Since 2017, U.S. attorney Robert Mueller III has been conducting a special investigation into Russia’s possible interference with the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump.

On March 24, 2019, a decision in this seemingly endless case was reached. It was decided that due to a lack of evidence in support of the conspiracy, there was no way to conclusively establish that there was a connection between Trump and Russian involvement in the 2016 election. However, this does not officially clear Trump’s name from the matter. Although many may believe Trump has been exonerated of his alleged wrongdoings, this may not be the case.

Currently, all the information available to the public regarding the decision reached by Mueller is being made available by Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr, whom Mueller submitted the report to when he concluded his investigation. The actual report is yet to be released to the public, and likely never will be considering the 4 “redflag” types of material that would need to be redacted from the report for a public release to even be possible: grand jury material, classified information, material tied to ongoing investigation, and information that could harm “peripheral third parties.” However, Barr has stated that he is combing closely through Special Counsel Mueller’s report taking out this potentially harmful material, in hopes of releasing the full, edited report to Congress by the end of the month of April.

What does this mean for Trump? Well, it means that the long hardship of having a team of America’s best lawyers look for dirt on you to possibly have you impeached is over…somewhat. What the Attorney General’s comments have made clear so far, is that there is not enough evidence to confirm any collusion from Russia in the 2016 election. Barr also makes it clear that although there is no evidence of any crime being committed, President Trump is not exonerated. Although no crime can be reported for, the door to persecute Trump and his team for obstruction of justice has been left open.

This leads to the question: If there was no crime committed and that is the full findings of the report, how would Trump and his team have been obstructing justice (misleading investigators around evidence)? This is where the two partisan interpretations of the report vary. Most democrats feel that any obstructions of justice could possibly prevent any actual findings being made clear to Mueller and his team. In contrast, the republican viewpoint is that if the conclusion reached is that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election, what would Trump and his team have been hiding or protecting? This is clearly up for interpretation and like many things in politics, the classified inner workings of the government prevent full transparency, and the real truth from being seen.