How Barr poisoned the Mueller rollout

There's no return now

President Trump and William Barr.
(Image credit: Illustrated | JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images, AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz, robbin0919/iStock)

After the extraordinary series of leaks over the past few days, it's obvious Attorney General William Barr intentionally or unintentionally poisoned the rollout of Robert Mueller's comprehensive report on the Trump campaign's ties to Russia during the 2016 election.

It's hard to imagine the report will do anything but back up Barr's assertion that Mueller exonerated President Trump on the narrow but absolutely crucial matter of whether his campaign actively colluded with Russia to prevail against Hillary Clinton. But on other vitally important issues — Did the president or anyone else in the campaign or administration obstruct justice? Did members of the campaign attempt to collude with Russia while failing in their aims? Was the campaign inadvertently manipulated by Russian operatives seeking to interfere with the election? — we know nothing definitive yet.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.