(ThyBlackMan.com) Depending on the day of the week, or the time of day, the president has variously called the Muller Report: “total exoneration”, “total bullshit” and “the most thorough investigation in history.” Certainly enough to be confusing – and maybe that’s the aim. But the report itself is a straight-forward read recounting what happened in the 2016 presidential election.
What it says: In the Introduction to Volume I Mueller says, “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” This is the lens through which to view and understand the findings throughout the two volumes. He further says that the Russians began targeting the upcoming U.S. election “as early as 2014.”
By the end of 2016, “the IRA (the Russian backed Internet Research Agency) had the ability to reach millions of U.S. persons through their social media accounts.” The Russians use of social media platforms is more pernicious than their many documented contacts with the 
Trump campaign. “Facebook estimated that the IRA reached as many as 126 million persons through its facebook accounts” and “many U.S. political figures retweeted IRA created content.” In particular, Russians targeted African Americans in their disinformation campaign with Facebook groups like “Don’t Shoot Us” that had “over two hundred thousand followers.”
In one of its most damning findings, the report said, “the investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. person who coordinated or communicated with the IRA knew that he or she was speaking with Russian nationals engaged in the criminal conspiracy.” In other words, they were duped, played. Looking at the definition of collusion – to act together secretly – there was plenty of that, but the Russians were always one step ahead of the Americans who eagerly sought and accepted their help.
Volume II looked at possible obstruction of justice by the president and said matter-of-factly, “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, however, we were unable to reach that judgement.” This is at odds with Attorney General Barr’s account that Mueller could not reach a conclusion about obstruction and, thus, left it to him to decide.
Further, as related to obstruction, Volume II found that “many of the President’s acts directed at witnesses… took place in plain view.” And the report noted, “That circumstance is unusual, but no principle of law excludes public acts from the reach of obstruction laws.” Again contradicting the Attorney General’s assertion that acts in plain view are indicative of innocence. The most telling part of the obstruction volume recounts a dozen “episodes” (counts) of potential obstruction and makes clear that the decision not to charge the president was, in large part, because of the Office of Legal Counsel opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Barr’s depiction otherwise was, at best, misleading.
What it means: Looking at the findings in Mueller’s report several things become clear.
- Contacts with the Trump campaign were the least part of the Russian interference effort.
- Social media companies need tougher regulation and to be held accountable for content.
- Some “norms” – like presidential candidates release of tax returns – need to become law.
- The Special Counsel statute results in the Executive investigating itself and needs to be changed.
The outsized role of social media in Russia’s attack on our democracy is perhaps the most troubling finding; because it continues. Other reporting brought out how the Russians main goal was to foment discord and using social media to exacerbate racial differences, for instance, was one of their most successful gambits. Senator Kamala Harris accurately said that what here-to-fore has been looked at as civil rights issues now needs to also be looked at as a national security issue. And we have to be on guard for attempts to further divide our country by propagating false narratives and conspiracy theories online regarding 2020 presidential candidates, of either Party, and their proposals.
As the 2020 presidential election approaches we have to remain focused on the most important issue: removing Donald Trump from office. In his latest Washington Post column Fareed Zakaria put it succinctly, “The real challenge the Democrats face goes beyond Trump. It is Trumpism…” with its toxic mix of populism, nationalism and racism. Fareed’s solution is to “combat it ideologically and defeat it electorally.”
Second that.
Staff Writer; Harry Sewell