Donald Trump's problems will not end with the Mueller report

If Trump does not respond, Mueller could at least partially raise a cloud that haunts the White House every day of his presidency, although many spin-off cases mean that legal coverage by the president is far from over. to be finished.

It will be a difficult political period because so many Americans have invested so much emotion in the end result, that it is about liberals who dream that Trump is being ousted from power or supporters who buy his claims of a huge "hoax".

Yet key players in Washington and many Americans beyond, fascinated by the barely credible drama that led to the final report, at least initially, could be left behind.

The end of Mueller's game is obscured because no one really knows what he will report and information that Barr will choose – or feel compelled – to share with Congress and the public on a scandal that has polarized the country.

Uncertainty is almost certain to trigger a new fight between Congress, the White House and the Department of Justice, which could give rise to litigation and is likely to reach the Supreme Court.

Mueller's depot could also announce the withdrawal of the solitary prosecutor – probably after not having spoken to the American people from the beginning to the end of his investigation.

This old-fashioned reluctance, as well as a brilliant career in law enforcement, is one of the reasons why Mueller's findings will have such weight – that his report ultimately criticizes the president or leave it clear.

What does Mueller know – and what will he say?

The special advocate led one of Washington's most impenetrable investigations. He has, however, sown clues in a growing library of indictments and memos.

While he still has to openly accuse anyone on Trump's orbit of collusion with the Russians, Mueller presented 10 criminal cases, saw four people sentenced to prison, obtained a trial sentence, extorted seven guilty pleas and charged 37 persons and entities. .

In highly detailed indictments, Mueller recounted the story of Kremlin troll farms, social media campaigns, phishing operations and hacking.

He discovered a pattern of compulsive lying on the part of people close to Trump, often about contacts with Russians, who raised the key question: what are all those associated with the presidency trying to hide? ?

In one of the most enticing and enticing loops, Mueller recently revealed to a campaign leader that a senior campaign official had asked Trump's political advisor, Roger Stone, to talk about future publications of Wikileaks that could damage Hillary Clinton.

What kind of report will Mueller file?

According to the regulations of the Department of Justice, Mueller is required to file a confidential report with Barr. The form this might take is unclear.

One of the models would be for the special advocate to take a traditional, piecemeal approach to prosecution to explain the cases he has brought and the decisions he has made not to prosecute others related to the prosecution. case.

Barr and Mueller will likely seek to avoid the political fury fueled by former FBI director James Comey, when he announced that he would not accuse Clinton after an investigation into his server courier, but that he had still criticized his conduct.

According to the regulations governing his appointment, Mueller is only required to submit to the Attorney General a confidential report stating why he has decided to prosecute certain persons and has refused to prosecute others.

Nevertheless, a reduced approach might seem profoundly inadequate given the enormous political ramifications of the Mueller inquiry, which after all, at least indirectly, is central to the conduct of the incumbent President.

Given his background, it is likely that Mueller would follow the opinion of the Department of Justice that a sitting president can not be charged in a criminal case, even though he has evidence that Trump was transgressed.

Thus, he could choose to include information on Trump's conduct in his report which he said should be sent to Congress – the only constitutional authority to try wrongdoing on the part of the president.

But as much of Mueller's work is a mystery, no one outside of his tight operation can say for sure what he could do.

Barr's dilemma

Once Mueller has filed his case, the focus is on Barr, who will immediately be under pressure from congressional Democrats to allow the public maximum access to the special council's findings.

"The Attorney General, if I understand the rules, would report to Congress about the conclusion of the investigation," Barr said at the Senate trial confirmation hearing held last month.

"I think there can be discretion on what the Attorney General can put in this report," he said.

His comments provoked the Democrats' concern and raised the possibility that, at least initially, the evidence and reasoning that led to Mueller's final conclusions could be kept secret.

"I think the American people deserve to know the truth." As Thomas Jefferson said, "If people know the truth, they will not make mistakes," said Senator Tom Carper, D-Delaware, to CNN. Wednesday. .

In his report, Barr could be constrained by the need to respect the grand jury's confidentiality rules, the desire to protect classified documents, sources and methods as well as the reputation of those interviewed by prosecutors and not charged.

Trump's lawyers have already indicated that they could request that certain portions of the report not be disclosed through assertions of the privilege of the executive. These comments raised fears that the Administration may endeavor to use legitimate legal considerations to conceal information that may be detrimental to the President.

Democrats, especially Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, are gearing up to act if there is such a stalemate.

Barr also knows that the public will want to publish details of an investigation that overshadowed Washington's policy and the result of the 2016 election for two years, which cost millions of dollars.

House Democrats have a power of summons that they can use to force the publication of Mueller's full report or to obtain evidence and testimony uncovered by the special advocate and not published in Congress.

All this could pave the way for a massive legal battle and a new conflict between the executive and legislative branches of the US government.

"Barr is not going to have the last word here," said Susan Hennessey, a former National Security Agency lawyer, now a CNN legal analyst.

"If he's trying to retain even a word from the Congress Mueller report, he'll be arguing this issue until the end, at the end of the world," Hennessey told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in "The Situation Room ".

"They are really going to really push the issues of executive privilege, which will almost certainly end in the US Supreme Court," she said.

That the beginning

Even if Mueller is finishing up, that does not mean the end of Trump's legal show – nowhere near.

At some point, Democratic leaders might face a choice, if Mueller and Barr say Trump had committed wrongdoing, if impeachment proceedings had to be instituted with all the political consequences that nightmare would entail.

Mueller's team has assigned other prosecutors, including New York, various cases that he did not have under his direct jurisdiction.

The campaign, the transition and the president's administration are currently the subject of a series of civil and criminal court proceedings.

Many analysts believe that investigations by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, which takes a closer look at Trump's business empire, could ultimately pose the most damaging legal threat to the president. .

This means that the latest plans for the Mueller investigation may well be only the end of the beginning of the legal and political nightmare that the president will endure.