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Report has huge ramifications

After nearly two years of work, special counsel Robert Mueller is nearly ready to release his report on whether some Americans cooperated with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

It already is known that Moscow devoted resources to both a social media-based propaganda campaign and to a mostly futile attempt to hack U.S. electronic election systems. The social media attack continues and, with the unwitting help of many Americans, has driven a wedge between tens of millions of us.

Mueller and his staff already have charged several former associates of President Donald Trump with improper activities, many not related to the 2016 election. The question now is what Mueller’s report will say about Trump himself, who insists he never cooperated with the Russians in any way.

Democrats in Congress, many of whom have proclaimed that somehow, some way, they will impeach the president have been hoping for months that the Mueller report would provide them with ammunition.

There are reasons to doubt it will do so.

But a few of the Democrat lawmakers have seized upon a traditional practice of all federal prosecutors in an attempt to score political points and sow public discontent.

They say that unless the Mueller report is released in its entirety, along with pertinent documents, they will use a House of Representatives committee to subpoena the materials.

In summing up their investigations of all types of alleged crimes, prosecutors at all levels tend to discuss evidence against only those they believe have broken the law. That is a longstanding practice.

So, if Mueller and his staff have investigated Trump thoroughly — as they have — and found no evidence of wrongdoing, it is entirely possible the president will be mentioned only in passing in the report.

That is not what Trump’s foes in Congress want, of course. They desire something — anything — they can use against the president, whether he is guilty of a crime or not.

Mueller and his superiors in the Justice Department should let the chips fall where they may. If Trump engaged in wrongdoing, the American people deserve to know about it.

But if he did not, Mueller and the Justice Department must refuse to be part of a political vendetta.

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