For nearly two years that the US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been examining whether there was collusion with the Russians during the 2016 election, President Donald Trump has been shouting ‘no collusion.’ He can now breathe a little easy. The Mueller report does not find sufficient evidence that the President or anyone else in his campaign colluded with the Russians.
Releasing a summary, the Attorney General William Barr said, “This report does not conclude that the president committed a crime. It also does not exonerate him.” However, reacting to the summary, Trump gloated that it constituted ‘a complete and total exoneration’ and regurgitated the charge that it was an illegal takedown attempt, a witch hunt that failed miserably.
The Trump administration has lived under the cloud of Russian collusion for two years. Some of the closest allies of the President, including his lawyer-cum-fixer, have been indicted by the Special Counsel for crimes not all of which were directly linked to his election campaign. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are bound to read into the summary their own vindication, finding support for their preconceived narratives since Mueller failed to locate definitive evidence for or against collusion.
The highest in the Trump campaign meeting a Russian lawyer in the Trump Tower, New York, who offered to produce muck on his rival Hillary Clinton was an indiscretion but in the absence of further coordination between the two sides Mueller gives the benefit of the doubt to Trump. Nor has Mueller found tenable evidence of obstruction of justice against Trump, though he regularly spewed venom against the probe, demonising the Special Counsel.
Nor did the Special Counsel consider the firing of the FBI Director James Comey and, later, of the Attorney General Jeff Sessions as sufficient proof for an obstruction of justice indictment. It was hard to fathom the motive of Trump, especially when the charge of collusion with Russia was not proved. However, the report is unlikely to return the US polity to normal, the relations between the rival parties having been so embittered that it will be hard to avoid further confrontation and antagonisms.
Admittedly, it would serve as a shot in the arm for Trump as he seeks second term next year. Democrats are already accusing the Attorney General of bias, saying his summary was one-sided and that he should lose no time in releasing the full Mueller report. Besides, Trump is not out of the woods completely. The New York prosecutor’s office is examining the Trump businesses for criminal fraud.
Prosecutors are also looking into the shady dealings of his foundation and of course the payments made to silence sex workers ahead of the 2016 poll continue to be live issues in prosecutor’s offices. Weather Trump violated the campaign finance law by paying Stormy Daniels, the adult movie star, to buy her silence is still being examined. A few more investigations are underway following revelations emerging from Senate hearings in connection with the Russian collusion probe.
Yet, Trump is bound to make much of the Mueller report which has given him the benefit of the doubt for want of sufficient evidence. His base would feel vindicated, encouraging it to be more vocal in its resentment of immigrants, cheap Chinese imports, loss of jobs to foreigners, etc. However, the world at large would hope that the American politicians can put behind the bitterness and confrontation of the last presidential poll and return to orderly governance.
Trump, too, should stop behaving like a bull in a China shop and respect the global security and strategic structures created by his predecessors to strengthen the cause of peace and democracy against the forces of authoritarianism and militarism which seem to have felt emboldened further following his election. He may not have colluded with President Putin but his conduct last two years has certainly comforted him immensely. This should change.
