Mueller clears Trump

The White House was jubilant yesterday after the massive Russian collusion probe cleared President Donald Trump, freeing him to campaign for reelection -- and tell Americans that he was right all along. “I think it’s a day America’s looked forward to for a long time. I think it’s a great day for America,” Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told CNN.

Trump has been under the cloud of potentially historic scandal for two years while special prosecutor Robert Mueller delved into allegations that his 2016 election campaign colluded with Russian agents trying to tilt the polls in his favor. Late Sunday, Attorney General William Barr said in a brief summary of the just-finished report that Mueller had found “no collusion with Russia.”

Mueller pointedly said that he could not determine whether Trump had or had not committed the crime of obstruction of justice through his highly public opposition to the Russia probe, which he railed against as a “witch hunt.” “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Barr cited Mueller as saying.

But that was only a wrinkle on an otherwise clear horizon as seen from the White House ahead of 2020 presidential elections. Democrats, who for two years have seen the Mueller report as fuel for potential impeachment, insist they will continue to use powerful congressional committees to probe further into Trump’s business and political dealings with Russia.

Trump ‘unchained’

“It was a complete and total exoneration,” Trump said Sunday in brief comments from Florida, where he’d spent the weekend at his golf resort. “It’s a shame that the country had to go through this,” he added with a note of anger. “This was an illegal takedown that failed.”

Trump appears likely to maintain that line between declaring victory and seeking to call out his accusers -- and possibly to seek revenge. “Hopefully somebody’s going to be looking at the other side,” he said, referring to investigating the origins of the probe against him.

Tainted presidency

Despite the relief at the White House, the Mueller probe painted a deeply unflattering picture of the divisive and populist real-estate-tycoon turned politician. The probe established that Russians did try to influence the 2016 election by hacking Democratic party computers and flooding social media with disinformation to harm Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton.

It also brought new focus on Trump’s hidden business dealings with Russians, including a long-running push to build a Trump tower in Moscow, with negotiations continuing right into his election year -- despite claims that he had no such links. Mueller issued criminal charges ranging from conspiracy to lying to investigators against 34 individuals.