Last Thursday, the US Department of Justice finally published a redacted version of the report of Special Counsel Mueller about the lack of collusion between Trump and Russia. The book immediately became a best-seller. Logically, those 448 pages should end the two-year campaign against the US president in the press, which was aimed at overthrowing him through impeachment. The US intelligence services also participated in the campaign, which means that they worked against the legitimate president. Trump has already called it an attempt at a coup in the United States and promised to make sure that none of the future American leaders will face anything similar. Trump's intent means a counter-investigation against the participants of the collapsed investigation against him.
It's clear that not everyone in the American press agreed with Mueller's conclusions. It's understandable because the conclusion in this case threatens to destroy many of the reputations that have been considered indisputable until now. Therefore, the anger of the irreconcilable is only increasing and brings its irrational results. In any case, Trump's approval rating miraculously went down. If even before the end of the investigation, in March, Trump's activities were approved by 43% (Reuters/ Ipsos data). Now, the figure has gone down, and only 37% of the US adult population supports Trump's work. Moreover, 47% were in favor of Trump's resignation. And as many as 50% believe that President Trump or someone from his headquarters did cooperate with Russia to influence the results of the 2016 elections. Only one in three Americans don't agree with it — 34%. That is, as in that joke: the spoons were found but the bitterness remained. In the American press, there are masters of preserving bitterness.
Here's our staff correspondent Alexander Khristenko reporting from the US.
Special Counsel Mueller hides from the cameras even after the report was published. He drove into his office's underground parking garage at speed in an inconspicuous gray Subaru. He hid his face as much as possible: he put on a baseball cap and dark glasses. During two years of work, they interviewed 500 witnesses and spent $30 million. And it was in vain. His report, published at 11 a.m. in Washington, was read until nighttime; it consists of 448 pages. Classified data was blacked out — sometimes a few lines, sometimes a whole page. But the conclusion is pretty clear. The story about Trump's conspiracy with Russia, which arose right after Hillary Clinton's failure, is nothing but a myth.
William Barr, US Attorney General: “The investigation didn't find that the participants in President Trump's election campaign conspired with the Russian government.”
Attorney General Barr repeated that conclusion, unbearable for Trump's opponents, several times. He stated that the president isn't guilty of anything, for which he was immediately attacked. Picketers put his cardboard figure at the Department of Justice with the sign "I lied to the American people for Trump." Humorous TV-shows also joined them.
"Look, Barr spoke like the president. There was no collusion".
For two and a half years, the Democrats, the leading American media, and former intelligence directors from the Obama era, directly called Trump a traitor and an agent of the Kremlin. The Russian embassy in Washington even prepared its own report — 120 pages. It contains references to the materials from US newspapers and news channels on how anti-Russian hysteria unfolded. There are plenty of examples.
"Our new president will do everything that Russia orders him to do. We should impeach him. I believe that there was collusion".
"Trump's done, there's no doubt".
"He should be in prison".
“"ur president is a traitor".
Everything turned out to be fake.
"You, I, and all Americans are the victims of the biggest fraud in US history. Every second, every hour, and every day, the Democrats and the media, which hates Trump, repeated the same lie. Russia. Russia. Collusion. Collusion. They slandered, dished dirt on him, slung mud at the newly elected president".
The political reality of America of the 21st century was consonant with the fictional plot of the series Game of Thrones of the late Middle Ages.
Donald Trump: "Today I have such a day where there's no collusion or obstruction of justice".
But, of course, there were no apologies from the slanderers. Recovering after a misfire with Mueller's report, the same Democrats, the media loyal to them, and the former heads of the intelligence agencies went on the attack, coming up with completely bizarre theories.
James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence: "Since it wasn't proven that there was an active conspiracy, I think we're dealing with a passive conspiracy".
Of course, the report states that Russia interfered. It's impossible to imagine that Robert Mueller said anything different about Russia in his report because he was investigating possible collusion between Trump and the Kremlin concerning the interference in the elections. And if they officially admit that there was no interference, then what was that all about? What was all of Washington doing for two and a half years?
At the same time, FBI agents didn't touch the Democratic Party's servers, allegedly hacked by Russian hackers, over those years. They unexpectedly decided to rely on the young, private firm CrowdStrike, hired by the Democrats themselves. The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which includes former NSA employees, to put it mildly, is surprised with such an approach.
Ray McGovern, former CIA officer: "The FBI Director, James Comey said: we don’t need to carry out investigative actions with those computers; we're relying on a high-class company. They'll provide us with everything. You know, there's no excuse for that. There must be some reason for that. After all, at that time John McCain and others said: this is an act of war against us by Russia. And the FBI didn’t even take a look at those computers. There's something going on here".
Realizing that with the story of the collusion wasn't a success, the Democrats quickly switched to another story. They claimed that Trump allegedly tried to disband Mueller's team and thereby obstructed justice. Legends of the dream factory, such as Robert De Niro, are helping to strengthen the accusatory bias.
Robert De Niro, actor: "We have a gangster in the White House. I would handcuff him and put an orange prison uniform on him. This guy is a total loser".
The next elections will show who passed and who failed the test for political survival. Other comparisons occur to the inhabitants of the White House, who are tired of the accusations.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the US president: "To my mind, this is like going through the procedure of a political "proctologist". The attorney general and his deputy said that there wasn't any obstruction of justice. So, they checked out the president, and everything is okay".
However, Mueller seems to deliberately have done it in a way so that it doesn't pass painlessly. Here is a quote from his report that Trump was able to interfere with the investigation, "While the report doesn't contain a conclusion that the president committed a crime, it also doesn't exonerate him".
That is, Donald Trump is not charged but perhaps guilty. This conclusion is strange for an attorney. That's why they began to speak about impeachment again. However, in Congress, they are cautious. Impeachment requires serious accusations and hard evidence. It seems that they don't have either of them against Trump now. The presidential elections are coming, and the leaders of the Democrats understand that after making a mistake with collusion, they may fail with a stupid impeachment.
Alexander Khristenko, Nikolay Koskin for Vesti Nedeli from Washington, USA.
