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Once, Mueller's report appeared as a moment of national catharsis that could finally expose what happened during the bitter election of 2016 and put an end to the saga of Russian electoral interference .
But after 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, 500 witness hearings and in part because of Trump's aggressive campaign to discredit Mueller, it is clear that such hopes were misplaced.
The report will almost certainly leave everyone on both sides of the aisle unhappy and will only dig deeper divisions in a nation already divided above Trump.
The tragedy surrounding his conclusion is now most likely a monument to Washington's dysfunction, irreconcilable views of conflicting political factions on common facts, and another point of data for those who believe that the current White House is determined to resist the constraints on her. Power.
One of the main reasons the Attorney General, William Barr, will publish the Mueller report is without any grand jury evidence, classified documents and evidence of ongoing cases. His approach is almost certain to trigger a long legal battle with Democrats calling for a version of the report unfiltered by the administration.
Barr was already a controversial figure – after arguing in a memo to the Department of Justice that Trump, as president, could not obstruct justice before being named.
Trump can not wait for the report
One of the curiosities of the Mueller Inquiry is the way Trump often acted as if he had something to hide, although he furiously protested his innocence.
If his tweets are a guide, he remains caught between the nervous fright of what the report might conclude and his vehement belief that he is the victim of a "witch hunt".
"No collusion – no obstruction," tweeted Trump on Tuesday, not content to wait for the outcome of a report that Barr concluded, not leaving him in criminal danger .
But Trump is not the only one to experience a strange feeling of limbo before the story that could help the story set its presidency.
The White House's reaction in the days leading up to the release of the report underscored Barr's conclusions presented in a letter to Congress in the hope that the Americans will be ready to leave Russia with the 2020 elections.
"We consider that the case is closed, there was no collusion, there was no obstacle and I do not know how you can interpret that otherwise than by a total exemption, "said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders Sunday at Fox News.
In their own way, Trump's enemies in Washington also believe that the country might have deeper concerns than Russia, while continuing to argue that their constitutional duty requires them to hold their behavior to account.
The Democratic leaders, while stressing that they see in Barr a supporter who does not have the last word on the Russian saga, still downplayed the debates on dismissal, apparently in case the Mueller report would not be as prejudicial as many liberals had hoped.
Non-partisan legal analysts are also concerned. They fear that vast deletions in the report will deprive the Americans of the evidence they deserve but that they will trigger fierce legal battles.
"I think we should all be prepared to be very disappointed with what we will see," said CNN legal analyst Shan Wu on Tuesday. "The redactions are going to be so huge that they will swallow the whole report."
Trump may not be in the clear
The drama surrounding the report will not fail to recount how the president suspended political gravity.
Barr reported to Congress that Mueller had not concluded that Trump's team had plotted with Russia in his electoral interference efforts and that he had personally concluded that the evidence n & # 39; It was not sufficient to establish that the President had obstructed justice.
But it is entirely possible that the report still contains evidence of dubious and unethical – but not criminal – behavior on the part of the Trump team before the 2016 elections. Russian Observers will be eager to see what Mueller did at the meeting at Trump Tower in the summer of 2016, for example, between family members and the Trump campaign team and promising Russians "from the Dirt "on Hillary Clinton.
And since Barr wrote that Mueller had not made a final conclusion on the obstruction – but was stating "evidence on both sides of the issue" – it is likely that Trump might appear in a very dark light, pretending even having abused his behavior. the power and the spirit, if not the letter of the conventions, intended to ensure the independence of the Ministry of Justice.
For any normal politician, such a conclusion – even if there were no criminal danger – could be catastrophic.
But Trump and his allies have launched an effective propaganda campaign to discredit Mueller's findings, assuming that the only problem is the "collusion" offense, hard to prove.
And Trump's appeal to his political base is so solid that it seems impossible that any Mueller revelation could cause GOP senators to separate from the president in any Senate impeachment lawsuit.
Nevertheless, nothing less than Mueller's absolution would also deprive Trump of the opportunity to get rid of the Russian cloud that could still cause complications in his run for re-election in 2020 and that will certainly help the story to be defined his presidency. That's one of the reasons why Trump's lawyers are preparing their own rebuttal of the Mueller report.
The president came to his own defense on Tuesday.
Although it is clear that the Mueller report will not mean the end of the Russian plot – he has already been called to testify at Capitol Hill – the special council could still solve some mysteries.
His report, assuming that the need to keep sources of intelligence and secret intelligence methods does not prevent it, could contain the most detailed accounting ever done on the Russian electoral operation.
Mueller's report could also help solve the mystery of why he felt unable to determine if Trump was obstructing justice to thwart Russia's investigation.
Opponents of Trump argued that his dismissal of the then FBI director, James Comey, undermined the integrity of his Attorney General of the time, Jeff Sessions, l & # 39; The attack of the Mueller probe and the hanging of pardons constituted a visible obstacle.
It is not yet clear whether Mueller is in agreement – and if he chose to leave these issues of presidential behavior in Congress.
These questions, which are at the center of the Russian inquiry, are likely to fuel many investigations already underway in the Democratic Chamber that will continue to haunt Trump.
Republicans, for their part, are sure to present the report as a reason to launch new investigations into the previous Obama administration and the genesis of FBI investigations into the Trump campaign.
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