Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, is a CNN legal analyst and a Rutgers University scholar. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) Today's letter from Attorney General William Barr to Congress summarizing the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller is an enormous win, legally and politically, for President Donald Trump. But many political and legal battles of enormous consequence still lie ahead.

Two critical points at the outset. First, Barr's letter is not the Mueller report; it is a four-page distillation. There is no reason to believe Barr has distorted Mueller's report, but -- as anyone who ever skated through English class using Cliff's Notes can attest -- a summary can be a pale substitute for the real thing.

Elie Honig

Second, Barr's letter appropriately applies the standards of criminal law. That is, Barr employs the familiar "beyond a reasonable doubt" burden of proof necessary to convict a defendant of a crime. Further Congressional action is a separate, and political, question.

As such, Barr delivers a decisive exoneration of Trump and the administration on the question of criminal conspiracy or coordination with Russia. Again, remember: Barr reports that Mueller found insufficient evidence to charge a federal crime, but not necessarily that Mueller found no evidence whatsoever.

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