One of the notable aspects of the Mueller report is just how deeply involved Russian operatives were in making sure that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election.

And yet, in the days since a redacted version of the report was issued, Ms Clinton herself has been nearly silent, and there's been little talk among Democrats of avenging the wrong done to her.

The Mueller report has exposed the extent of Russian involvement in Hillary Clinton's defeat. ( Reuters: Carlos Barria )

Is impeachment the next step for Mr Trump?

Instead, the main discussion has been about the next steps to take against Mr Trump.

Despite the effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to dismiss impeachment as an option, some believe that's the path that Democrats in Congress should take.

Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Senator, became the first Democratic presidential candidate to call for impeachment hearings.

"I read the Mueller report. When I got to the end, I realised this is a point of principle," Senator Warren said.

"Because it matters not just for this President, but for all future presidents. No one is above the law."

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Legal scholar Lawrence Tribe joined her call, saying, "postponing impeachment hearings no longer makes sense."

"That it'd be unprincipled is clear enough. But it'd be politically unwise as well: To quote Shakespeare, 'We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures'."

But does the structure of Congress make it almost impossible?

Ms Pelosi, who was scheduled to meet with House Democrats on Monday (local time), has said "it's not worth it" to devote the time and resources to hold impeachment hearings on Mr Trump.

She argued that an impeachment case requires bipartisan support. Democrats control the House, where articles of impeachment could be drafted. If they are adopted by the House, a trial of the president would take place in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans.

Given the party's steadfast support of the President, it is likely that no more than a handful would vote to convict him.

Nancy Pelosi said it is not worth devoting time and resources to impeach Mr Trump. ( AP: Dough Mills )

Moreover, the effort would be an enormous distraction for members of Congress, and give Mr Trump a rallying cry for his base.

Far better, Ms Pelosi's reasoning goes, to face down Mr Trump at the polls, and let voters boot him from office.

Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine who generally sides with Democrats, said he supported being cautious.

"The question now before us is what do we do?" he said on the American public radio program On Point.

"My view is we wait until the elections of 2020. That's the ultimate people having the say over who they want as their president."

However, Ms Pelosi's initial dismissal of the impeachment push came before publication of the Mueller report, which lays out the legal options that members of Congress can take given actions by Mr Trump, both as a candidate and as President.

Another Democratic candidate, former cabinet secretary Julian Castro, said it would be "perfectly reasonable" for impeachment proceedings to start, even though he did not specifically endorse them. "Mueller clearly left that option in the hands of Congress," Mr Castro said.

Twitter has an opinion

During the weekend, the hashtag #ImpeachmentNOW began to pop up on social media.

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Why allow Mr Trump to skate until the election, this line of reasoning went. After all, Republicans impeached Bill Clinton in 1998 on grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice.

At the time, there were more than two years left in Mr Clinton's term of office. He was not convicted by the Senate.

If the GOP could do it to a Democratic president, why couldn't Democrats do it to a Republican, these impeachment advocates argued.

Still, unless Ms Pelosi faces a revolt among Democrats, other paths are more likely.

For starters, members of Congress are demanding copies of the full Mueller report, not the version with its multiple redactions that has been released publicly.

The Justice Department on Friday dismissed Democrat Jerry Nadler's subpoena for the full document as "premature and unnecessary".

The department has until May 1 to comply with the request.

Should Mr Mueller testify?

Mr Mueller himself has been called by Mr Nadler to testify on Capitol Hill, offering the possibility that the author of the report could wind up speaking about it before anyone is able to read the entire document.

The whole situation is clearly getting on Mr Trump's nerves.

His mood has rocketed from his original boast that he was exonerated to an angry series of tweets at Mr Mueller and Democrats and back to bravado.

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By contrast, Ms Clinton's silence seemed almost puzzling, although some of her former aides expressed their own outrage.

Perhaps she was keeping in mind the phrase attributed to Abraham Lincoln, which was quoted almost a century later by another failed Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson.

Lincoln, asked how he felt about seeing election results in 1862, replied "Somewhat like that boy in Kentucky, who stubbed his toe while running to see his sweetheart. The boy said he was too big to cry, and far too badly hurt to laugh".

Micheline Maynard is an American author and journalist.