour jokes.  

Who uses encryption services in regular electronic communications?

Governments do this when communicating secrets, as do corporations that do not want competitors accessing their sensitive commercial information. 

Child pornographers and money launderers use encryption, as do mobsters and others of their sort. 

And, as we now know, so did members of the Trump Campaign.

Conclusion: In the end, what Mueller is teling us at the end of his Executive Summary is that the obstruction of the investigation was a success. It was not "NO COLLUSION", but "SUCCESSFUL OBSTRUCTION!" Trump is a criminal like few others. Too bad his political oppostion is so utterly deficient and corrupt as well. 

For the record, I think the conspiratorial deal was likely this - release Hillary's damaging e-mails and provide the information that will incriminate her, and we will change the foreign policy of the United States of America specifically concerning Ukraine once we are in power. Had it proved possible to prove this, the charges could have included Treason. But Trump and his crew beat the FBI by lying, evading, and by being careful to cover their tracks while engaged in their illicit conduct.

In light of the above, Barr's exoneration of Trump needs to be seen as nothing more than shameful political theatre. His summary of the Mueller Report does not focus on these evidentary issues - does not focus on the on-going obstruction of the investigation by Trump himself and his minions that was ultimately successful. In fact, Barr himself exonerates Donald Trump of Obstruction of Justice! The word you are looking for is "betrayal".

What should worry anyone who is concerned about the state of the world is that while Mueller could not prove conspiracy, the fact is that the Russians know all about it, and they could certainly provide proof of criminal conspiracy on the part of the Trump Campaign at any time. 

Query - What concessions may the Russians want to extract from the President of the United States over the next few years to make sure that they do not do precisely that? If I were in the Baltic States or Ukraine, I would be very worried.