The Mueller report: if not collusion, then obstruction?

When Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel, ‘[t]he President slumped back in his chair and said, “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.”’ This is just one of the beautifully telling vignettes from the Mueller report, published today. Another is Donald Trump saying to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, that the campaign for the presidency was a great ‘infomercial’ for the Trump Organization’s hotels and real estate.

In these pages, Trump is the man we always supposed him to be – crude, crass, a candidate and a president who ignores the rules out of a mixture of bombast and ignorance. The emphasis in this report is – as expected – different from the spin put on it by the attorney general, William Barr. But Mueller does not say that the president was part of a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Skimming the 400 pages of what are two separate reports, the impression is that the real trouble for Trump may lie in what Mueller says about obstruction of justice.