Thread by @JuddLegum

1. One thing that most coverage of the Barr letter lacks is PERSPECTIVE

Yes, people who were saying that the Mueller investigation would end with Trump being frog-marched out of the White House were wrong.

But I don't think this was a widely held view

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2. The idea that the Barr letter proves the Mueller investigation was a waste of time doesn't make sense to me

Consider:

After the election Trump's official position was Russia didn't interfere and that no member of the campaign had contact with Russia

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3. Mueller definitively established Russia did interfere with the election to help Trump and that there were numerous contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign

These contacts were not innocuous. The Trump Tower meeting. Manafort passing polling data

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4. Mueller, according to the Barr letter, determined none of the contacts met the standard of criminal conduct.

I accept that conclusion as a matter of criminal law.

But I don't think it follows that the entire enterprise was worthless.

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5. Then look at obstruction. Mueller said explicitly the report does "not exonerate" Trump. He found compelling evidence that Trump obstructed justice.

The most logical explanation is that Mueller thought the questions was best left to Congress

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6. Barr attempted to short circuit that and exonerate Trump himself. But Congress deserves a chance to look at the evidence and make a determination. The public should also know what the president did.

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7. This doesn't even touch on the host of other crimes that Mueller helped uncover, including two felony campaign finance violations by the president. (Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator.)

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8. So regardless of how things play out from here, I think the Mueller investigation was worth it.

It's not the only important story in the world and at times it got more coverage than it deserved relative to other issues.

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9. But we know a lot more about Trump, his campaign and the Russian interference campaign as a result. And that's important.

We'll know more if/when they released the report.

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