More than 19 months of investigation by Mueller and his staff have not yielded even one indictment of a single American citizen on the grounds of trying to collude with the Russian government.
Sources in the US Justice Department told CNN Wednesday that Mueller is expected to file his report on the nearly two-year-long investigation with newly minted Attorney General Bill Barr as early as next week. However, we may never see the full report, depending on what Barr allows to be published.
"The attorney general, as I understand the rules, would report to Congress about the conclusion of the investigation," Barr said in his Senate confirmation hearing last month. "I believe there may be discretion there about what the attorney general can put in that report."
Mueller was appointed the Office of Special Counsel by US President Donald Trump in May 2017 to investigate alleged collusion between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russian actors, either connected to the Russian government or in the private sphere. He is also investigating alleged interference in the election by Russian actors whom US intelligence officials feared had attempted to sway the results of the election.
While Mueller's investigation has produced a number of indictments and even convictions, none of those convicted were found guilty of any kind of collusion with Russian actors. The Russian government has also consistently denied any such collusion or interference took place.
"I think that it's not going to be any surprises," former FBI special agent Coleen Rowley told Radio Sputnik's Loud and Clear Thursday. Rowley was named Time Magazine person of the year in 2002, along with two other whistleblowers. "Over the last two years, a lot of this has either leaked out, or the indictments themselves, the charges have furnished the information. So I would expect it to be pretty short and maybe just a sum-up."
"Unfortunately," Rowley told hosts Brian Becker and John Kiriakou, the media's Russiagate narrative "shows no signs of stopping at all," regardless of what Mueller's report says.
"I think the media will run with whatever Mueller comes up with, even if there is really nothing new in the report. I expect the media, in line with how it's been going, is going to make a big deal out of any little tidbit in there, even if there is some new little tidbit; otherwise they'll just rehash it again."
"Mueller doesn't necessarily have to find any collusion between Trump and Russia or Russian officials," Rowley noted, because the media has produced a wealth of reports claiming to have already uncovered that. "He can have a modicum of integrity there in not making any of those far-ranging conclusions, because the media's doing that job itself."
"I think the public, especially the Russiagate support people will complain no matter how much he makes public, and he will be wise to make as much of it public as possible," Rowley predicted. "It may be, if there is something really juicy in there, that he doesn't want to make public, he might not. However, there's going to be an outcry by not making it public."
"There's a former US assistant attorney by the name of Andrew McCarthy, who was a former prosecutor of terrorism in New York City. He's been around the block, and he knows all of these figures pretty well. He knows how the games are played. He's very right-wing and kind of aligned with the neocons and [he's] pro-war, so I really don't like the guy. I kind of even knew him a little bit in New York City when I worked there. So for a lot of reasons I'm not a big fan of Andrew McCarthy — however, I think he does have the interpretations/explanations of what went on with the Department of Justice, certain officials and the FBI and even CIA and NSA to some extent," Rowley said.
"Even before the election, when they decided to launch these counterintelligence investigations of Trump, and McCarthy says this wasn't merely of campaign officials, they were hoping that incidentally they would find Trump — and I think that's exactly right," the former FBI special agent told Sputnik. "Now that that hasn't happened, they have to then fall back and try to protect themselves, protect people like [former acting FBI Director Andrew] McCabe and others that are in a little bit of trouble. And I think that Mueller probably isn't willing to go so far as to really make up and conclude things that the evidence doesn't show."
She cautioned that the report, as well as the Russiagate narrative in general, "has a lot of really dangerous aspects for our foreign policy."
"We are ramping up — Cold War, new arms race. The American population has almost been put into a mindset of war, or preparing for war, with not only Russia but China, too, and others."