So for what its worth, and I haven't had time to do the big parse I really want to do, my take from actually reading the report is that it made it clear (though it didn't repeat it much) that the report about Papadapoulos is what triggered the "official" counter intelligence investigation (though, there are plenty of hints, some of which are being investigated, that it started in advance of that point). The "official" investigation is what ultimately became Mueller's investigation.
It means, notwithstanding Shiff's claims, there was absolutely nothing of much merit that was not known to the public that justified the investigation. I think the Papadapolous question did justify an investigation, but there's no reasonable way it justified the one we got. It certainly didn't justify a Special Counsel.
I'm most curious in when Meuller knew that there was no collusion. Keep in mind, we'll never get the real answer, even if he answers the question in committee hearings, it'll be a soft pedal about how it couldn't be rule out until the very end. But it would be very telling at what point 95% of time started focusing on obstruction issues.
I'm still 100% convinced that the appointment of Barr is what stopped the probe - and not in a bad or unethical manner. Mueller couldn't think of any way he could claim they were still investigating collusion to Barr, effectively the gig was up.
I'm still heavily confused by Rosenstein.
The biggest difference between the Mueller report and me has to do with Comey. Mueller gave him enhanced credibility, and I on the other hand see most of his actions as criminal. It all comes down to his bizarre practice of documenting all his interactions with Trump. He did it from the first time they met, which he had never done before (and it's not like he wasn't involved with other questionable people in the past, who gave him orders that he viewed as violating his duty). Mueller thinks he was acting honestly and treats these as the best records of what happened, including where they contradict real time statements by Trump about Trump's motive, even where those were public, repeated and entirely plausible, and, on the other hand, think Comey deliberately created those records to be damning and likely false record, because he was already planning to try and implicate Trump with something.
Comey's actions around leaking information (documented) and around his meeting with Trump on the dossier that could be interpreted as an attempt at blackmail (which it turns out was actually discussed and Comey decided to ignore in taking the meeting, among other things, heavily call into question his motive (and lest you think this is unreasonable speculation, the lengths they went to ignore Trump's obvious and stated motives in favor of imputations of nefariousness, make this look like a complete lock). In addition, AG Lynch has directly contradicted material statements related by Comey (i.e., that he was directed not to call the MYE an investigation) and Brennan (one of the two and maybe both are lying).
If you want an official version, Comey said that he was closing the Clinton investigation and that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against Clinton, yet we didn't know until last month when Lisa Page's testimony was publicaly released that the DOJ specifically ruled out charging Clinton based on gross negligence - not that she wasn't grossly negligent, just that they would refuse to prosecute on that basis notwithstanding the law. If you recall we had a big argument about why she was guilty based on the statute and how her conduct was grossly negligent, and that Comey was wrong as a matter of law. It turns out they just refused to apply that law as written (which I would be okay with if they had come out and said that was what they were doing). instead, Comey pretty much told us she was exonerated.
Either Comey was the only honest person involved and was an incredibly naive person because of his honesty engaged in illegal leaks and open manipulation, or else he was completely unethical. Given that Comey's influence on the election was a 1000 times bigger than the Russians, and he's the trigger for wasting 2 years of time on an investigation he should be called into question.
if you discount Comey, instead of relying on him completely, most of the Mueller report falls apart.
I'm also of the view that part of the reason the special counsel was appointed and carried on so long was to prevent honest people at the DOJ from digging through anything related to what happened to bring those actually guilty to account. Pretty much Mueller's entire theory would have been that anyone that sought such information to say, put Comey in jail, would be guilty of obstructing Mueller's investigation.
