Trump foes not ready to give up on ‘collusion’ – Washington Examiner

President Trump is claiming exoneration after special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence he conspired with Russia. But Trump opponents aren’t ready to concede there was no “collusion” as they prepare to challenge the president in 2020.

Without seeing the full Mueller report, it’s impossible to know if Trump colluded, they argue.

“There could be no collusion at all, or a lot of collusion that falls one inch short of a crime,” said American University history professor Allan Lichtman, author of The Case for Impeachment.

Lichtman said it was “utterly outrageous” that Attorney General William Barr cited ”incomplete sentences” from Mueller’s report, totaling 84 words, in a public summary of findings. Justice Department officials say it will take weeks to release Mueller’s full report with redactions.

For now, questions about the accuracy of Barr’s summary have kept alive the suggestion that Trump may have colluded with Russia.

“Special Counsel Robert Mueller conducted a 22-month investigation and yet Attorney General Barr took only 48 hours to review it,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a member of the House Oversight Committee.

“The American people deserve the truth and the Barr summary is not equivalent to the Mueller report. Myself and my fellow oversight committee members are determined to see the report in its entirety before we take any further steps,” she said.

Ed Krassenstein, a popular but controversial anti-Trump social media influencer with nearly 1 million Twitter followers, said his curiosity isn’t satisfied.

“I think if Mueller’s report clearly shows that there was no collusion, people will take his word for it,” Krassenstein said. “If the report simply says there was not enough evidence to charge collusion or something along those lines, I expect some people and perhaps even Congress may want to investigate further.”

There are clear risks to Democrats in pressing forward with claims of collusion, with scholars saying the controversy falls short of the historic political devastation of Watergate, which forced President Nixon to resign in 1974.

In some respects, the Russia investigation may end up resembling the Whitewater real estate scandal that dogged former President Clinton and the first lady for most of two terms, though neither was charged with a crime.

During the Whitewater scandal, a special counsel investigation continued until 2002, after Clinton left office. Clinton had allegedly pressured an investor to involve himself in a real estate project overseen by a crooked developer, but the investigation morphed into a probe of Clinton’s relationship with a White House intern, resulting in his 1998 impeachment.

There was significant smoke in Whitewater, despite a lack of charges. At one point, the first couple said they didn’t have files requested by a Senate committee. Two years later, the documents were discovered with Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints on them.

“If you look at Whitewater, I think you could make the argument that because the Republicans didn’t drop it … there was a boomerang effect,” said University of Arkansas politics professor Andrew Dowdle. “It’s going to be interesting to see at what point the Democrats stop.”

Clinton’s approval ratings surged after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in January 1998, resulting in his December impeachment. Clinton saw his highest approval ratings in 1998, as defenders claimed unfair persecution.

“There are benefits to the opposition party to not exceed what the public thinks is an appropriate penalty on the president,” Dowdle said.

Lichtman, the American University professor, is famous for accurately predicting presidential election results, including Trump’s victory in 2016, and said he doesn’t have a call on 2020 yet. He added Mueller’s findings may delay his prediction that Trump will be impeached in 2019.

“Democrats who think Trump can be easily beaten are whistling past the graveyard. That is absolutely not true,” he said.