For the past two years, the media has been insisting that Donald Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election and has ever since been obstructing justice. During the election, I thought that it was possible that there was collusion, either by Trump directly or those associated with him, and that he should be investigated, so that we would at least know the truth. If evidence is revealed that he did in fact knowingly collude with Russia, then he should be impeached. If there was no collusion, then there was no collusion and we should move on.
Well, the investigation has finally ended after two years, and it recommends zero indictments for both, collusion and obstructing justice. According to Attorney General William Barr’s summary, “The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” Let me say that again. There is no evidence of collusion. Not only does the Mueller report not provide evidence of collusion, but two other investigations have also taken place, the House and the Senate Intelligence Committees, and none out of the three found evidence of collusion.
The report goes on to describe how Russia did try to meddle with the U.S. election, which we have seen evidence of over the years. No one who is paying attention to what is happening around the world, can honestly argue that Russia isn’t a threat and I am not making that claim here. According to Barr, “The Special Counsel’s investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election.” Barr goes on to repeat his claim that “the Special Counsel did not find that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated with the IRA in its efforts.” Criminal charges however, have been brought “against a number of Russian nationals and entities in connection with these activities.”
Barr goes on to describe that Russia did try, and successfully “hack into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party”, and did send that information to a variety of sources, including WikiLeaks.
Any reasonable person would accept the findings and move on, regardless of whether you support the President or not. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case for half of the country. Nearly half of the country is so blinded by their Trump Derangement Syndrome that they are outraged that the President didn’t collude with Russia. Rachael Maddow even cried on air when it was announced that there was no evidence of collusion. This is insanity.
Now we are hearing constantly that the full report needs to be released immediately and that they must be hiding something because the report hasn’t been released. Everyone in the mainstream media is demanding that the report be released. Go to any of the left wing media sites, and you will see thousands of comments from readers demanding that the full report be released. Go on to Twitter and you will see “Release the report. Release the report. Release the report. Release the report. Release the report” like we didn’t understand the first 3 times that you wrote it. Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gilibrand, and Kamala Harris among others have tweeted about the Mueller report, demanding that the full report be released. The very day that it was announced that the report has concluded, the left started insisting that Trump must have something to hide or else the report would be released by now.
There’s just one problem that no one on the left has the courage to say to you, and that’s that it is illegal for the full report to be released. In 1998, a four year investigation of Bill Clinton came to a close. The investigation looked into a wide range of scandals, which included alleged abuses in the firings of White House travel agents, whether or not FBI files were misused, and the sexual harassment claims from a former Arkansas government employee, Paula Jones, dating back to when Bill Clinton was governor. During the investigation, taped phone conversations were discovered in which Monica Lewinsky discussed having oral sex with then President Bill Clinton, and as the saying goes “the rest is history”.
In September of 1998, after the 4 year investigation, a 445 page report, was sent to congress detailing the findings of the investigation. In 1999, the rules were changed to prevent future reports from being released to the public. The rule now states that after an investigation concludes, “he or she (referring to the Special Counsel) shall provide the Attorney General with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the special counsel.” (Section 600.8, Paragraph C, Federal Register Volume 64, Number 131) It goes on to say that “The principle source of the problems with the final report requirement as set forth in the Independent Counsel Act is the fact that the report typically has been made public unlike the closing documentation of other criminal investigations.”
The reason that the rules were changed was because the final report requirement provided “an incentive to over investigate in order to avoid potential public criticism for not having turned over every stone and creates potential harm to individual privacy interests.” (Section 600.8, Paragraph C, Federal Register Volume 64, Number 131).
If anyone cared to read the 4 page summary, which I have in my hands while I write this, Barr addressed that he can not legally release the full report and the reasoning and sites rule “64 Fed. Reg. 37,038, 37,040-41 (July 9, 1999).” What can be released, however, is a redacted report, which will allow you to see information that doesn’t violate federal law. Barr now needs to go through the report and black out any information that is not allowed to be released. That report is expected around the middle of April. At this time we have no idea how long the report is or what is able to be made public. It is likely to be very limited because “the report contains material that is or could be subject to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), which imposes restrictions on the use and disclosure of information relating to “matter(s) occurring before a grand jury.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)(2)(B). Rule 6(e) generally limits disclosure of certain grand jury information in a criminal investigation and prosecution.” Once that 6(e) material is identified, the redacted report can be released.
So to sum up the summary, the full report can not legally be released due to the rule change in 1999. It can not be released no matter how many cries of collusion we hear from the media, how many mean words that the President says or how much you despise Donald Trump. No matter how many times or how many people tweet “Release the report. Release the report. Release the report”, the full report can not be released.
Like I said at the beginning, if the report did in fact discover that the President did collude with Russia, he should be impeached. But let me remind you one more time in case you forgot. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION. It’s time those in the media humble themselves before you and start telling you the truth. If they have an ounce of integrity left, they would apologize to you for wasting your time over the past two years.