20 Time July 8, 2019
victories and attempts to influence Rus-
sia’s response to sanctions imposed
by the U.S. government for election
inter ference. While none of these acts
amounted to the crime of conspiracy, all
could be described as “collusion.”
MYTH: Mueller found no obstruction.
RESPONSE: Mueller found at least
four acts by Trump in which all ele-
ments of the obstruction statute were
satisfied—attempting to fire Mueller,
directing White House counsel Don
McGahn to lie and create a false docu-
ment about efforts to fire Mueller, at-
tempting to limit the investigation to
future elections and attempting to pre-
vent Manafort from cooperating with
the government. “As Mueller stated,
“while this report does not conclude that
the President committed a crime, it also
does not exonerate him.” Following the
Department of Justice policy that a sit-
ting President cannot be charged with a
crime, Mueller did not attempt to reach
a legal conclusion about the facts. In-
stead he undertook to “preserve the evi-
dence when memories were fresh and
documentary materials were available,”
When We TesTified before The house Judiciary
Committee in June regarding lessons from former special coun-
sel Robert Mueller’s investigation, it became apparent from
the questioning that misconceptions about Mueller’s findings
still exist. The narrative was shaped by Attorney General Wil-
liam Barr, who issued his description of Mueller’s conclusions
more than three weeks before the public saw the full 448-page
report. In a letter to Barr, Mueller complained that Barr’s sum-
mary “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance”
of his team’s work and created “public confusion.” Mueller will
testify before Congress on July 17. In the meantime, here is our
effort to dispel some of the most persistent myths.
MYTH: Mueller found “no collusion.”
RESPONSE: Mueller spent almost 200 pages describing
“numerous links between the Russian government and the
Trump Campaign.” He found that “a Russian entity car-
ried out a social media campaign that favored presidential
candidate Donald J. Trump.” He also found that “a Rus-
sian intelligence service conducted computer- intrusion op-
erations” against the Hillary Clinton
campaign and released stolen docu-
ments. He wrote that the “investigation
established that the Russian govern-
ment perceived it would benefit from a
Trump presidency and worked to secure
that outcome, and that the Campaign
expected it would benefit electorally
from information stolen and released
through Russian efforts.”
To find conspiracy, a prosecutor
must establish beyond a reasonable
doubt the elements of the crime: an
agreement between at least two people
to commit a criminal offense and an
overt act in furtherance of that agree-
ment. Mueller found that Trump cam-
paign members Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared
Kushner met with Russian nationals at Trump Tower in
June 2016 for the purpose of receiving disparaging informa-
tion about Clinton as part of “Russia and its government’s
support for Mr. Trump,” according to an email arranging the
meeting. This meeting did not amount to a criminal offense,
in part, because Mueller was unable to establish “willfulness,”
that is, that the participants knew their conduct was illegal.
Mueller was also unable to conclude that the information was
a “thing of value” exceeding $25,000, the amount that makes
a campaign- finance violation a felony.
Mueller found other contacts with Russia, such as the shar-
ing of polling data about states where Trump later won upset
The myths about the
Mueller report that
just won’t die
By Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance
TheView Essay
△
The investigation
ended on
March 22 when
Mueller submitted
his report
674
Days it took special
counsel Robert
Mueller to complete
his investigation
3
Days it took
Attorney General
William Barr to
issue his principal
conclusions about
the report
MANDEL NGAN—AFP/GETTY IMAGES
