General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Here's why I suspect Barr deliberately shut Mueller down before he was finished: [View all]Azathoth
(4,607 posts)I'm sure he made it clear to Mueller that he wasn't going to approve breaking new ground, but I also think Mueller & Co. always knew that December 2018 would become their de facto deadline.
This whole thing has been so jarring because it looked very much like Mueller was building larger cases. I mean, why offer Manafort anything at all if he's the big fish. But in hindsight, appearances might have been deceiving. Many of the cooperation agreements might have been struck to further counterintelligence investgations rather than criminal cases. Many of the witnesses may have given much more limited testimony than we assumed (I'm particularly thinking of Weiselberg here).
I personally think Mueller consciously punted on both the collusion and the obstruction. I don't think he had any stomach to go to war with a Republican administration, and so he focused on Manafort and whatever Russians he could nab, along with any easy process crimes along the way. I think his plan always was to dump anything he learned re the administration in Congress' lap.