TOP 5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MUELLER REPORT
1. Mueller’s team did not consider or look at “collusion”. They specifically said this in the report: “In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of “collusion” (pg 10 [pg2 of Vol I], paragraph 3, 1st sentence).
2. They did look at “conspiracy/coordination”, and did not find sufficient evidence of it. To quote the report: “…the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” (pg 11, [pg 2 of Vol I], para 1, 1st sentence). This is good for Trump and America. However, they also found a lot of connections Russia and the Trump campaign “The investigation also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign”. (Pg 9 [pg1 of Vol I], last para, 4th sentence)
3. They did examine “obstruction (of justice)”, and would not say if what happened met the definition of obstruction. “This Volume of our report summarizes our obstruction-of-justice investigation of the President.” (Pg 214 [pg 1 of Vol II], 1st para, last sentence). They declined to consider whether or not what happened was criminal on the part of Trump because “…the indictment of criminal prosecution of a sitting president would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions…” (pg 213 [pg 1 of Vol II], 1st para, 2nd sentence).
4. They could not definitely say Trump did not commit obstruction of justice. In other words, they would not say he definitely did commit obstruction of justice, and could not say he definitively did not commit obstruction of justice. “…if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.” And later in the same paragraph “…while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” (pg 214 [pg 2 of Vol II] 3rd para)
5. The Russian effort to interfere with the 2016 US elections was vast, and the Russians put a lot of money and people into the effort “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion”. (Pg 9 [pg1 of Vol I], para 2 – 1st sentence, introduction to Vol I). For example, social media: Facebook: 470 Russia controlled accounts, 80,000 posts, reaching 126,000 people; Twitter: 3,814 Russia controlled accounts, 1,400,000 people contacted; Instagram: 170 accounts, 120,000 posts (Pg 23 [Pg 15 of Vol I], 1st para & footnote 6)