Quora Question: Did Barr's Summary Of Mueller's Report Exonerate President Trump

Updated July 2

As a level-headed Trump supporter –not an unconditional fanatic-- do you believe the 4-page summary of the Mueller Report put together by AG Barr is adequate to exonerate the President from any wrongdoing?

So full disclosure. I am not a Trump supporter but I am a Republican.

I would encourage you to read the report. It's a fascinating nuanced document.

At the onset, Mueller knew that he was tasked with delivering evidence of indictment. He also knew that he could not indict the President. He literally stated that he did not reach a conclusion deliberately because it could not result in indictment.

Barr said that Mueller exonerated Trump. That really wasn’t true. Barr decided that Trump was not guilty of a crime because his interpretation of the 2000 Justice department memo on amenability to indict or prosecute a sitting president meant that since you can’t indict, he must be innocent. This conflates the issues.

Mueller has a different view. His view was that there is no legal remedy to satisfy this. The answer is Congress in the form of impeachment. He very carefully said that he saw stuff but didn’t pursue it because it wasn’t the DOJ's job. It’s Congress’s. He carefully avoided any judgement.

So was the document sufficient? No because the underlying document did not address the issue. We all wish it had, but Mr Mueller felt it wasn’t his job.

I wish Mr Barr had been more forthcoming on that.

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