THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN IMPEACHMENT REFERRAL AND A CRIMINAL INDICTMENT:

Mueller's dry conclusion: "The written communications setting up the meeting showed that the Campaign anticipated receiving information from Russia that could assist candidate Trump's electoral prospects, but the Russian lawyer's presentation did not provide such information," Mueller said.

By the time the meeting was held, the participants included Trump Jr.; the president's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner; campaign chairman Paul Manafort; Veselnitskaya; and Rinat Akhmetshin, a lobbyist and former Soviet counterintelligence officer.

Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman at the time, testified that Trump Jr. announced at a regular planning meeting that he "had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation," according to the report. But Gates also recalled inexplicably that the meeting involved Kyrgyzstan, Mueller said.

According to Gates, Manafort warned everyone that the meeting "likely would not yield vital information and they should be careful."

That turned out to be the case, and it may have been a blessing in disguise for Trump. When the meeting got underway at 4 p.m. that day, Trump Jr. and Kushner quickly grew impatient as they realized the dirt wasn't the bombshell they were hoping for.

Veselnitskaya instead offered what she said was evidence that members of the wealthy Ziff family had engaged in tax evasion and money laundering in Russia and the U.S. and donated ill-gotten gains to the Democratic National Committee or the Clinton campaign.

"According to Akhmetshin, Trump Jr. asked follow-up questions about how the alleged payments could be tied specifically to the Clinton Campaign, but Veselnitskaya indicated that she could not trace the money once it entered the United States," Mueller said.

Kushner became aggravated and asked "[w]hat are we doing here?" according to the report. Akhmetshin then turned the conversation to U.S. sanctions imposed under the Magnitsky Act and Russia's retaliation prohibiting the U.S. adoption of Russian children, according to the report.

"Several participants recalled that Trump Jr. commented that Trump is a private citizen, and there was nothing they could do at that time," Mueller said. "Trump Jr. also said that they could revisit the issue if and when they were in government." [...]

Mueller, in his attempt to find out who knew what and when, said his team weighed whether Trump was telling the truth when he said he didn't know about the meeting. The special counsel weighed a sequence of events surrounding a speech Trump gave at the time that "suggested that candidate Trump had contemporaneous knowledge of the June 9 meeting," according to the report.

At issue was Trump's public assertion on June 7, 2016 -- just as Trump Jr. was completing arrangements for the meeting with Veselnitskaya -- that he would give a "major speech" the following week "discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons," according to Mueller's report.

After the Trump Tower meeting failed to produce the dirt Trump Jr. was seeking, Trump's speech changed course. 

Tweet   @brothersjudd