The Mueller Report is the official report documenting the findings and conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, particularly involving President Donald Trump's alleged involvements with Russia. There are many news reports on the Mueller Report'. Therefore, amongst such a cacophony of opinions, what are the real key points? We have summarized what are the most important elements here.
1、The conclusions and content of the Mueller Report must be treated separately. The report concluded that the investigation could not confirm that the members of the Trump Campaign had colluded or cooperated with the Russian government in intervening in the election. One should note that while the keywords like "collusion" and "cooperation" cannot be confirmed, it does not indicate there is no relationship between the Trump Campaign with Russia. Indeed, from the content of the report, the report presents huge and complex relationships between the Trump Campaign with Russia.
2、The investigation found that the Russian government intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in a "sweeping and systematic fashion", "numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign" are identified, such links and contacts "consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the Campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and Putin to meet in person, invitations for Campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet" and others. The report pointed out that the Russians were determined that Trump's election will be beneficial to them, hence they made efforts to achieve this goal. The Trump Campaign also believed that the information revealed by Russia will benefit Trump's election. Russia has in fact demonstrated amazing and mature operational capabilities in the use of core information, with clear objectives and coordination that produced significant results.
3、The report confirms that China has nothing to do with the U.S. election. There are only four references to China in the report, one of which is about Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort. After Trump's victory, Manafort showed that he was not interested in government work, preferring to stay on the "outside" and using his relationship with Trump and the aides in the campaign to seek commercial interests. According to the report, Manafort seems to have followed his plan. He travelled to the Middle East, Cuba, South Korea, Japan and China and was paid to explain what a Trump presidency would entail. Another part that mentions China is Trump's remarks in December 2016. He responded to media reports on Russia's intervention in the election, saying that the intelligence agencies have not found out who is behind the hacking yet. Trump was also quoted to suggest that the intelligence community had "no idea if it's Russia or China or somebody". In fact, the report confirms China's innocence.
4、Mueller investigated ten actions that Trump might have been involved in intervening in the judiciary, but could not draw legal conclusions on this. Mueller noted that, "this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him". The report said that Trump had tried to dismiss Mueller and tried several times to influence his investigation, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions withstood the pressures.
5、Trump himself appeared to be somewhat agitated, but was basically well prepared as well. While the Mueller team sought a voluntary interview with President Trump, yet after more than a year of discussion, Trump refused to accept the in-person interview. Trump provided a written response to Russian-related questions, but refused to answer questions about intervening in the judiciary and questions on the transition period from being elected to assuming the presidency.
6、Mueller's investigation has led to 35 people being charged. Among them, the most important person is Roger Stone, who was involved in a large number of U.S.-Russian relation issues, including with Russian intelligence agencies, hacking incidents, conspiracy and interference in justice. It is rather curious that Mueller's investigation did not reveal more about Roger Stone, a long-time consultant of Trump. Most importantly, Mueller could not prove that all of the suspects involved in Trump's alleged or acquitted crimes were related to Russiagate.
Final analysis conclusion:
The investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller lasted 22 months and was completed last month. It was made public on April 18. The report has a total length of 448 pages, and only about 6% of the content was deemed to be unsuitable to be revealed to the public, and is blacked out. The Democrats' hope to take advantage of the report will be doomed to fail, because even if the 6% of content is revealed, they may be disappointed. From the perspective of political strategy, the Democrats have actually fallen into chaos and misjudgments exist between them. The dominant power now belongs to the Republicans.
