Trump claims Mueller's statement proves his innocence. It didn't.
President Trump wasted no time responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's statement on Wednesday regarding his investigation into 2016 Russian election interference and the Trump campaign's conduct surrounding the meddling. In the president's mind, Mueller's words sealed the deal — Trump is an innocent man, no question about it.
But, others pointed out that Mueller really didn't say anything of the sort.
Instead, Mueller said indicting Trump was "not an option" because of Justice Department guidelines that a president cannot be charged while in office and that if his team "had the confidence that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so." He even suggested that there is another method outside of the criminal justice — that is, impeachment — for formally accusing a sitting president of wrongdoing. So, while Mueller's actual opinion on whether Trump obstructed justice remains evasive, calling the matter a closed case appears premature.
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