Mueller Report next week?

Justice Department preparing for Mueller report as early as next week

Washington (CNN)Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, with plans for Barr to submit to Congress soon after a summary of Mueller's confidential report, according to people familiar with the plans.

The preparations are the clearest indication yet that Mueller is nearly done with his almost two-year investigation. The precise timing of the announcement is subject to change.

Meanwhile more and more and more "experts" are suggesting that the actual Mueller report will be less of a bombshell and more of a political dud. Even Trump-hater James Clapper suggested as much recently. Make no mistake, many of these people (like Clapper) likely have sources pretty close to the operation. While they may not be given any confidential specifics, there is little doubt that they are being provided with "hints" as to the the more general feel of the investigations.

The fact that Mueller never subpoenaed the President (or at least not successfully) suggests that he would have a difficult time making any recommendations regarding "obstruction".  There is also little doubt that if Mueller found that the President was truly in bed with Putin and defrauded the Government by conspiring to alter the results of the investigation, that this would have been reported instantly.

Obviously, that's not the sort of information that Special Counsel is going to sit on. If there was a true, obvious, impeachable offense committed it would have been Mueller's obligation to let Congress know as soon as he found out. Why allow a President doomed to be impeached for treason remain in office for months or even years? There would be no legal (or ethical) reason for him to withhold this from Congress or the public for any amount of time.

Lastly, as pointed out in this CNN article, it's going to be difficult for the Mueller Report to provide political "dirt" on the President.

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. And, as Barr has made clear, the Justice Department generally guards against publicizing "derogatory" information about uncharged individuals.

So unless Trump is being "charged" with something, then according to DOJ rules, procedures, and regulations, they are not allowed to simply report "derogatory" information. I get that Politicians are seen slightly differently, but people have to keep in mind that Mueller is a criminal investigator investigating a counterintelligence situation. To the degree that law enforcement is not allowed to defame people they are not charging in criminal probes, they are required to be even more guarded in counterintelligence investigations (largely because of the broader ability to garner warrants to search and surveille someone).

So if the results of the probe are guarded and factual and involve very little political fodder, I strongly suspect that Democrats will attempt to blame Barr and ram full steam ahead with another investigation into the matter. Obviously Congressional investigations are all about political fodder.

The question will be how the Mueller report ultimately resonates with the public. If the public (or  enough of the public) is satisfied with the report, then that will largely overshadow the fact that Democrats in the House want to start a new investigation (the fifth one on the same subject).