Mueller's report will reveal Trump's 'private threats' as part of the obstruction of justice case: WaPo

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, set to be released on Thursday, will reveal detailed accounts of President Donald Trump's conduct as a part of the consideration of a charge of obstruction of justice, according to a new report from the Washington Post. This conduct includes "tweets, private threats and other episodes at the center of Mueller’s inquiry," the Post found.

The Post reporters said that the redactions in the report will be "light," despite fears that Attorney General Bill Barr would conceal much of the report. The obstruction of justice portion of the report will be particularly light on redactions, the Post said; this is not too surprising, though, because this portion of the report would be unlikely to rely heavily on grand jury information or classified material.

Reporter Carol Leonnig said that the most significant redactions will relate to people who are the subject of ongoing investigations. Roger Stone is likely one such individual.

The Post found that "Mueller decided he could not come to a conclusion on the question of obstruction because it was difficult to determine Trump’s intent and some of his actions could be interpreted innocently."

This helps explain why Mueller didn't come to a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.

However, the article fails to note that Trump refused to sit for an interview with Mueller — a key step that would have been helpful to assess his intent. Mueller also declined to subpoena Trump's testimony, though he reportedly considered this step. As I noted previously, the lack of Trump's testimony is bound to be a glaring omission in Mueller's report, and one that we should find unacceptable. Any other employee of the executive branch would be expected to sit for an interview about a key national intelligence investigation they were involved in or be forced to resign; the president shouldn't be any different.