US Democrats To Redouble Anti-Trump Efforts After Mueller Report - Ex-Senate Adviser

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2019) Democrats are likely to step up their efforts to discredit President Donald Trump following the failure of US Special Counsel Robert Mueller to document any collusion between him and Russia, former adviser to Senate Republican leaders Jim Jatras told Sputnik.

Mueller, a former FBI director, in a report released on Thursday said there was no evidence of any collusion between Russia and Trump or his campaign during the 2016 US presidential campaign. The report, however, did not exonerate Trump of obstruction charges and concluded that Russia did try to interfere in the US election on his behalf.

"The bottom line is two-fold. Domestically, the Democrats will use the Mueller report as a roadmap to try to make out an obstruction case, while continuing to seek his tax returns for anything that could support articles of impeachment," Jatras said on Thursday. "The Democratic House will redouble their efforts to find some way to remove him before next year."

Meanwhile, the mainstream media exemplified by CNN and MSNBC, Jatras predicted, would continue a three-front anti-Trump campaign.

"The battle cry is three-fold: first, even if Trump didn't wittingly collude, the report makes it clear the Russians favored him in 2016 and took steps to help defeat Hillary [Clinton]," he said. "Second, Mueller didn't exonerate Trump of obstruction; and third, the report is not an end but a starting point for Congress to do its job."

Also, both Republicans and Democrats would continue to try to falsely demonize Russia as trying to undermine the US political process, Jatras emphasized.

"For both Republicans and Democrats alike, the mark of Cain will remain permanently affixed to Russia's forehead as the 'adversary' that hacked our democracy," Jatras said.

Mueller nowhere acknowledged the ex-CIA and National Security Agency officials in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) who had proven Russia had nothing to do with the data leaks to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks from the Democratic National Committee in 2016, Jatras noted.

However, releasing the Mueller Report would marginally improve Trump's reelection prospects in 2020, Jatras acknowledged.

"These were already looking pretty good, given the animosity between Wall Street and 'Democratic Socialists' in the Democratic Party and the solid 35 to 40 percent of the folks who think from Trump's tweets and stump speeches he's actually delivering on his promises," he said.

However, Trump's brightening political prospects would also motivate the Democrats running the House of Representatives, to find some other way to drive him out of office before the November 2020 election, Jatras warned.

Russia has repeatedly refuted claims of interfering in the US political system, saying the allegations were made up to excuse the election loss of a presidential candidate as well as to deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.