Latest in Starr investigation
The wait is almost over. The Mueller report is set for release on Thursday morning. It’s already a number-one bestseller on Amazon. Congressional staffers are stockpiling booze and drafting take-out orders, anticipating a long night of reading.
According to news reports, the end of the Mueller investigation is near. As early as next week, the special counsel may submit his report to the attorney general. Days of fevered speculation lie ahead. The chatter will include questions that have proved durable over the past year and a half.
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.
The new Congress is poised to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller has finished his work or not. This task will be at once unprecedented and familiar. Never before in the history of the republic has Congress investigated credible allegations that the president obtained the highest office in the land by conspiring with a hostile foreign power in violation of federal law.
Back in 2002, I published a book entitled Starr: A Reassessment, which took a nuanced look at the history of Kenneth Starr’s service as independent counsel. The book focused on Starr’s understanding of his role under the now-defunct independent counsel law, specifically his ambitious understanding of that role not as a traditional prosecutor but as a kind of truth commissioner.
At the order of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the National Archives and Records Administration has unsealed the 1999 special master's report on possible leaks from the independent counsel's office in the Starr investigation. The report is available here and below.