MacIver News Service | May 29, 2019

By M.D. Kittle

MADISON, Wis. — For those seeking clarity after two years and a taxpayer bill of more than $25 million, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s apparent final word Wednesday on his Russian collusion investigation was as clear as mud. 

Rest assured, however, there will be mud — much more mud. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and the “Ready, Fire, Aim” Impeach Trump crowd will make sure of that. 

“I was hoping (Mueller) would provide some clarity and closure, which he did not,” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told MacIver News Service on Wednesday afternoon. 

In his only public remarks on the probe, Mueller said he did not have the “option” to charge the president, which is constitutionally true. More so, the special counsel drove home the broader point that there “was not sufficient evidence to charge a conspiracy.” In other words, nothing to convincingly show that members of the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election. 

On the question of whether the president engaged in obstruction of justice, Fox News asserted Mueller “did not mince words.” Except, he kind of did. At the very least, Mueller beat the hell out of his words. 

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Mueller said. “We did not determine whether the president did commit a crime.”

Huh? 

“What is foundational about our system of justice is you are innocent until proven guilty,” Johnson said. “This (process) has been completely backwards and unfortunately it hasn’t resulted in any closure.”

Sen. Johnson talks Mueller madness, why he’s quickly becoming the Johnny Cash of the U.S. Senate, and whether CNN’s Jim Acosta will ever find love again on this edition of MacIver Newsmakers.