Robert Mueller could deliver his long-awaited report into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as early next week, although the full findings may never be released to the public.
Citing “people familiar with the plans” CNN reports that the former FBI director-turned special counsel is planning to report to Attorney General Bill Barr “within days”.
Should Barr announce the investigation's conclusion, “it would mark the end of a near two-year process, regularly branded a 'witch hunt' by the president, that has seen raids on the offices and homes of a number of his closest confidantes - including ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, lawyer Michael Cohen and adviser Roger Stone - and those men charged with a variety of federal offences,” says The Independent’s Clark Mindock.
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“The tea leaves around Mueller in recent weeks seem especially hard to read - and they’re conflicting at best,” says Wired, which has set out seven scenarios for how the Mueller probe might “wrap up”.
Reports that he could be within days of concluding his investigation “have been met with a torrent of scepticism from Mueller watchers on social media, and even fears of interference from Trump appointees at the Justice Department, such as Attorney General Bill Barr”, says Vox.
Under the special counsel regulations, Mueller must submit a “confidential” report to the attorney general at the conclusion of his work, “but the rules don't require it to be shared with Congress, or by extension, the public”, says CNN’s Stephen Collinson.
A recent New York Times article documenting Trump’s two-year-long campaign to obstruct and muddy the investigation has exacerbated fears Barr may have moved to shut down the probe prematurely.
A conservative activist and commentator, Matt Schlapp, further stoked concerns of a cover-up when he tweeted that now that Barr had been confirmed as attorney general, Mueller “will be gone soon”, “a striking statement from someone whose wife works in the White House and one that runs counter to Barr’s own words during his contentious confirmation process”, says Politico.
As to what the report may contain, an adviser to President Trump reportedly told the Washington Post that those in his inner circle have expressed concerns that the report could include politically damaging information, but no evidence of criminal conduct.
Jonathan Chait in New York magazine suggests Mueller could uncover “a plausible theory of mind-boggling collusion” that reveals every intimate detail of a years-long plot to co-opt Donald Trump as a Russian intelligence asset as far back as 1987.
“Or are we heading to what the president’s lawyers have argued all along - that, as awful as all the unrelated criminality of Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen was, none of it amounted to 'collusion,' and this entire enterprise has been a worthless Witch Hunt by 13 Angry Democrats?” asks Wired.
