Thursday’s release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 381-page report vindicates a prediction made for nearly two years by conservative radio host and attorney Mark Levin: that Mueller’s report would attempt to provide a basis for Congress to impeach President Donald Trump even if it found no collusion and no obstruction of justice.
Attorney General William Barr noted that Mueller had found no evidence of collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government in the 2016 elections. He also said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had considered “ten episodes” listed by Muller as potential cases of obstruction of justice, and concluded that the facts did not support charges being brought — that, in fact, Trump had cooperated fully with the investigation.
Still, Democrats — and journalists — latched onto statements by Mueller in the report that seemed to invite Congress to investigate the president for obstruction of justice even if his conduct did not meet the legal standard for prosecution.
This portion of the #MuellerReport stands out: The Special Counsel & Co. appear to invite/encourage Congress to pick up where they left off and investigate the allegations of obstruction of justice. (Vol. 2, Page 171.) pic.twitter.com/IFYXVmObny
— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) April 18, 2019
I don’t know how you can read this report and not conclude that an impeachment inquiry is warranted.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) April 18, 2019
The report provides a conundrum for Congress by virtually inviting an impeachment probe around the obstruction issue.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) April 18, 2019
Levin predicted this result almost from the moment Mueller was appointed, and has been warning ever since that Mueller’s report would provide a pretext for impeachment even if he could not prove Trump did anything wrong.
In June 2017, Levin said on the Mark Levin Show: “Mr. Mueller may be investigating individuals and so forth, but his purpose for being unleashed against the president of the United States is to make the case for impeachment, not indictment. This is very, very important to understand.”
In 2018, Levin warned that Mueller was preparing an “impeachment report,” warning he had “turned his ‘collusion’ investigation into a potential ‘constitutional crisis’.”
While Republicans interpreted the Mueller report as a vindication of the president, and called for a new investigation into how the false allegations against the president began, Democrats and the media are reacting to the report in the precise manner Levin had predicted.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) — who would be responsible for drawing up articles of impeachment — said Thursday that impeachment was a “possibility.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.