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It took only nanoseconds after Attorney General William Barr released his 4-page summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election for Donald Trump to begin bellowing, “NO COLLUSION! NO OBSTRUCTION! TOTAL EXONERATION!” Of course, the actual report, released in redacted form a month later, told a much different story. Viewing events through the narrow lens of a criminal investigation, Mueller and his team concluded they did not have sufficient evidence to make a case against any member of the Trump campaign for conspiring with the Russians in their interference campaign (“collusion”). As to obstruction of justice, the report listed ten incidents in detail. While it did not state that crimes had been committed, it made clear it was also not possible, based on the evidence, to exonerate the President This meant little to Trump who, relying on Barr’s opaque summary, continued to wave the Total Exoneration flag.

Some legal observers seized on a small but significant point: Mueller, as straight-laced a public servant as can be found in Washington, was mindful of Department of Justice policy that a sitting President cannot be indicted. To accuse Trump of criminal behavior, goes the thinking, would be to deny him the opportunity to defend himself in court, tarnishing him without allowing him a legal course to rebut the charges. Instead, the proper remedy for criminal behavior is investigation and, if warranted, impeachment by the House of Representatives. In this light, Volume 2 of Mueller’s report, which deals with obstruction of justice, provides a road map for Congressional investigation.

As various committees of the Democratic-controlled House began to request documents from the Administration and related parties (the Trump Organization’s accounting firm, for example) and to request appearances at hearings from current and former White House officials, Trump and his legal team have gone into full stonewall mode. The President announced that he will not “permit” former White House Counsel Don McGahn, a private citizen, and Robert Mueller to appear before Congress. He has urged current and former staffers and others to defy subpoenas. The White House refused to provide a single document requested by the various House committees with Constitutionally-authorized oversight responsibility. 

Why the blockade? If the report, as Trump claims, exonerated him, why not allow the evidence to made public? After two years of crying “Hoax” and complaining that rogue actors in the FBI began the investigation without grounds, this would seem to be the perfect opportunity to show the public you were correct from the outset.

That would be the smart move.

Perhaps other factors are at work. With the 2020 election approaching, Trump is aware that he is popular with a minority segment of the voting public. He needs to keep that base of support as solid as possible and forcing the House Democrats to maintain pressure for the next year-and-a-half allows him to play the persecuted martyr card without actually showing his hand. It is easy to imagine he is trying to maneuver the House into impeaching him, confident that the Republican-controlled Senate would not remove him from office.

Being re-elected is important to Trump because, if he is not and leaves office in January, 2021, he will be susceptible to indictment for crimes that he allegedly committed that have not expired by statute. And there will be no chance for a pardon with a Democrat in the White House.

These potential plot twists lead to one obvious conclusion: We are witnessing the actions of a guilty man, one who is flouting the constitutional norms of the Republic to avoid taking responsibility and facing justice for high crimes and misdemeanors. In placing his self-preservation above that of the nation, Trump is not only committing the supreme act of a narcissistic sociopath, but threatening to inflict lasting damage to Constitutional government.