Trump’s legal team breathes a sigh, takes a victory lap

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s legal team managed to protect their client from a potentially perilous in-person interview during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Trump’s lawyers accomplished that through a combination of bluster, legal precedent and shifting tactics.

They’re now taking a victory lap after a redacted version of Mueller’s findings revealed politically damaging conduct by the president but drew no conclusions of criminal behavior.

The aftershocks from the report will help shape the next two years of Trump’s administration. But while the report may cause some Democrats to take a renewed look at impeachment despite long odds of success in Congress, the legal threat to Trump that seemed so dangerous upon Mueller’s appointment in May 2017 has waned.