Thread by @HeathMayo

Rereading the full Report this evening to unpack the sheer volume and weight of what’s in it.

Listen carefully to what Mueller says here about the difference between failing to establish something and there being no evidence. Also the distinction btw “collusion” & “conspiracy”

Of all the damning info in the Report about “contacts” between Russian agents and the Trump campaign, these are some of the most breathtaking. This stuff is not normal, folks. We shouldn’t accept this, even if it isn’t formally illegal or can’t be established in court.

Connecting between the dots a bit, Trump’s reaction to the appointment of Mueller after just firing Comey doesn’t exactly suggest Trump was completely ignorant of all the other contacts that had occurred, even if hard evidence of that wasn’t uncovered...

And, even still, the three core things Mueller *was* able to “establish” is deeply concerning and still very damning for the Trump White House.

And that’s just in Volume I...

Oh yes, and before we can move on, Mueller lets us know that due to gaps in evidence, Trump officials’ lies, and their tendency to delete evidence *during* the investigatory period, we can’t be certain that this is the full story...

And to all the conspiracy theorists out there who peddled the idea that Mueller was “going rogue” as part of a “deep state conspiracy” — here’s the meticulously detailed description of Mueller’s mandate, authority and scope that he confirmed multiple times. Hang it up.

And, surprise: Mueller’s team was not some cabal of Democratic operatives. cc: @marklevinshow & @replouiegohmert.

Also: Did you or someone you know come face-to-face with a Russian Twitter bot hellbent on influencing your vote in the 2016 election? Call 1-800-DAMNUPUTIN.

This bit helps explain the seemingly inexplicable race-to-the-bottom that we’ve seen on political Twitter recently. America actually *is* better than this because, well, sometimes it’s the Russians instead.

No wonder @charliekirk11 and @DonaldJTrumpJr have so many followers...

Mueller also settled this one for us, even though there shouldn’t have been a debate: Assange is no hero — he’s an enemy of the US that helped the Russians deploy thousands of illegally hacked emails to influence our elections. There were no “leaks” to it.

Papadopoulos was shady. He was one of several points-of-contact btw Russia & the campaign. Notice that those interviewed from Trumpworld “could not recall” whether Pap shared the info that Russia had dirt on Clinton. Seems hard to believe he just took those mtgs for his health...

Mueller has the receipts. @DonaldJTrumpJr was ready and willing to meet with a foreign agent to get dirt on Clinton that he knew was coming from the Russian government. And then no one could remember anything about it. Remember: “could not establish” =\= “no evidence”

Another doozy is Appendix C of Vol. 1 where Mueller explains that Trump’s written responses were “inadequate” b/c he stated that he “could not recall” more than 30 times in just 9 pages of response. The 5 things he could recall were all media reports about him.

See for yourself.

Based on this reading of Volume 1, Barr’s letter was woefully insufficient for this portion. Just saying that the Report “did not establish” coordination was grossly misleading given that Mueller carefully defined what that meant on p.2 of the Report & had 200 pages of bad facts.