The conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on his investigation of President Donald Trump last weekend came as an anticlimax. Attorney General William Barr's summary makes plain that while the report does not conclude that the president committed crimes, it does not exonerate him, either. Yet after month upon month of anticipation, the investigation had become so freighted that the non-release of a non-exoneration led the New York Times to headline its analysis, "A Cloud Over Trump's Presidency Is Lifted," while The Washington Post reported that Hill Democrats were giving up on impeachment for now.
To understand why this nonevent was so significant, we have to examine the function that Mueller’s report served for Democrats while it was being written.