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"The most generous reading of Robert Mueller's report, the one pushed by President Donald Trump's own defenders, is, in fact, profoundly damning. . . .
"The story the report tells is that a foreign government illegally interfered in America's presidential election on Trump's behalf, and rather than treat that incursion as an attack on America's political institutions, Trump treated it transactionally, as a gift to him personally.
"And so, rather than defend America from Russia's attacks, he defended himself from the investigations into Russia's attacks. Rather than see Russia's hacks as a threat to the legitimacy of America's elections, he saw the investigations as a threat to the legitimacy of his own election. So rather than defend the rule of law, Trump subverted it. . . .
"The first half of the Mueller report concludes that 'the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,' that it did so on Trump's behalf, and that the Trump campaign 'expected it would benefit' from Russia's intervention. The report also shows that the Trump organization was in negotiations to build a Trump hotel in Moscow through 2016, and that people in Trump's orbit appeared to have advance warning of the emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. . . .
"What the report does not establish is explicit coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. There is no smoking gun where a Trump confidant asks Russian operatives to hack Clinton's emails -- well, aside from the time Trump asked Putin to do so in public -- or advises them on when to release them.
"Trump received help from the Russians, welcomed that help, and arguably rewarded Russia for that help, but Mueller does not present evidence that Trump or any of his associates helped Russia help him.
"The second half of the Mueller report is about obstruction of justice. Here, the report establishes a pattern of behavior on the part of Trump himself. Trump fires people, threatens to fire people, tries to fire people, and repeatedly lies to the public and to his own staff in an effort to derail the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.
"Much of this has leaked out before, but seeing Trump's actions recorded cooly, clearly, and chronologically gives the story unexpected force.
"There is the night, for instance, when Trump calls White House counsel Don McGahn and demands he order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Robert Mueller. 'McGahn did not carry out the direction,' Mueller writes . . . . Trump then demands McGahn write a statement in which he says that Trump never ordered him to fire Mueller. McGahn refuses to lie to cover up the president's request.
"There is the ongoing effort to force Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself, and the eventual request that then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus fire Sessions so he could be replaced by someone who would do more to protect Trump from the investigation. Priebus never carries out the order. . . .
"All in all, there are 10 separate episodes that Mueller examines as possible obstruction of justice. In the report, he makes the decision to leave the final judgment on this to Congress, rather than making a prosecutoreal call himselfi
"It is clear from the text, though, that Mueller believes the charges are serious. 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,' he writes. 'Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.'"
[Klein then suggests possible explanations of Trump's behavior and then writes this:]
"The most generous characterization of this is that Trump was so blinded by his own pride and political incentives that he understood an attack on the country's political system as an alliance with his campaign, and so rather than turning on Russia with fury, he turned, with fury, on those who would reveal Russia's role.
"This is the thinking of a man who has never understood that the presidency is bigger than he is, that the role he now occupies requires a larger frame of reference than himself. The myopia this causes him comes up again and again. Notably, there is a section in the report where Trump is heard lamenting that he doesn't have a more corrupt attorney general. 'You're telling me that Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations?' he asked. 'Or Obama didn't tell Eric Holder who to investigate?' To Trump, the attorney general's role is to protect the president, not to serve the law.
"The most generous read of the Mueller report's findings does not clear Trump of wrongdoing. Instead, it argues that Trump betrayed the laws he swore to uphold because he thought doing so would protect his reputation, and that it was only the insubordination of his staff that restrained him from yet more egregious acts of criminality.
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Klein's argument, generally, seems to reduce it all to Trump's narcissism and his self-interests -- not that there are any ties to Russia or any blackmail holds on him by Russia. I'm not yet convinced, although I do think Klein's analysis helps to clarify how it all could be explained by Trump's state of mind.
One thing is sure. Team Trump was premature in calling this a victory for Trump. I just saw a headline of David Brooks' column: "It's not the collusion; it's the corruption." That is inescapable . . . and will become more obvious as time goes on.
Ralph
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