Many had hoped that when Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his report into whether or not President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with the Russian government, it would settle an issue that has loomed over the entirety of Trump’s time in office. Over the weekend, Attorney General William Barr penned a letter to members of Congress informing them that Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to indict the president, but said he would not release the report to the public at the time.
Rather than putting the debate to rest, national security expert Juliette Kayyem believes Barr’s decision has made things worse.
“People don’t have facts right now. So, the speculation is out of control. Was Mueller shut down by Barr? Did Mueller try and actually interview Trump, and was stopped? And all of this stuff,” Kayyem told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday. “So, you just then have to believe, once again, that the report is worse than the rumors.”
Upon release, Trump touted Barr’s letter as proof that he is innocent of the charges of conspiracy, but Kayyem says that Mueller was only given a narrow mandate to investigate the president, and without access to the report, the question of whether Trump is compromised by indirect aid or influence from the Russian government still exists.
“I do think that the report, at least to the extent that it does not exonerate Trump, will have questions about the fitness of the president as well as whether he’s compromised,” Kayyem said. “What Mueller appears to have stated is that there were two different boats. One was Putin, Russia, and all the people surrounding Putin, and there’s the Trump campaign. [And] they [were] heading in the same direction. They [were] heading towards the Trump victory.”
In not releasing the report, Kayyem also feels the president has squandered any political good will that could have come from Mueller’s conclusions. Rather, the conversation has been dominated about suspicions of why Barr will not release the report, and not Mueller inferring that no new charges should be brought against Trump.
“I still believe, and maybe shame on me, that a majority of the memo will be released, but the good faith that I gave Barr ... is running out really, really fast,” Kayyem said. “They’ve lost the good news narrative that you think they would have taken to the bank. The only storyline now is releasing the report, it’s not the exoneration.”
