Eli Lake, Columnist

How Not to Obstruct Justice

Trump gave Mueller a steady stream of ammunition. Imagine if the president had just fired his FBI director immediately and kept his mouth shut.

April 18, 2019 at 10:44 PM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Robert Mueller’s conclusions are finally (mostly) public.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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There are many ways to understand special counsel Robert Mueller's long-anticipated report.

It confirms, for anyone left doubting, that Russia did indeed meddle in the 2016 election. It did not find evidence showing that President Donald Trump and his associates engaged in any criminal conspiracy with Russia in their meddling. And it suggests reasonable legal minds can differ on whether the president could be indicted over obstructing that investigation.