Instant reaction to the Mueller report and "collusion" (Hint: Barr is full of shit)

OK, I put up a very quick post between Barr's performance this morning, and the release of the redacted Mueller report. I'll have more to say this weekend, obviously, but basically, William Barr is completely full of shit. For now, I'll follow up on my brief comment from earlier this morning. Barr just repeated Trump's mantra, "no collusion." He simply did it without the all-caps and exclamation marks. My question in this morning's earlier post-- how often would the term, "collusion," appear in the report itself?

So, here's page 2:

In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of "collusion." [Mueller's quote marks, not mine.] In so doing, the Office recognized that the word "collude[e]" was used in communications with the Acting Attorney General confirming certain aspects of the investigation's scope and that the term has frequently been invoked in public reporting about the investigation. But collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. For those reasons, the Office's focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability was on conspiracy as defined in federal law. In connection with that analysis, we addressed the factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign "coordinat[ed]"-- a term that appears in the appointment order-- with Russian election interference activities. Like collusion, "coordination" does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law.* We understood coordination to require an agreement-- tacit or express-- between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to each other's actions and interests. We applied the term coordination in that sense when stating in the report that the investigation did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

*So, as I have written in a couple of posts, coordination does have a legal definition in campaign finance law, but that's not really what Mueller was investigating. He was investigating criminal conspiracy. My point, though, is that Mueller was trying to shut down use of the word, "collusion" because he was operating within the framework of conspiracy law. What does Barr do? He goes on stage like a carnival barker and shouts, "NO COLLUSION!!!"

Page 2. Right there.

More this weekend.