Trump after the Mueller report: How to continue now

A Saturday in June 2017. Don McGahn, Chief White House Justice, sits at home when the phone rings. At the other end is his boss - Donald Trump.

The reports from Camp David, the US presidency, and has a concern, or better said: a marching order: McGahn should immediately cause the annoying Russia special investigator Robert Mueller fired.

"Mueller," Trump demands, "has to go".

But McGahn refuses the order, which he finds "crazy shit" because he reminded him of the notorious "Saturday night massacre" with which Richard Nixon had dumped his political opponents in the 1973 Watergate scandal. Instead, McGahn, outraged and horrified, writes his resignation request.

After two days Trump has already rejected the matter. Months later, when the incident becomes known, he even forces McGahn to deny him. McGahn locks himself again - it takes half a year before he finally throws.

The episode is one of dozens in Mueller's account that illustrates how Trump put massive pressure on his own people to defy the Russian affair.

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Report on the Russian AffairWhat Robert Mueller really found out about Donald Trump

The report - which was published on Thursday with blackouts - does not result in a specific impeachment Trump for judicial disability, but expressly does not free him from this charge. "This report does not conclude that the president has committed a crime," writes Mueller, "but he does not relieve him".

Mueller's ambiguous conclusion therefore has two momentous consequences:

• First , this never ending story is far from over, it only moves from the legal to the political arena.
• Second , for the time being, Trump will continue to work hard on the brink of legality, as Mueller documents on the 448 pages of his report.

Trump declared himself again completely relieved: "The game is over!", He tweeted triumphantly to the address of the "haters" and the "left-wing Democrats".

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But the Democrats in Congress want to pick up the thread now and continue to determine. The Mueller report serves them as a "road map" announced the deputy and presidential candidate Eric Swalwell in the evening on the TV channel CNN. The final verdict on Trump should then be a political one - and only fall with the 2020 election.

Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the US House of Representatives, has already "asked" Mueller to testify by May 23. A similar "invitation" came from the intelligence committee. The Senate also wants to see Mueller.

Such appearances, in which the press schueue Mueller would have to justify his legal tightrope, should be a spectacle in Washington, so the drama would be continued.

Nadler has already brought in the last remainder of the Mueller report - which has so far been publicized only in a partly blackened form - in court. The dispute could go to the Supreme Court and lead to a constitutional crisis.

Department of Justice / DPA

448 pages include the Mueller report - how much blackened, shows this overview

Mueller: "No person is above the law"

Mueller himself suggests parliamentary investigations. According to US division of powers, it is up to Congress to review a "corrupt exercise of power" by the president, he writes: "No person is above the law."

Whether these investigations lead to impeachment remains open. Democrats themselves are divided over the meaning of such a move, especially as there is unlikely to be a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Proponents hope that the mere public hearing of an impeachment could suffice to wound Trump before the election. Nancy Pelosi, the spokeswoman for the House of Representatives, says Trump is "not worth it".

How Trump replied in writing to Mueller's questions

Joe Raedle / AFP

Trump feels relieved by the Mueller report: To his critics he writes "Game Over"

The Mueller report is teeming with examples of how Trump attempted to manipulate events since 2016, behind the scenes and in public. He had put pressure on witnesses, threatened subordinates, tried to exploit the intelligence services for his own purposes and lied repeatedly - to reporters, advisers, ministers, and even to his supporters. For example, the meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016, during which representatives of Russia offered his team "dirt" about Hillary Clinton.

Above all, Trump escaped personal interrogation by Mueller. He replied to his questions only in writing, questions and answers are attached to the report now in the appendix. Trump ignored the questions about a disability, and again and again he dismissed the questions about Russia's contacts - with the consistent wording: "I can not remember."

Mueller finally renounces a charge Trump, also because this no fair trial can be guaranteed, as long as he is president. But the report is also meaningful enough.

Trump's own people resisted him

The only ones who would have resisted legal and rule breaks were Mueller, according to Trump's own adviser. It has been summed up, Mueller summed up, "multiple acts of the President" revealed that "inappropriate influence on the judicial investigations" represented. In the end, however, these remained "mostly unsuccessful" because people "around" Trumps had refused to execute his conspiratorial orders - from FBI chief James Comey to Justice Secretary Jeff Sessions to Don McGahn.

All have been released or resigned.