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| Home Front: Politix |
| VDH: One Mueller-Investigation Coincidence Too Many |
| 2017-12-12 |
| h/t Instapundit Special prosecutors, investigators, and counsels are usually a bad idea. They are admissions that constitutionally mandated institutions don’t work ‐ and can be rescued only by supposed superhuman moralists, who are without the innate biases inherent in human nature. The record from Lawrence Walsh to Ken Starr to Patrick Fitzgerald suggests otherwise. Originally narrow mandates inevitably expand ‐ on the cynical theory that everyone has something embarrassing to hide. Promised "short" timelines and limited budgets are quickly forgotten. Prosecutors search for ever new crimes to justify the expense and public expectations of the special-counsel appointment. Soon the investigators need to be investigated for their own conflicts of interest, as if we need special-special or really, really special prosecutors. Special investigations often quickly turn Soviet, in the sense of "Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime." Special Counsel Robert Mueller has led what seems to be an exemplary life of public service. No doubt he believes that as a disinterested investigator he can get to the bottom of the once contentious charge of "Russian collusion" in the 2016 election. But can he? A Mandate Gone Wild Something has gone terribly wrong with the Mueller investigation. The investigation is venturing well beyond the original mandate of rooting out evidence of Russian collusion. Indeed, the word "collusion" is now rarely invoked at all. It has given way to its successor, "obstruction." The latter likely will soon beget yet another catchphrase to justify the next iteration of the investigations. There seems far less special investigatory concern with the far more likely Russian collusion in the matters of the origins and dissemination of the Fusion GPS/Steele dossier, and its possible role in the Obama-administration gambit of improper or illegal surveilling, unmasking, and leaking of the names of American citizens. Leaks from the Mueller investigation so far abound. They have seemed calibrated to create a public consensus that particular individuals are currently under investigation, likely to be indicted ‐ or indeed likely guilty. These public worries are not groundless. They are deeply rooted in the nature and liberal composition of the Mueller investigative team ‐ whose left-leaning appointments just months ago had understandably made the liberal media giddy with anticipation from the outset. Wired, for instance, published this headline on June 14: "Robert Mueller Chooses His Investigatory Dream Team." Vox, on August 22, wrote: "Meet the all-star legal team who may take down Trump." The Daily Beast, two day later, chimed in: "Inside Robert Mueller’s Army." ...By now there are simply too many coincidental conflicts of interest and too much improper investigatory behavior to continue to give the Mueller investigation the benefit of doubt. Each is a light straw; together, they now have broken the back of the probe’s reputation. In inexplicable fashion, Mueller seems to have made almost no effort to select attorneys from outside Washington, from diverse private law firms across the country, who were without personal involvement with the Clinton machine, and who were politically astute or disinterested enough to keep their politics to themselves. ...Yet Donald Trump at this point would be unhinged if he were to fire Special Counsel Mueller ‐ given that the investigators seem intent on digging their own graves through conflicts of interest, partisan politicking, leaking, improper amorous liaisons, indiscreet communications, and stonewalling the release of congressionally requested information. Indeed, the only remaining trajectory by which Mueller and his investigators can escape with their reputations intact is to dismiss those staff attorneys who have exhibited clear anti-Trump political sympathies, reboot the investigation, and then focus on what now seems the most likely criminal conduct: Russian and Clinton-campaign collusion in the creation of the anti-Trump Fusion GPS dossier and later possible U.S. government participation in the dissemination of it. If such a fraudulent document was used to gain court approval to surveil Trump associates, and under such cover to unmask and leak names of private U.S. citizens ‐ at first to warp a U.S. election, and then later to thwart the work of an incoming elected administration ‐ then Mueller will be tasked with getting to the bottom of one of the greatest political scandals in recent U.S. history. Indeed, his legacy may not be that he welcomed in known pro-Clinton, anti-Trump attorneys to investigate the Trump 2016 campaign where there was little likelihood of criminality, but that he ignored the most egregious case of government wrongdoing in the last half-century. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #2 The entire investigation team should simply be tried for treason and when found guilty, shot. Trump ought to start referring to them as Chekists. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2017-12-12 19:23 |
| #1 RTWT - It's concise and brutal |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-12-12 18:47 |