In his Costa Rica Star column of March, 25, Britt Nelson claimed Special Counsel Robert Mueller had “vindicated” Donald Trump and concluded that there was no “collusion” between members of the Trump campaign and agents of the Russian government.

I re-read Britt Nelson’s column in the wake of Robert Mueller’s public statements on May, 29, and could only wonder how Mr. Nelson could have come to such an obviously flawed and erroneous conclusion.

Robert Mueller never exonerated Donald Trump, not in his written report or in his first and only public comments regarding the Russia Investigation on May, 29.

Nor did Mueller ever say there was no “collusion” between some members of the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.

The meeting at Trump Tower in which Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and several other top campaign aides met with Russian operatives, in the hopes of getting “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, was a form of collusion. But, as is well known, collusion, in and of itself, is not a crime.

Mueller and his investigators, however, did not find enough evidence to support a charge of “criminal conspiracy “ relating to the very real “collusion” with Russian agents that occurred in Trump Tower in June, 2016.

Mr. Nelson’s claim in his March column that Mueller had “vindicated” Trump was even more erroneous than his claim there was no “collusion”.

That became crystal clear when Mueller said in his public statements on May, 29 that, and I am paraphrasing a bit, if he and his team could have been certain Trump had not committed the crime of obstruction of justice, they would have said so. However, they could not do so, and because Mueller knew he could not indict a sitting president, per Department of Justice custom, he has left the task of holding Donald Trump accountable to the Congress.

In addition, the evidence the Mueller team compiled has no doubt been shared with prosecutors in other jurisdictions, most notably the Southern District of New York – where Donald Trump remains an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the crimes that sent Michael Cohen to federal prison for three years.

Donald Trump’s legal and political woes are from over, and he knows it. He knows if he is not re-elected next year his status as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Cohen case will change to “indicted co-conspirator” the minute his successor is sworn in.

I would also bet other prosecutors will be waiting, with all the evidence the Mueller team compiled regarding any possible obstruction of justice, with their own indictments and subpoenas in hand, to see to it private citizen Trump gets his long overdue day in court and a fair trial.

In the meantime, let’s set the record straight.

Members of the Trump campaign team did collude with Russian agents looking to influence and interfere in our democratic processes; and Robert Mueller neither “vindicated” nor “exonerated” Donald Trump, not in his written report or in his public comments of May, 29.

Not by a long shot.