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There is a fairly common narrative going around that the Mueller Report changes nothing. Both "sides" feel just as they did before it came out. This is nonsense and essentially a pro-Trump narrative because it suggests there are two reasonable sides to this discussion.
Instead, what happened today is that the Mueller Report, even in its redacted version added many layers of fact and confirmation to what many have known to be true for some time: Russia sought to help Trump win. Trump sought Russian help.
There were many meetings between the Trump team and the Russians. The Russians responded to specific Trump requests for assistance--from hacking Clinton's computers to dumping found emails to assisting in battleground states.
The Trump team benefitted from this and publicly embraced it. Team Trump promised policy rewards to the Russians along the way--starting with changing the platform at the GOP convention to promises to revisit the Magnitsky sanctions to efforts to warm relations w/Russia.
The Trump team lied about these contacts repeatedly. First, they lied to the public. Then they lied to prosecutors, in Mueller's estimation materially harming the investigation. Trump denied the attacks took place & touted V. Putin's word over that of the US intel community.
When Trump got wind of investigations into wrong-doing by his team, he sought to quash it. On multiple occasions he sought to obstruct justice. He did so in a fashion that Mueller believed could warrant action by the US Congress or possibly legal action after Trump left office.
Trump, contrary to his lawyer's statements and those of his AG, sought to slow the investigation and was serially uncooperative with Mueller and his team. We also know his administration has continued to reward Russia and resist efforts to stop future election attacks.
None of this behavior is acceptable in a president or any public official. Trump's team lied, cheated, obstructed, and betrayed the country. While Trump supporters argue "no collusion" and "no obstruction" that is just not the case.
In fact, Mueller pointed to much evidence of obstruction by Trump & explicitly said he could not be exonerated & suggested the matter should be taken up by the Congress. As for collusion, Mueller said he was operating under guidelines that made indictment impossible in any case.
He further noted many examples of cooperation between Trump and the Russians and multiple examples of Trump's knowing acceptance of Russian help. While no new crimes were cited he made it clear he was dealing with very narrow definitions of the law, e.g. campaign finance law.
But no objective observer can read the Mueller Report and conclude that the behavior of Donald Trump and his team was anything less than wrong, egregiously wrong, a betrayal of the nation, placing narrow personal desires before those of the country.
While Trump supporters may say the Mueller Report ends the argument they are simply denying the truth--either through ignorance or denial based on self-interest or partisan reasons. Quite the contrary, it proves Trump is unfit for the office he holds.
It cries out for further action by the other on-going investigations cited in its footnotes. It makes a compelling case for further action by the Congress. And let us not forget, the investigation has also resulted in the criminal prosecution of Trump's National Security Advisor,
his Campaign Chairman, his Deputy Campaign Chairman, his personal attorney, and an array of others associated with the campaign and the Russian intelligence community. There are not two stories here. There are not two reasonable reactions to this.
For all the noise of social media and insta-punditry, history will accept only one story, that born out by facts. It is a story advanced and substantiated by the great work of Mueller and his team.
And it is a story that will rightly and for all time reveal Donald Trump to be the most corrupt, most disloyal, most treacherously traitorous, most dishonest, most unethical, and most vile president in American history.
