Mueller did not exonerate Trump from obstruction of justice allegations. He referred the complex issues of law to Barr.
"The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction. Instead, for each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the Special Counsel views as "difficult issues" of law and fact concerning whether the President's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction. The Special Counsel states that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
Essentially Barr is its saying that to get a successful criminal conviction. Trump's attempt to obstruct justice would desirably have a nexus to an underlying crime, in this case a conspiracy to collude. Barr's opinions will be contested.
In essence, Mueller found Trump to be a clueless Russian patsy. That is, Trump did not set out to collude with Russia on the election but none the less Team Trump utilised the stuff the Russians gave him.
Barr's summary is a stinging criticism of Putin …… the man Trump foolishly trusts over the advice of his own intelligence agencies.
"The Special Counsel's investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election"
and
"
The second element involved the Russian government's efforts to conduct computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election. The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks. Based on these activities, the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into computers in the United States for purposes of influencing the election.
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Which way the US / Russia relationship now tips is anyone's guess.
At a US domestic level the fireworks are only beginning.
cheers
