Robert Mueller just put the nation through a Kabuki Theater drama for almost two years. He was more than willing to indict a bunch of Russians and Russian entities for meddling in our elections. He was a strict prosecutor in charging a number of individuals with lying to investigators about their meetings with Russians – meetings that Mueller determined had NO relationship with aiding and abetting Russia in its efforts to interfere with the election. The Mueller Report, itself, declared that there was NO evidence of cooperation between Trump, his campaign, and Russians.
Mueller moved aggressively to ensure that a range of unrelated crimes discovered in the course of his investigation was pursued by other investigators. These include the personal crimes of greed against Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. And he is leaving it up to the Southern District of New York to investigate the alleged campaign finance violations.
Mueller made it very clear in his Report – as reflected in the letter from Attorney General Robert Barr — that there was no indictment for criminal collusion because there was no evidence of criminal collusion by Trump, by any of those even indicted and convicted for the process crime lying to investigators and by any other American citizen.
On the question of obstruction of justice, Mueller sleazed out. According to the Barr letter, Mueller could not make a determination on the obstruction accusation. In that case, he chose to lay out the arguments for indictment and the arguments against – and left it up to the Attorney General to decide.
One can safely assume that the lack of an obstruction of justice claim – even in the face of the inability to indict a sitting President – is exoneration. In this instance, Mueller comes close to violating Department of Justice rules against slandering someone who is not indicted. Mueller disgracefully hinted that there was damning information but no reason to indict – making the information ineligible for public disclosure.
Mueller says he could not determine whether a crime had been committed or not. He said the evidence was not sufficiently compelling to indict – even by a sealed indictment to take effect after Trump leaves office. Conversely, Mueller claims that he could not exonerate Trump from the obstruction charge. But he actually did by not even making a case for indictment – even if Trump could not be immediately indicted.
Mueller sleazed out. He did not do his job. In a very real sense, Mueller is doing exactly what former FBI Director James Comey did – suggested a person did a lot of improper things without bringing an indictment. Comey got a rebuke from the FBI Inspector General for that breach of protocol.
Making a determination about criminal collusion and obstruction of justice is what Mueller was commissioned to do. A special counsel was appointed to take the matter out of the hands of the Attorney General in order to remove even the appearance of bias. Mueller had no problem indicting people on process crimes – basically lying to investigators about a crime that was never committed. That level of prosecution does not rest well with most Americans. Charging someone with obstructing justice when there is no crime involved seems … well … just wrong.
In fact, it is the general practice to not indict someone for obstruction of justice when there is no underlying crime – so why prosecute lies, which could be seen as a form of obstruction.
It seems that Mueller did not wish to exonerate Trump on the obstruction charge and rather than make a decision, he punted. Mueller also had to know that by not directly exonerating Trump he would trigger an ugly partisan feud that would be launched by the #NeverTrump Democrats.
Mueller put the Attorney General in the position to be politically demonized by the anti-Trump Resistance Movement and the blood-thirsty Democrats in Congress – and will add fuel to the partisan feud that is undermining American political civility. Thanks a lot, Robert.
It is now time for all Americans to re-focus on one of the fundamentals of our judicial system – innocent until PROVEN guilty. Even an indictment is not a confirmation of guilty. That is the purview of judges and juries. At this moment, President Trump is innocent of any criminal activity … period.
While there are other cases out there being ginned up by partisan prosecutors, based on all the reporting and accusations – you know, all those Democrats, reporters and pundits who declared Trump guilty of collusion, obstruction and even treason – the Mueller probe was the major play because the folks on the left were sure that Mueller would bring forth indictments of Trump family members, charges of obstruction and collusion and the basis for Trump’s impeachment.
Apart from going after the Russians, who were the actual criminals, the Mueller investigation into Trump was a shame and a waste of time and money. It was launched as a political effort to oust the duly elected President by a number of bad actors in our law enforcement and intelligence communities. They have proven to be more dangerous to the republic than Trump could ever be.
So, there ‘tis.