Why the Mueller Report Might Disappoint Almost Everybody

1. For instance, after former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, one analyst, whom I respect, tweeted that Mueller is preparing to lay down a royal flush. To some members of the public, that could be interpreted to mean we can be confident Mueller will prove that Trump conspired with Moscow something we cannot yet know.
2. This is due in part to Trump's successful disinformation crusade, which has worked to raise a nearly impossible and definitely illogical bar for Mueller to clear: proving collusion and charging a grand criminal conspiracy involving the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
3. As the Mueller investigation ends and, ideally, becomes public, it is an opportunity to refocus on what has actually happened: Trump campaign officials have committed crimes, the President has obstructed justice in plain sight, and Trump has been implicated in breaking campaign-finance law.
4. He has laid bare connections between key members of Trump's campaign and Russian operatives, including the recent revelation that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort allegedly shared internal polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, who Mueller has alleged is a former Russian intelligence officer.
5. There is not even a relevant crime called collusion. What Mueller is tasked with is investigating any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.
6. Even when Mueller obtained significant guilty pleas, people focused on what could be next  instead of the perhaps truer threats to the Trump presidency, like the campaign-finance crimes discussed at length by Cohen in court filings and his Feb.
7. While Mueller is directed to charge and prosecute crimes he discovers, his is primarily a counterintelligence investigation not a criminal one the purpose of which is to identify threats to our national security, potentially including the President of the United States and his associates.
8. While there can be value in explaining potential outcomes, speculation about what Mueller could do has so far exceeded even his substantial accomplishments and some developments suggest Mueller's investigation may not prove a grand conspiracy.

http://time.com/5540879/trump-mueller-report-investigation-collusion/?xid=tcoshare