Closing the Russiagate
With the end of Mueller’s inquiry, our long, national hallucination is finally over. But the damage done by neocons and liberal conspiracy theorists is just beginning.
Ann Mueller and Special Counsel Robert Mueller walk on March 24, 2019 in Washington, D.C. Tasos Katopodis / Getty
So ends one of the more incoherent political scandals in modern memory.
After two long, breathless years of investigation, accusations, leaks, scoops, walk-backs, and wild conspiracies, the main findings of Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump-Russia conspiracy were finally released on Sunday. As most anyone reading this now knows, its conclusions are devastating, though not for the reasons many of Mueller’s fans had hoped.
The excerpt of the report included in attorney general William Barr’s summary reads thus: “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” Placed just after a list of statistics outlining the massive scope of the investigation — thousands of subpoenas, many hundreds of search warrants and witnesses interviewed, and the like — the message seems clear: there is nothing here.
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