A MAN HEARS WHAT HE WANTS TO HEAR AND DISREGARDS THE REST

Predictably, the Barr press conference and the heavily redacted version of the Mueller report that was released this morning have turned into a Rorschach test for pundits and politicians.  Republicans are insisting that anything short of an indictment of the president (which Department of Justice policy does not permit) equals total exoneration.  Just ignore the sleazy picture it paints of Trump, his family and his minions. 

People on my side, though, are having fun – despite their outrage – reconstructing all that sleaze.  The best single sentence from the Mueller Report that I’ve seen so far is a quote from a guy named Jody Hunt, who was then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff.  Hunt was taking notes when Sessions broke the news to Trump that he’d appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel.  The conversation apparently did not go well.

Trump, Hunt wrote, “slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God.  This is terrible.  This is the end of my presidency.  I’m fucked.’” 

Because that’s the kind of thing you say when you know you’re going to be totally exonerated.

This is good too:  "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." 

Trump tried his best – at least ten times, according to the Mueller Report – to interfere with the investigation, but he failed.  Suppose I tried to kill you – ten times – but failed because you kept ducking and dodging when I shot at you.  Would you conclude that the fact that you survived was enough to exonerate me?  Or might you say, “hey, what about attempted murder” when prosecutors told you they weren’t going to charge me with a crime?

I await deeper analysis from credible legal sources, but this is certainly NOT a “no collusion” or “exoneration” report.