Latest in Robert S. Mueller
On July 24, former special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III testified in an open hearing before the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. The livestream of both hearings is available below.
House Intelligence Committee Hearing
I am far too good a lawyer—despite not being one at all—to take on Jack Goldsmith on a matter combining statutory interpretation, the presidency, and the historic positions of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) without a healthy dose of humility. So let me start by saying that I’m not saying Goldsmith’s critique of Mueller’s statutory analysis on obstruction of justice is wrong.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has concluded his investigation, and many questions remain. Chief among them is what animated Mueller’s decision not to reach a conclusion on possible obstruction of justice by the president. Why did he choose to follow Department of Justice policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president? Would he have indicted the president without that policy? Why did he seemingly leave it to Congress—and, perhaps inadvertently, to Attorney General William Barr—to make a final judgment on the president’s conduct?
The completion of the Mueller investigation is no small democratic accomplishment and was not a foregone conclusion in an environment in which the president has repeatedly sought to smear and frustrate the investigation.
The criminality alleged in this story is—if true—unsubtle and unambiguous, directly related to the president’s conduct as president and concerning matters of great import.
President Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr says he has the “the utmost respect” for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but during his confirmation hearings he would not pledge to release any report produced by Mueller’s office. Some see an inconsistency. They’re wrong.
When Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence agents on the eve of the Helsinki summit, former attorney general Michael Mukasey smelled a rat. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mukasey contends that Mueller had in mind to embarrass President Trump or limit his room to maneuver in the one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There are reasons to be cautious about the 49 questions that Robert Mueller wishes to pose to President Trump in an interview, as the New York Times reported Monday evening.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled “Andrew McCarthy's Puzzling Argument” that explained the weakness in Andrew McCarthy’s then-recent argument in the National Review that the Mueller investigation had “shredded” and “flouted” Justice Departmentt charging policies.
President Trump yesterday issued a stunning vote of no-confidence in basically everyone currently in a leadership position in the Justice Department, the FBI, or the special counsel’s office—in other words, not just some federal law enforcement, but all of it.