Robert Mueller by DonkeyHotey, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0/Original
I’ve written a lot on Mueller’s investigation.
I feel as if I’ve always been fair. Too fair in fact. I never called for his firing and I defended the idea that he wouldn’t manufacture criminal activity where there was none. Even as he loaded his team with Hillary Clinton supporters and Democrat donors, I still was willing to wait and see what he delivered. Perhaps he’d actually abide by DOJ regulations and not use his position to interject a bunch of political fodder?
Well, to all those who tried to tell me better, I apologize. You were right.
When he released his report, it was essentially a rehash of what we already knew about Russia, along with a bunch of political fodder on obstruction that ultimately led nowhere. That’s when what little bit of benefit of the doubt I was trying to give him evaporated away.
The final straw for his credibly in my eyes was when he failed to make a “determination” on obstruction of justice regarding President Trump. What the heck did he think his job was? The only reason you have a special counsel is to make that judgement. Otherwise, Mueller’s appointment was pointless.
And that’s really where we are after his ridiculous public statements today. Mueller’s appointment was a completely pointless, blatantly political exercise and the more he talks, the more apparent that becomes.
My colleague, Elizabeth Vaughn, first reported on the specific comments earlier today and one line of response caught my attention.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Mueller said. “We did not determine whether the president did commit a crime.”
Mueller explained longstanding Justice Department policy, which states that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.
“Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider,” Mueller explained, adding that “it would be unfair to accuse someone of a crime when there could be no court resolution of the charge.”
What in the literal…
You are a prosecutor. It was never your job to prove someone didn’t commit a crime. In fact, it’s ludicrous to think anyone could even prove such a negative. It’s also possible that Trump punches puppies. Mueller can’t clear him of that either. Does that mean he punches puppies?
His second line is even more ridiculous though. A special counsel exists to determine criminal activity on the part of the President, otherwise, no special counsel is needed because there’s no legal conflict of interest. Again, what the heck did he think his job was? The FBI/DOJ could have handled investigating Russian interference if the President wasn’t a factor.
What Mueller is really doing here is telling Democrats “hey, go get this guy” while not actually having the stones to do it himself. If he had evidence that Trump committed any crime, it was his duty to report that affirmatively. It’s certainly not his job to provide no evidence of a crime and then say “welp, I’m not saying he didn’t commit a crime and I couldn’t charge him anyway so what’s the point?”
That’s a clearly political move on Mueller’s part and one that affirms every bit of criticism he’s received over the last few years. At the point he became aware that he would not charge Trump, he should have resigned immediately. The purpose of his appointment had expired at that point.
Instead, he sat around for years, sucking up tens of millions of dollars to hand us a report that any moron at CNN could have put together based on already known public information. We already knew Russia used troll farms and Facebook. We already knew that Crowdstrike blamed the Russians for the DNC and Podesta hacks.
The way Mueller has decided to handle this smacks of one thing: Cowardice.
It’s absolutely cowardly to hide behind the secrecy of a special counsel for two years, choose to not even do your job on the one question you were appointed to answer, and then spit out a bunch of insinuations publicly via cute language and verbal nudges as he’s done here.
Mueller should have grown a freaking pair and recommended charges if he actually felt there was any evidence one had occurred. Since he clearly didn’t possess the fortitude to do that, he should now shut his mouth. We don’t live in a 3rd world country where someone has to be proven innocent and exonerated of accusations. Mueller apparently thinks we do and that’s a pretty big issue.
"If we had confidence that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so." That is not the standard of a prosecutor. Prosecutors exist to determine whether someone committed a chargeable offense, not whether they are exonerated of charges.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 29, 2019
Exactly. But we all know what the real game is here.
Translation: "My statement allows those who want him to be guilty to use it as an election year bludgeon regardless of any evidence I may or may not have found. Evidence is beside the point, especially with the legal fig leaf of an inability to indict."
— Potemkin Coffee Shop (@IggyBeeBop) May 29, 2019
What Mueller did today was incredibly harmful to our body politic and the rule of law in this country. We will now get to endure another 18 months of crazed conspiracy mongering and unprovable allegations because the former special counsel decided it was his job to throw red meat out there for impeachment.
If there was ever a case for why special counsels are bad ideas, this proves it. Mueller’s appointment was complete nonsense and it never should have happened. He accomplished absolutely nothing except being a political tool for Democrats. Congrats to him.
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