ANALYSIS — Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III made clear he wouldn’t discuss “deliberations within our office” when he took questions from two House committees July 24 about his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and what Donald Trump’s presidential campaign knew and did about it.
That’s unfortunate. Even if you put aside the argument that Mueller writing that his report “does not exonerate” Trump really means he is “guilty” or “should be impeached,” the way Mueller interpreted the special counsel’s limits to make what he called a “prosecutorial judgment” about a sitting president needs to be explored further.
The current state of politics means this won’t be the last time law enforcement is called upon to investigate a president or people close to the president, regardless who wins in 2020. And if a Democrat is inaugurated in 2021 and investigated after that, people may be surprised if investigators don’t take the hands-off approach Mueller did with Trump.
View the complete August 1 article by Herb Jackson on The Roll Call website here.