Washington was all atwitter this morning after the Department of Justice announced that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would be meeting the press to issue a statement on his famous report. Never mind that, ever since the DOJ released his reports six weeks ago, Mueller has been telegraphing his intent to never say anything more than he laid out in his report.
In fact, I expected his statement to be so anticlimactic that, while everyone else was waiting with bated breath for Mueller to speak, I had the following text exchange with Seth, my old college roommate (I’m blue):
Sure enough, Mueller said exactly what I indicated he would, thereby vindicating what I said were the principal findings and manifest purpose of his report.
Here is what I said in this respect in “Mueller Report: Obstruction Enough to Make Nixon Blush” April 18, 2019:
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Barr should be holding his head in shame. But, like Trump, he clearly has none. In fact, Mueller made clear that he felt obligated to honor the DOJ’s ban on indicting a sitting president. In other words, but for that ban, Mueller would have indicted Trump.
This is why he also made a point of exhorting Congress to use its “Article I powers” to hold this rogue president to account. Except that this is like a parent telling two two-year-olds to clean up their own mess, which will only result in a bigger mess: Democrats who control the House could easily file articles of impeachment against Trump. But they would need Republicans who control the Senate to convict him. And Republicans now worship Trump like such a Golden Calf, the report could have indicted him on 10 counts of murder and they would still spin themselves into pretzels to exonerate him.
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And here is what Mueller said in this respect in his statement today – as reported by The New York Times:
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Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, declined on Wednesday to clear President Trump of obstruction of justice in his first public characterization of his two-year investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. …
‘If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,’ Mueller said. …
He also noted that while Justice Department policy prohibits charging a sitting president with a crime, the Constitution provides for another remedy to formally accuse a president of wrongdoing — a clear reference to the ability of Congress to conduct impeachment proceeding.
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That’s it, folks.
Yet, listening to political and legal pundits comment on his statement, you’d never know that Mueller was merely reiterating what he laid out in his report, which evidently few of them ever bothered to read. Again, reiterating is all anyone should have expected him to do.
Which brings me to the exchange I had with Seth after Mueller did just that:
That said, the only issue now is whether the congressional Democrats investigating Trump up the wazoo will let Mueller’s report “speak for itself [and be] my testimony” – as he pleaded in his statement.
I sympathize with his wish to avoid the partisan spectacle that will surely attend any public testimony he gives. But, even if it takes a subpoena, appear he must. And this, even if he ends up playing an Oracle imparting wisdom to a committee of grandstanding fools.
Apropos of which, it just so happens that no less a person than actor Robert De Niro explained why Mueller must testify in a Times Op-Ed:
[Your report] may speak for itself to lawyers and lawmakers who have the patience and obligation to read through the more than 400 pages of carefully chosen words and nuanced conclusions (with all due respect, as good a read as it is, you’re no Stephen King). …
The country needs to hear your voice. … And not just because you don’t want them to think that your actual voice sounds like Robert De Niro reading from cue cards, but because this is the report your country asked you to do, and now you must give it authority and clarity without, if I may use the term, obstruction.
And so, appear he must; and appear he will. And yes, we’re now on the yellow brick road to the unavoidable impeachment of Donald J. Trump, the Wizard of Oz-like conman masquerading as president of the United States.
This, notwithstanding the childish game of chicken he’s playing, which has him daring Democrats to impeach him because that would guarantee his re-election. No matter their political fears, Democrats must and will call his bluff.
Granted, it will take a miraculous breaking of the cult-like spell Trump has over Republicans (who control the Senate) to convict him. But any Democratic challenger will fare far better in next year’s presidential election arguing that the high crimes and misdemeanors Mueller laid out warranted impeachment than Trump will spewing nonsense about “a hoax,” “witch hunt” or “presidential harassment.”
If Democrats do not impeach, however, they will have to explain why all of Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors, to say nothing of his daily lies, are just fine (i.e., the new presidential norm). Far better to leave that untenable and unsustainable task to Republicans – who have endorsed and enabled so much of Trump’s norm-busting behavior.
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