Here's why the Mueller report could be good news for Trump
Nearly two years after Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Mueller's report was handed off to Attorney General William Barr. Since the investigation started, there have been indictments of 34 individuals and three companies. That includes 25 Russians, as well as the president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen, the president's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and former campaign chair Paul Manafort.
President Trump has repeatedly criticized the investigation, calling it a "witch hunt" at rallies and on Twitter. Now that the investigation is over, Democrats are calling for the report to be released to the public quickly.
However, CBS News' Major Garrett reports the president's attorneys have an "expectation" that the final report will be good for the president.
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"They feel in the end this will not have new indictments. The report is done. The special counsel's office is essentially shuttered and they believe not only legally, but importantly politically, the president will be found to be largely, if not completely in the clear," Garrett said.
One reason why the final report could be good news for Mr. Trump is because the special counsel didn't press for a face-to-face interview. Instead, Mr. Trump submitted a series of written answers to the special counsel. In addition, White House lawyers provided more than 20,000 documents and several advisers were interviewed.
It's still unclear how long the report is. But Garrett said the role of Mueller is now over. It will be up to Congress to decide whether more needs to be done.
"The question now becomes can Congress get any farther? If there is somewhere to go? That Mueller was not able, is going to have more powers than Robert Mueller had? Probably not," Garrett said.
