The Mueller Report

23. The Mueller Report: Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference In the 2016 Presidential Election by U.S. Department of Justice

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I highly recommend everyone read it for themselves. Tip: Appendix B contains a glossary of names, entities and organizations, and acronyms.

I read a pdf version of the report which has the same page count as this version.

My main takeaways:
The Russian government absolutely made targeted, coordinated attacks designed to influence the election so that Trump would get elected president.

The scope of their cyber attacks and "active measures" social media campaigns was vast and there's no reason to think they won't continue their efforts while upping their game. We should be much more worried about Russia.

Several people working for Trump's campaign tried to facilitate contacts with Russians including to accept damaging information about Hillary Clinton, promote a business deal and travel opportunities to Russia.

Volume II covers the investigation into obstruction of justice by the President.

The legal demands for proving obstruction of justice are high but Trump's behavior and actions are clear. Firing Attorney General Sessions and trying to remove the special counsel both seem to qualify. The table of contents for volume II gives a good feel for it.

Trump's lawyers argue that firing the AG and directing the course of investigations falls under his article II powers but he is not protected if he uses those powers corruptly (to avoid criminal prosecution, for personal gain, to avoid embarrassment...).

Anyone working for Trump should take note that he will praise you and send well wishes as long as you don't contradict him. As soon as you put your own interests first, say by telling the truth during an investigation, he will flip on you instantly, making personal attacks on twitter and in the media to discredit you and bias juries.

Really the report includes an exceptional amount of detail. It's hard to summarize.

The main thing is that this report does not exonerate Trump of wrongdoing and provides a roadmap for impeachment proceedings based on obstruction of justice.


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