While we’re waiting for the public (i.e. televised) portion of the impeachment inquiry to begin, let’s not completely forget the Mueller report.

The Mueller report was a disappointment to liberals, progressives never-Trumpers and sane people all over the nation, and frankly, many parts of the Earth as a whole, as Mueller and his team refused to state out loud that Trump and his merry band of Pranksters had committed obstruction of justice.

That is not, lest we forget, because they did not find evidence of obstruction of justice. It is rather because — as a special project of the Justice Department which is (after all) a part of the Trump administration — the Mueller team adhered to an advisory opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel within the Justice Department that a sitting President could not be indicted.

And, if he can’t be indicted, then there’s no point in finding that he committed crimes, because he can’t be prosecuted.

And if he can’t be prosecuted then he also can’t defend himself in a court of law, so to accuse him of obstructing justice under those circumstances would be “unfair.”

And then, the Mueller team proceeded to enumerate the ways in which Trump (or members of his administration) obstructed justice. Let us count the ways:

1. The Trump administration lied about their contacts with the Russians during the campaign, even though those contacts clearly existed and were known to one and all.
2. Incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn discussed sanctions on Russia with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition period, and then lied about this to the media, the FBI, the Vice President and other members of his own administration.
3. The President asked leaders of the intelligence community in general (and then-FBI Director James Comey in particular) to make public statements that he had “no connection” to the investigation into Russian interference in the election.
4. The President fired James Comey because he refused to make public statements to the effect that the President was not under investigation with respect to Russian interference in the elections.
5. The President made specific efforts to have the special counsel (Robert Mueller) removed from the investigation of Russian interference.
6. The President made specific efforts to curtail the Special Counsel investigation.
7. The President made specific efforts to prevent disclosure of emails about the June 9, 2016 meeting between Russians and senior campaign officials.
8. The President made specific efforts to have the Attorney General take over the Special Counsel investigation.
9. The President ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to deny that the President tried to fire the special counsel.
10. The President ordered his personal fixer, Michael Cohen to submit false statements to Congress minimizing the Trump Tower Moscow Project.

So, that is ten ways in which the Special Counsel found that Trump obstructed justice. After repeating ad nauseum that the President could not be indicted because of the Office of Legal Counsel advisory opinion, Mueller practically challenged the Congress to impeach the President.

Which they have now done.

But not because of the Mueller enumeration of the ways in which Trump and his team tried to obstruct justice into the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

No, what finally pushed Democrats (and Speaker Nancy Pelosi) over the edge are the allegations that Trump and his administration pressured the President of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter as a specific quid pro quo for the release of military aid which the Congress had appropriated for Ukraine.

But let’s not completely forget about the Mueller report allegations while we enjoy the public phase of the current impeachment inquiry.