“Mueller’s testimony yesterday highlighted the connection between obstruction and collusion. When he discussed his decision not to indict a conspiracy, he did not characterize it as one made because there was no evidence. It was because he did not have sufficient evidence – in other words, enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. There was plenty of evidence of connection between the campaign and Russia, ranging from shared internal polling data to Trump’s request that Russia find Hillary Clinton’s emails to the appearance of the top tier of Trump’s campaign team at a meeting explicitly requested so the Russian government could provide election help to “Mr. Trump.” Mueller had plenty of smoke, but he lacked a smoking gun.”

Kevin Whalen @kevinwhalen