If the report closed out the first stage of the Mueller War, it appears to have also launched the second stage - one in which members of Congress will attempt to reshape Mueller's investigation to reach the conclusions they expected.
With Mueller conducting the special counsel probe Democrats largely steered clear of pushing for separate investigations into Russia-collusion, preferring to focus more on regulatory differences, ethics concerns, and Trump's personal finances.
Other actions, such as the firing of former FBI Director James Comey - the catalyst for appointing Mueller to the special counsel position in the first place - involved "Facially lawful acts within Article II authority." And, Mueller acknowledged, the lack of evidence of any underlying crime "Affects the analysis of the president's intent."
"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice," Mueller wrote, "We would so state." Instead, Mueller left that question open, and Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein positively declared that no obstruction had taken place, after noting some disagreement with Mueller's legal theories on obstruction.
Trump initially refrained from invoking executive privilege with McGahn, allowing him to speak to Mueller freely.
Voters generally don't like Trump much personally, but they've also just seen wild allegations of Trump being a Russian agent and/or stealing the election in 2016 collapse in Mueller's report on Russian collusion.
Political partisans might relish the conflict, but voters largely hoped that the Mueller report would put an end to this particular inside-the-Beltway feud and shift focus back to their priorities.
https://theweek.com/articles/837214/mueller-war-rages
With Mueller conducting the special counsel probe Democrats largely steered clear of pushing for separate investigations into Russia-collusion, preferring to focus more on regulatory differences, ethics concerns, and Trump's personal finances.
Other actions, such as the firing of former FBI Director James Comey - the catalyst for appointing Mueller to the special counsel position in the first place - involved "Facially lawful acts within Article II authority." And, Mueller acknowledged, the lack of evidence of any underlying crime "Affects the analysis of the president's intent."
"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice," Mueller wrote, "We would so state." Instead, Mueller left that question open, and Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein positively declared that no obstruction had taken place, after noting some disagreement with Mueller's legal theories on obstruction.
Trump initially refrained from invoking executive privilege with McGahn, allowing him to speak to Mueller freely.
Voters generally don't like Trump much personally, but they've also just seen wild allegations of Trump being a Russian agent and/or stealing the election in 2016 collapse in Mueller's report on Russian collusion.
Political partisans might relish the conflict, but voters largely hoped that the Mueller report would put an end to this particular inside-the-Beltway feud and shift focus back to their priorities.
https://theweek.com/articles/837214/mueller-war-rages
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