So my takeaways after looking over some of the full report:
* The Russian government wanted Trump to be president and worked to make that happen by sowing discord, spreading misinformation, and hacking his rivals.
* The Trump campaign was pleased with this. They stayed in touch and knowingly shared information with Russian agents.
* The counsel was not able to establish if there was an agreement between the parties, but notes that “a statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts”.
“Exonerated” though they might claim, that is pretty damn ugly. If we’re being honest there is nothing for the administration to be pleased about in this report.
I think it’s worth noting here that earlier campaigns have been approached by those peddling election interference. Those campaigns rightly reported the issue to the FBI. Going along with election interference is not normal operating procedure.
Furthermore, when looking into the obstruction charges, the counsel states that “we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgement that the President committed crimes”. So Trump’s immunity was a foregone conclusion. It is unclear if that methodology applied to the coordination/conspiracy charges as well. We can only hope not.
This has been and continues to be a dark time in American democracy. Anyone rejoicing or relieved at what the report documents should be ashamed.