Newsletter: Today: Mueller Lets Congress Be the Judge

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s redacted report lays out the evidence and suggests Congress decide whether President Trump obstructed justice.

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Mueller Lets Congress Be the Judge

In his redacted 448-page report (read it here and see how much was redacted), special counsel Robert S. Mueller III portrays President Trump as a mercurial leader who repeatedly and frantically sought to undermine the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. The only thing that seemed to thwart the president’s whims: advisors who ignored his orders. “The president’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” Mueller wrote. The report also says Trump’s campaign had “expected it would benefit” from Moscow’s meddling, particularly from “information stolen and released through Russian efforts” — but that the investigation did not establish that multiple contacts between Trump associates and Russians constituted a conspiracy involving the election. So, what now? On the issue of obstruction, Mueller wrote that Congress should be the judge. And Democrats have vowed to pick up where Mueller’s report left off.

More From the Report

-- Mueller found Trump’s written answers “to be inadequate” but decided not to subpoena Trump to avoid a lengthy court fight. Trump said his memory failed him 34 times in about 33 paragraphs of answers.

-- “This is the end of my presidency”: Key quotes and takeaways.

-- Five tantalizing redactions and where they fall in the report.

-- Do those rumored tapes of Trump in a Moscow hotel exist? A footnote mentions the allegations.

Whole Lotta Shaking

California has experienced 10 times more earthquakes than previously known, according to groundbreaking new research (no pun intended). Over the last decade, scientists have documented 1.8 million earthquakes in Southern California — that’s one every three minutes. Ninety percent of them are newly discovered and so small that they had long been undetectable to modern computing systems.

May The Odds Be Ever in Their Favor? Not Quite

It wasn’t all that long ago that “The Twilight Saga” and “The Hunger Games” were among the hottest movie franchises in Hollywood. These days, the studio behind them — Lionsgate — is struggling with a string of box-office duds in a rapidly shifting industry dominated by giants such as Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia. Does it have a few tricks left up its sleeve?

‘No One Cooks for Lent Like My Mami’

“Easter is this Sunday, which concludes my favorite food holiday: Lent. Cuaresma for Mexicans is a time for reflection and penance — but it’s also 40 days of gluttony,” writes Times reporter Gustavo Arellano. “The showstopper: capirotada, the layered bread pudding that’s the de facto Mexican dessert for Lent.” And, he adds: “My mom’s is the best, of course.” But this weekend is the final Lent they will spend together. She is about to enter hospice, with weeks to live.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Los Angeles has celebrated Easter in countless ways over the decades. This photo gallery looks back at some of the more popular events since 1918.

April 6, 1947: A trumpeter heralds the dawn for 25,000 worshipers at a Hollywood Bowl sunrise service, one of several Easter programs covered in the next day’s Los Angeles Times.

(Paul Calvert / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA)

FOOD

-- Restaurant reviews: Nightshade in downtown L.A.’s Arts District gives a unique take on L.A. cooking, while Glendale’s Akkad offers Iraqi specialties for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

-- In this Passover Seder menu, spring vegetables star.

-- If you’re looking for a birthday cake offering that’s a little classier than your typical grocery store bakery, here are nine Los Angeles bakeries worth the trip.

-- The little-known California sake you didn’t know you needed.

CALIFORNIA

-- A federal appeals court has decided unanimously that most of California’s so-called sanctuary laws can continue to be enforced, rejecting the bulk of a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration.

-- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is looking to spend more money on street repairs, homelessness and police overtime next fiscal year. He’s anticipating an increase in business and property tax revenue.

-- The use of foul language at government meetings isn’t new. But a Times analysis shows that, over the last few months, public speakers hurling slurs and curse words has been on the rise at L.A. County Board of Supervisors meetings.

-- “Will I get measles?” How to protect yourself, and the answers to other questions.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Anderson .Paak, the genre-stretching singer-rapper-drummer-producer who’ll be at Coachella this weekend to wrap up the festival, loves L.A. What does he do when it stops loving him back?

-- The Cannes Film Festival lineup is out. Critic Justin Chang says it has inched forward on gender parity, but Netflix remains shut out.

-- “Joy Division was one of the most original bands of the last century,” but how did it come to be? Musician Henry Rollins writes about a new oral history of the post-punk band.

NATION-WORLD

-- New Census Bureau data show Puerto Rico lost nearly 4% of its population after Hurricane Maria — the greatest population drop in the recorded history of the island, according to one demographer.

-- An old saying goes, “When Boeing sneezes, Seattle catches cold.” But these days, the Emerald City is riding out the turbulence surrounding the aircraft maker just fine.

-- As France paid a daylong tribute to the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, police said that Paris investigators think an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire.

-- Ukraine, with a centuries-long history of persecution, could elect a president with Jewish heritage.

BUSINESS

-- Elon Musk is in a bind and he hopes autonomous Tesla taxis will drive a new, positive narrative for his car company. Then again, they might not.

-- Kathleen Kraninger, Trump’s director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says the agency will place a new emphasis on education instead of rules to protect consumers.

SPORTS

-- The Clippers lost 132-105 in Game 3 of their NBA playoff series with the Golden State Warriors. But columnist Bill Plaschke says the Clippers’ future is bright, no matter what happens.

-- Coaches, like athletes, rarely go out on top. But Valorie Kondos Field, who is set to retire as UCLA’s coach after the NCAA gymnastics championships, appears to be the exception. Her Bruins have been dominant.

OPINION

-- Mueller’s report makes a mockery of Trump’s claim to “total exoneration.”

-- Is Trump a threat to national security? It’s a question the Mueller report leaves unanswered.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- TSA’s full-body scanners at airports across the country frequently give false alarms for Afros, braids, twists and other hairstyles popular among black women. (ProPublica)

-- “The truth about dentistry: It’s much less scientific — and more prone to gratuitous procedures — than you may think.” (The Atlantic)

-- How a professional gambler on “Jeopardy!” racked up more than $110,000 in a single game. (Wired)

ONLY IN L.A.

If you’ve spent time in any of hipster Los Angeles’ panoply of juice bars, coffee shops or yoga studios, chances are you’ve overheard something like this: “Lighting for selfies is so much better on the 5 Freeway than the 405.” This snippet of conversation comes courtesy of Overheard LA, an Instagram feed with more than 1 million followers. Some exchanges can even help you with holiday planning: “When is Passover?” one person asked. The reply: “It’s the second weekend of Coachella.”

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