Barr releases redacted—but still devastating—Mueller report: Summary

This morning, Trump attorney general William Barr released a significantly redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election, on the efforts of the Trump campaign to derive benefit from or collude with those Russian acts, and subsequent efforts by Donald Trump and others to obstruct the investigation into those acts. Approximately 450 pages long, the document does not lend itself to simple summary, but lays out both broad narratives and myriad consequential details of Trump's actions, his campaign's actions, and the actions of others in the subsequent administration.

A broad summary of today's events and key developments:

• In a morning press conference before the report's redacted release, Attorney General William Barr went to great lengths to defend Trump from the evidence and allegations documented in the report.

• Barr's performance was widely pilloried online, by political observers, and by furious Democrats.

• Barr's defense of Trump—that his efforts to impede the investigation did not amount to obstruction because Trump was "frustrated"—is bizarre, weak, and genuinely unprecedented. It also seemed to grossly misrepresent Trump’s "frustration."

• A scanned, searchable version of the report can be found here.

• Collusion: The Mueller report says the Trump campaign had "numerous links" with Russia.

• House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler called for Mueller himself to testify "as soon as possible."

• Nadler also made it clear that a subpoena for the full, unredacted Mueller report will be coming.

• Mueller appeared to consider that his report could be used as basis for articles of impeachment.

• Quoting from Mueller directly: “Congress can permissibly criminalize certain obstructive conduct by the President.”

• Trump's reaction to the appointment of a special counsel investigation into Russian hacking: "This is the end of my Presidency. I’m f*cked."

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2veblSY