Well, the Mueller investigation did not find that “the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” To that limited extent, the president has been vindicated in arguing that there was “no collusion.” Attorney General William Barr has decided not to prosecute the president for obstruction of justice irrespective of whether a president can be prosecuted, even though the report apparently details many examples of what could easily be considered obstructive acts. His rationale is in part that there was no underlying crime. So, as a result, the president has gotten a pretty clean bill of health, and we can all look at the report someday soon and see all of the bad behavior but we won’t have much recourse.
As for whether the president has been compromised by a foreign power, the letter William Barr sent to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees is completely silent on the matter. And, yet, this is the primary thing the American people need to know. To get any insight into the answer to that question, it appears that Mueller and members of his investigatory team will have to be asked to testify before Congress.
The Deep State has so far proven to be toothless. It looks like Congress (one half of it, anyway) is on its own. This will now most likely be settled at the ballot box, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions and tasks that need to be taken on. Congress needs to figure out how to better protect against foreign interference in the next election. And they will have to do their best to carry on their own counterintelligence assessment, as difficult as that will now be.
In the meantime, everyone else needs to knuckle down for the most brutal and consequential political battle of our lifetimes.
