What if we already have the Mueller report?

Mueller may never answer any of the questions listed above directly. He may decide that, for example, Trump’s potential business holdings in Russia are not relevant to his investigation or are outside the scope of his mandate. Or Mueller may believe that he doesn’t have the power to indict a sitting president; that could limit how much future indictments from Mueller (or even a final report) say, especially on whether the president committed perjury or obstructed justice.

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But even if Trump is never charged with a crime as part of the Russia investigation, the president could still be harmed by it. Mueller could file criminal charges against more of the president’s allies (like Roger Stone, who appears to be a focus of the investigation), and those filings could include politically damaging details. Cohen’s guilty pleas illustrate how dangerous a Stone indictment or guilty plea might be for the president. Through the Cohen cases, prosecutors revealed that Trump had pursued business in Russia while a presidential candidate and was involved in paying off women with whom he had affairs, which violated campaign finance law because the hush money amounted to an illegal campaign contribution.

So stay tuned. We don’t know how much longer Mueller’s investigation will last or how many more indictments or other public documents he will file.

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