The Last Word of the Honorable Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller, Special Counsel for the Department of Justice, resigned yesterday. He was appointed to investigate the “Russia” matter in the spring of 2017, after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and the panicked meetings when wearing a “wire” to Presidential meetings was discussed. For the first time since he was appointed Special Counsel, Mueller spoke.
Robert Mueller hoped to get the “last word” yesterday. He made it clear he wanted them to be HIS “last words” on the subject. His messages were simple: Russia attacked America in 2016, and if we don’t do something more about it, they will do it again. His Report did not exonerate the President of the United States from any criminal acts, if it had he would have said so. He didn’t say so.
And finally, Mueller said, I have nothing more to say, everything I have to say is in the report: read it.
Mr. Mueller made it clear that Attorney General William Barr completely misrepresented the Report from the very first “summary” he published. In the matter of why the Report did not recommend charges for obstruction of justice for the President: Mueller said that that Department of Justice OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) policy that states that the President cannot be indicted, prevented him from even considering criminal charges. And, Mueller being an inestimably fair man, he could not even suggest charges should be filed, if there could be no trial to give the President the opportunity to clear his name.
Barr stated that the OLC Policy had no impact on Mueller’s finding.
Mr. Mueller also made it clear that the second volume of his Report, the section on obstruction of justice, was written as evidence for the one body that could bring charges against the President, the Congress. Mr. Barr said that Mueller left the decision up to him. And finally, Mr. Mueller emphasized that obstruction of justice can occur, even if the underlying “crime,” the evidence put forth in the first volume of the Report, is insufficient to charge. In fact, Mr. Mueller made it clear in the Report that obstruction needs to be charged, as obstruction may be the reason why the underlying “crimes” cannot be charged.
Mr. Barr claimed that obstruction could not be brought if there are no underlying, indictable crimes.
Mr. Mueller, seventy-four years old, after a thirty-four year career of government service, made it clear that like an “old soldier,” he would like to fade away. It is unlikely that the House of Representatives will allow that to happen. As a newly private citizen, Robert Mueller is subject to Congressional subpoena. Mueller, perhaps above all else, does not want to get caught up in the “political circus” that recent Congressional hearings have become (see Peter Strzok.) But the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Nadler, recognizes something that perhaps Mr. Mueller doesn’t understand.
The power of the Mueller Report is in its recitation of fact after fact, all showing the involvement of the Russians in the 2016 election, the interest the Trump campaign has in them, and the actions they took to hide that interest. But the Mueller Report is 488 pages long, and the vast majority of the American people are not going to read it.
Mr. Nadler needs to have Mueller as the ultimate educational tool for the American people. Just as Senator Sam Ervin told the Watergate story through witness after witness in the summer of 1973, Nadler needs Robert Mueller to tell the American people what he found, even if he just refers them to passages of the Report. Mueller has suggested he would talk to the Committee behind closed doors, but that won’t be enough for the Chairman, or the American people.
So we will hear from Robert Mueller again.
The Honorable Robert Mueller has called on the only legal body with the Constitutional power to act on the evidence he has uncovered, the Congress, to pick up this case. Mueller is not concerned with the “political” consequences, he sees the Constitution as demanding that Congress act on the matter.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a different political calculation. She believes that if the House follows through with an impeachment of the President, the Senate wouldn’t give it a fair hearing, much less convict and remove him from office. In her view, a Trump “victory” in the Senate could cost Democrats the House of Representatives and maybe even the Presidential election of 2020. Instead of removing an offending President, the impeachment process might in fact assure four more years of a Trump Presidency.
That doesn’t mean that the Speaker doesn’t want the House to discuss the Mueller Report or the President. She wants multiple committees to investigate the President: his actions in the 2016 election and after, his personal finances, the multiple corrupt acts of his cabinet appointees, and his abuse of the US intelligence agencies.
The Speaker knows the power of Congressional investigation. She knows that information damaging to the President can be dripped out of the House over the next eighteen months leading to the 2020 election. The Democrats in the House can do this, and still provide political “cover” for members who are in political jeopardy.
And if the hearings are able to educate the American people, as Chairman Nadler hopes, then perhaps the political environment will change, and Speaker Pelosi will alter her calculations. For that reason, yesterday cannot be Robert Mueller’s “last word.” The American people need to hear from him again.
