Mueller report good news for Trump, bad for Russia

There are two aspects to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his 22-month investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election: political and national security.

On the political front, Mueller’s findings are clearly a victory for Republican President Donald J. Trump.

Bottom line: Neither Trump nor anyone in his campaign colluded with the Russians to ensure his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

A four-page, single-spaced summary of Mueller’s report released Sunday by Attorney General William Barr does state that while the special counsel did not find that Trump committed any crimes, he also did not exonerate him with regard to obstruction of justice.

It should be recalled that Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in the midst of the investigation.

There’s no doubt the president has every reason to feel good about the findings by Mueller, whom he had accused of being part of a witch hunt. It is noteworthy the special counsel is a Republican.

As for the lack of clarity on the obstruction of justice allegations, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have a responsibility to get to the bottom of the issue.

But to do so, Attorney General Barr must release the entire report from Special Counsel Mueller. A summary cannot be the basis of a congressional inquiry.

Indeed, given that the investigation has cast a dark cloud over the administration, in particular, and the nation, in general, for almost two years, we believe the American people have to see as much of the report as is legally permitted.

There’s a reason for unfiltered access: We need to know just how extensively Russia was involved in the 2016 presidential election, and why high-ranking officials of the communist government were so determined to help Trump defeat Democrat Clinton.

It isn’t idle curiosity.

Even before he was elected president, Trump expressed positive views about Russia and its dictatorial leader, Vladimir Putin, that were at odds with many U.S. intelligence analyses of the communist government’s behavior domestically and globally.

Indeed, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia wanted to undermine Clinton’s candidacy, help Trump win and shake the confidence of the American people in their government.

The Russians launched a disinformation campaign on the internet and hacked into the emails of Democratic operatives.

COZYING UP TO PUTIN

Yet, last year, Trump met privately with Putin for two hours in Helsinki, Finland, with only two other individuals present in the conference room in the Hall of Mirrors. They were the translators. There were no advisers, no foreign-policy experts and no observers. There were no note takers, which means there is no official transcript of the two-hour session.

Trump and Putin emerged from their private meeting and addressed reporters. They talked in glowing terms about each other.

Trump, who had been trying to diminish the importance of Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, said he believed Putin, who adamantly denied his country’s involvement.

A reporter asked the Russian leader if he had a preference in the U.S. presidential election. Without hesitation, Putin said he wanted Republican Trump to win over Democrat Clinton.

Trump doubled down on his rejection of the findings by the intelligence agencies of Russian interference by saying the United States was equally to blame as Russia for the strained relations between the two nuclear powers.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress plus veteran intelligence and foreign-policy experts blasted Trump for his statements. As a result, he sought to clarify them by saying he did believe the conclusions of the intelligence agencies.

Even so, he has shown less interest in trying to go after Putin and his henchmen for their campaign to undermine American democracy than he has trying to undermine the credibility of the Mueller investigation.

In the past 22 months, we have avoided being swept up in the Washington press corps’ breathless daily reporting on the investigation and the speculation about Trump’s impeachment.

To us, the national security implications of Russia’s interference in the presidential election were just as serious as the possibility that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to secure the win.

Now, with Mueller’s no-collusion conclusion, the issue of obstruction of justice deserves to be pursued.

But more urgently, Congress must find out how the Russians were able to so easily manipulate this nation’s electoral system.

There can be no doubt that the Russians want Trump to win re-election in 2020 and already are setting the stage for their involvement in next year’s election.