UKH

On a day of restpite from Brexit decisions / talk what a monumental day for Donald Trump - cleared of conspiring with the Russians and of obstructing justice - perhaps it was all a witch hunt and fake news afterall.

Looks like he will not suffer impeachment then and will serve his first full term - perhaps TM should have listened to him when he offered Brexit advice (couldn't help myself, sorry)

So, what next for the bold Donald then, is he still making America great, and how is wall building project going? And when is he coming over here again?

In reply to subtle:

Should patent him and make frying pans from him. It's incredible, absolutely nothing seems to stick!

In reply to subtle:

As I understand it he hasn't been cleared of obstructing justice - Mueller didn't come to a conclusion on that. And that's a pretty serious charge. So let's not continue to propagate false facts.

In reply to summo:

That would be great for the health of the nation as it would put most people off fried food for life.

In reply to subtle:

Even the, almost certainly biased, summary document produced by Barr did not say this. It actually says it does not exonerate him. And as for the obstruction charges he is jointly implicated with Cohen

In reply to john arran:

A trump face looking up at you from the base of the pan. 

I guess he doesn't use one, as he has excellent health.  

In reply to Tyler:

Yes, not exonerated at all. More like a Scottish 'Not proven' verdict. And apparently there are various state-level prosecutions and congressional inquiries to follow. The main focus of these will apparently be on a range of alleged corruption cases. 

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

In his summary, Attorney General Barr writes, "The special counsel did not find that any US person or Trump campaign official conspired or knowingly co-ordinated with Russia."

But on the issue of whether justice was obstructed, Mr Mueller's report says: "While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

So, not exonerated but equally the report does not conclude he committed a crime.

False facts?

In reply to subtle:

It wasn't specifically Mueller's job to conclude that Trump committed crimes. The prosecutions so far are incidental to the main focus of his inquiry, which was on counterintelligence. He has referred some issues to other authorities to investigate and if necessary prosecute. 

This article clarifies things:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/17/why-there-may-be-much-le...

"Mueller was hired in the first instance, however, to superintend an ongoing FBI counterintelligence investigation. Although detection of crimes is often part of such an investigation, its principal function is not retrospective and punitive but forward-looking and preventive —"

In reply to summo:

This is another property of Trump that comes as no surprise to South Africans, like me, who have had the displeasure of observing Jacob Zuma. Or Zimbo's like my wife, who lived through Mugabe and is now watching the Crocodile (Mnagagwa, I think) with morbid fascination. To us, it was always clear from the very beginning that Trump would walk away unblemished.

They always do.

In reply to subtle:  I am interested in the exact definition of collusion - as a aresult of the Mueller enquiry some interesting links have been discovered between parts of Trumps team and the Russians, but no evidence of concerted planning?

I guess he'll be pretty happy today , but in the longer term the exposure of corruption, lying and generaly amorality will become a burden.  But for today, he's the winner.

He does still have some upcoming court cases at state and federal level that have plenty of potential to embaress

In reply to subtle:

He wasn't cleared of obstruction of justice. We don't know what was said, he sent the evidence to Barr to decide if there was a crime. He was not exonerated. I do find it funny the interpretation of the report by the man he appointed is what all this is based on..

He publicly floated pardons and threatened witnesses via twitter. I just cannot see how that was not obstruction of justice.

Wall. Nothing built. Not even started to be built. There have been some prototypes built that they could cut through in minutes. Response times to parts of the wall is hours to days.. it's going to be a giant waste of time. 

With a large number of his inner circle now facing jail time or in jail it does make you question the man. 

His big issue right now is his trade war destroying the US farms, which have just been hit with another disaster in the floods. He's decided not to broaden his base so its about holding that. He's lost Coulter and he's now losing support in the farmers.

In reply to subtle:

The lack of any further indictments might just be a brief reprieve, mueller had a quite specific brief, information may get passed onto further investigations that will build on some quite damning but not conclusive threads;

In reply to summo:

Just imagine, on pancake day, you could be tossing on his face.

In reply to wbo:

Probably counteractive to pursue the collusion charge unless new evidence appears; it would have been very daft of him to do it in the first place. I dislike him and his policies, but people do tend to classify him as a total moron and instantly criticize absolutely everything he does. If some criticisms are proved unjustified it devalues the others and supports his "fake news" excuses.