Thursday, May 30, 2019

What precisely is Robert Mueller trying to do?


I'm still trying to wrap my brain around Robert Mueller's press conference yesterday.  He almost openly invited Congress to institute impeachment proceedings against President Trump, which is so far outside his terms of reference as a special counsel that it defies belief.

Mr. Mueller’s report outlined Mr. Trump’s myriad efforts to interfere with or shut down the special-counsel investigation but didn’t recommend charges, dodging the central questions of whether it amounted to a crime. “This report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” the report found. Mr. Mueller on Wednesday emphasized this in his remarks, saying, “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

Mr. Mueller said he was bound by departmental policy, which is based on two opinions from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel from 1973 and 2000 that concluded that a sitting president couldn’t be charged with a crime because it would unduly interfere with the constitutional responsibilities of the office. Under the Constitution, Congress can remove a president for alleged wrongdoing through the impeachment process. Criminal charges could then be brought after the president leaves office or is removed, the department concluded.

There's more at the link.

What I don't understand is Mr. Mueller's deliberate fudging of the issue of criminality.  As special counsel, he and his team were to establish whether or not there was sufficient evidence to bring charges against President Trump (ignoring, for the moment, the question of whether those charges would be brought while he was in office, or afterwards).  That was his sole mandate.  He did not have any mandate to decide whether the President was guilty or innocent - only whether or not there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.  The judge and jury would have then settled the question of guilt or innocence.  That's their job.  It's not a special counsel's job!

By speaking as he did, and choosing the words he did, Mr. Mueller essentially said that extra-judicial proceedings would be the best way forward - namely, impeachment proceedings in Congress.  It's as good as saying, "Well, I couldn't find a way to nail President Trump in court, but in my personal opinion he deserves to be nailed, so Congress, it's up to you."  That's so grossly unprofessional, so clearly biased and outside any possible parameters of his position, that I'm left shaking my head in disbelief.

I think this verifies beyond any possible doubt the existence of what President Trump has called "the swamp" in Washington D.C.  I think it has also verified beyond any possible doubt that Mr. Mueller is one of the major players in the swamp.

I foresee all sorts of difficulties ahead.  If the swamp can be this brazen, this open, about its determination to overturn the results of an election, and the will of the American people . . . then this Republic is in very real danger of being overthrown by its own bureaucrats.  There may be literally nothing that they're not willing to do to enforce their will over ours.  (For one fictional example, see Matthew Bracken's "What I Saw At The Coup".  Suddenly that no longer seems nearly so far-fetched as I once thought it was.)

That's a horrifying thought.  The question is, what are we, the people, prepared to do about it?  I suspect we're going to have to act, sooner or later.  We certainly can't trust our politicians to fix the problem on our behalf.

Peter

15 comments:

Old NFO said...

Soap box, ballot box, and God forbid, bullet box... Mueller didn't do anyone any favors yesterday.

LL said...

Mueller didn't want to testify - he said that it's all in his report. He verified that AG Barr's analysis of the report was accurate: No collusion, no obstruction.

And then he went on to whip up the donkeys. He and Comey are friends and they seem to behave in much the same way.

Dad29 said...

Mueller has never been "honorable." Ask the people he imprisoned while KNOWING they were innocent. Or ask the guy he bankrupted while maintaining that his victim was the "anthrax" crook in DC.

He's a typical careerist slug. Wouldn't be surprised to learn that his service in the USMC was also stained with mis- or mal-feasance.

Beans said...

He's trying not to get Arkansided. Simple as that. Throwing up obfuscation and misdirection like a bad, drunken stage magician. All because he's afraid of retribution by his political masters.

Special Councils are supposed to be people so far above board that they almost walk on water. Mueller was someone who actually made creepy porn star lawyer Avenatti look... normal. The fact that Mueller has only to say nothing happened, even though he said it in the most roundabout and suggestive way possible, means that Trump et al has to be one of the cleanest administrations ever in the last 100 years or so, at least.

LL said...

Adding to Beans' comment. I suspect that the Trump Administration is the cleanest in at least 100 years. There are more deep state types within its ranks who should be purged, but it's on the right track.

deb harvey said...

no they will not stop at anything-- remember josef stalin?
corruption lets nothing stand in its way
what is mueller trying to do? - he knows that the media will take what he said and fly with it.
there are so many americans, many of them intelligent, who will believe the lies and misdirection. it was mueller's parting shot and will pay big dividends to the traitors.
i am praying God to remove all traitors and crooks, and replace them with His good men.

John Ray said...

Would Mueller hide the truth to keep innocent men in prison? Check.

Would Mueller avoid and evade standing policy and standing law to facilitate a Russian uranium deal? Check.

Would Mueller prosecute a chosen innocent man into destitution in order to appear to resolve a chemical warfare threat even though he had not a thread of evidence or even a clue as to the issue? Check.

Conclusion by reasonable patriot: Mueller is a treasonous south end of a northbound mule -- right equal to Hiss and the Rosenbergs.

Conclusion by a Dem: Mueller is an honorable man of impeccable biography.

Aesop said...

If the Congress attempts to impeach the president for nothing, it will be a tacit acknowledgement that they want to set off a full shooting civil war, and are willing to abide by the results.

Period.

Nothing less, at that point, will do.

The Democrats should familiarize themselves with what paleo-biologists refer to a an "extinction event".

Seal Of Lion said...

Here's another take on a coup:

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/07/31/the-military-coup-against-donald-trump-of-2018-part-1-n2362183
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/08/01/the-military-coup-against-donald-trump-of-2018-part-2-n2362194

LindaG said...

Amen, Deb.

LindaG said...

I was quite angry with Mueller. Just like Comey basically saying Clinton did nothing wrong.

Paul said...

Simple. they keep the coup alive till the next election where they will win in a landslide. The Dems have been perfecting Chicago techniques nationwide.

We will see the most crooked election ever and it will be for cankles who will be drafted at the convention when they cannot pick a winner out of the 300 that are running for the democratic nomination.

It is the most absolutely evil thing I have seen in my 63 years on this planet.

Sad thing is there is nothing we can do to stop it.

McChuck said...

DO they want a civil war? Because this is how you get a civil war.

Ray - SoCal said...

Thanks for linking to that essay, and I agree with you, not so far fetched...

Conservative Treehouse is an excellent read, and wrote how the government was weaponized against conservatives, especially the irs and the tea party. The way intel was data mined for political purposes is horrifying. And it seems because of the continued presence of the deep state nobody will be charged. And that there is two standards of justice, one for them, and one for those on the Left.

The Aswan scandal showed how Ryan was played like a puppet by Pelosi. There is a book out on the scandal and I read an interview of the author - unbelievable.

The best thing to go in 2020 is vote. Flipping the house will help a lot. I’m astonished that Trump is getting as much done as he is, with the ferocious headwinds he faces daily.

NITZAKHON said...

@Aesop:

Thanks for those Townhall links.

I hope you find my own two cents worthy...

http://redpilljew.blogspot.com/2019/05/impeachment-only-path-they-have-and-two.html