Why the Mueller report will not end Trump's predicament

[nitpicker]

https://www.dw.com/en/why-the-mueller-report-will-not-end-trumps-predicament/a-47733919

Why the Mueller report will not end Trump's predicament

The much-anticipated report by special counsel Robert Mueller about Russia's meddling in the 2016 US elections is reportedly close to finished. That doesn't mean it will become public or it will answer all questions.

Let's start with a caveat. While various credible US media outlets have been reporting recently that the Mueller report is nearly finished, it is important to point out that speculation about its imminent release has been rife for months, but, as this article bears witness, the world is still waiting for that day to come. Still, the general consensus in Washington now appears to be that this time around, it really is almost finished and will be delivered to the Justice Department in March. And the hope is that the report will finally answer the key question about whether or not the Trump campaign and then-candidate Donald Trump played any role in Russian election interference.
(snip)

What is also unknown is how detailed Mueller's report will be. He may choose to file an extensive report or he may opt for a more bare bones option. Based on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's recent remarks that Justice Department policy is to focus their attention only on people they will actually indict instead of going public with information that does not merit an indictment – a belated slap in the face for James Cohen who decided to publicize information about a probe into Hillary Clinton's email practices even though no indictment was sought – Mueller's report could be largely focused on chargeable offenses.

Depending on what these are, that may disappoint those hoping for a broad and sweeping, politically-tinged expose of Russian election interference and possible connections to the Trump campaign. Such a facts-only approach would also be in line with the conduct of the Mueller probe so far, which was limited to Russian election meddling. It is also important to point out that even if Mueller concludes that Trump could be indicted for a criminal offense, he will not, due to the Justice Department's view that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

That does not mean, however, that Trump would be off the hook. That's because if Mueller concludes that Trump should be charged with a crime, but cannot because of his presidential duties, that would certainly be grounds for Congress to start an impeachment process which is political, not a legal undertaking.

And there is another reason why it would be premature for Trump, even if he is not incriminated by the Mueller report, to conclude that this means he is now fully exonerated. That's because Mueller has handed off parts of the investigation to other jurisdictions like the one in New York and because there are numerous other political and legal probes of Trump's conduct as president and businessman pending.
(snip)

[FBaggins]

1. Why are so many assuming the Mueller will effectively clear him?

Why do we seem to be shifting to a backup strategy at this point? It makes it look like we agree he didn’t find anything.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. This.

[lagomorph777]

3. And Trump may finally provide the perfect reason to dump the idiotic "no indictment" policy.

Pretty hard to justify not indicting for espionage.