Yesterday morning, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller delivered a statement designed to mark the end of the special counsel's investigation into both Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and a criminal investigation into the actions taken by Donald Trump and his campaign both during the election and as his time as President of the United States.

Unfortunately, much was left to desire from Mueller’s statement, and his decision to not comment any further as to whether or not Trump obstructed justice shows the disastrous job he did as the special prosecutor. Mueller’s statement was more of a defense of the work he and his team did, along with many subtle hints towards Congress about what he thinks should be done with the president, without actually saying it.

The Mueller Report itself broke down into two parts, the first being Russia’s involvement in influencing the 2016 election. It was already a known fact that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election, as the U.S. Intelligence Community made quite clear in early 2017. Added to this first part was the findings of the Trump campaign’s workings with the Russian government, as Robert Mueller said, “This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign’s response to this activity as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy.”

The second part of the Mueller Report was the “meat” of what everyone wanted to know: did the President of the United States commit obstruction of justice as Robert Mueller was conducting his investigation?

In this part of his investigation, Robert Mueller did not do his job, and this quote perfectly explains why:

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

As Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review explained on Twitter, “You look for evidence that a crime was committed, and if you don’t find it you say, ‘we didn’t find any.’ You don’t look for evidence that it wasn’t and then say, ‘we couldn’t find evidence of innocence.’” In this, Mueller failed in his role as prosecutor. Ben Shapiro explained it this way: “Prosecutors exist to determine whether someone committed a chargeable offense, not whether they are exonerated of charges.” Robert Mueller failed to do this and instead tried to push the blame on the Department of Justice policy. “The introduction to the volume II of our report explains that decision. It explains that under long-standing department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office,” Mueller goes on, “Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider.”

That statement is false. Robert Mueller actually had two options. Number one, Mueller could have made recommendations to Congress that impeachment hearings and proceedings should start, moving forward with the political process of impeachment, or, Mueller could have chosen option number two: recommend criminal charges against Donald Trump. As Guy Benson of Townhall said, “If he had the evidence, Mueller could have identified criminal conduct and *recommended* charges, then let DOJ [Department of Justice] decide whether OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] guidance would or would not permit those charges being filed against a sitting POTUS. Instead, he decided not to recommend anything.”

Although in the report, no recommendations were made about what to do about President Trump, Mueller’s statement laid out the reasoning—and a defense of—impeachment of the president. In his defense of not bringing up criminal charges against Donald Trump, Mueller made the point that it would be “unconstitutional.” This is accurate. But in that point, Mueller left open the second option—impeachment.

Later in his statement, Mueller opened the door for the political process of impeachment to come into play by stating, “The opinion [of the Mueller Report] says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” That process is impeachment. Again, Robert Mueller did not do his job as special prosecutor and instead punted the ball to Congress to take up the obstruction of justice question. Had Robert Mueller done his job, that question of “Did the President of the United States commit obstruction of justice?” might have already been answered, but he seemed uninterested in making the decision of whether or not the president committed any wrongdoings. There might have been a reasonable explanation for this, but instead, Mueller has allowed for his investigation to continue to play front and center in the public eye instead of making his findings clear and concise, allowing the country to move on.

Robert Mueller subtly laid out his case for why he thinks that Congress should impeach the president by saying he could not bring charges against a sitting president, that the constitution requires something other than the criminal justice system to make a decision, and avoiding the question of obstruction of justice, prompting congress to make a decision for itself.

Now the focus turns towards the House of Representatives, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces a Democratic caucus that wants President Trump impeached. Pelosi is extremely smart and politically shrewd—she understands the risks that impeachment will bring and the backlash her party will face if impeachment is tried and failed. Pelosi understands that impeaching President Trump will only increase his chances at winning re-election in 2020, though her own party seems to not understand it.

The House of Representatives would most likely have to impeach the president on charges of obstruction of justice (barring any wrongdoing coming out of the other investigations the Democrats are conducting). Proving that Trump committed obstruction of justice will be a difficult stretch to make and hard to convince the American people that was the case due to the fact that obstruction of justice is interpreted in the eye of the beholder, and because Mueller could not make a decision either way.  

Bottom Line: Robert Mueller failed to do his job, and by not making a decision one way or the other, he only extended the matter far more than was necessary.