It’s Mueller time

Finally.

Nick Campbell, @TheNCExperience

Under the cloud of speculation and anticipation, the Mueller report on the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, was finally released to the public Thursday, April 18. Upon the report’s release, Attorney General Bill Barr held a spin session under the guise of a press conference. While the role of the Attorney General is to uphold justice and enforce the law and Constitution, Barr spun the report to the defense of Trump.

The unethical actions of Barr notwithstanding, the report is full of details surrounding the Russian influence over the 2016 election. In particular, the report details how Trump’s campaign team met with Russian contacts to get potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

Members of the campaign lied to investigators about these dealings, resulting in many subsequent indictments. Some revealing tidbits from the heavily redacted report include the answer to a heavily debated topic in the legal community.

Can a sitting president be charged with a crime? Mueller’s team confirms, yes, he or she can.

According to the report: “With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.”

This ruling means the party is just getting started because, despite the report’s inconclusiveness, Congress has the authority to investigate Trump and even impeach him if applicable. So it’s no wonder that on page 290 of the report, it is revealed that Trump panicked back in 2017 at the original announcement of the investigation into his campaign: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked,” Trump said.

Not exactly the words you would expect to hear from someone claiming to be innocent.