This letter has never been about partisan politics or about electoral politics generally, except to the extent of commentary on the ideas and policy priorities that drive electoral politics. No doubt regular readers over the years should have no difficulty in identifying my political philosophy, but I abjure partisanship. Consistent with this commitment, I have avoided commentary on the daily spin cycle of partisanship that dominates what passes for journalism in this highly polarized environment that has been supercharged by the election of Donald Trump as President.
Having said that as a disclaimer, I must say that what we are witnessing now in the daily pursuit of possible culpability of Trump and his family, campaign staff, and supporters by the special counsel appointed to investigate alleged Russian influence in the 2016 elections has reached the level of conflict of interest and prosecutorial tyranny that is dangerous to the integrity of the rule of law in this country. Already we have seen the resignations or otherwise removal of several FBI and special counsel staff attorneys for partisan conflicts due to their documented opposition to Donald Trump and/or support of Hillary Clinton. Further, the FBI’s reluctance to release significant documents to the House investigating committee and the stonewalling of senior FBI management in testimony before this committee, which is at this point the only item of obstruction that is fully in evidence, betrays a predisposition to protect Hillary Clinton and an embarrassed FBI. I had hoped for better from this agency and from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but obviously I was mistaken. In spite of the thousands of dedicated and professional law enforcement officers in this venerable agency, there is obviously a credibility problem at the higher levels of management.
I have my own problems with a number of aspects of Donald Trump as President, but he is our constitutionally elected president and to me overwhelmingly preferable to the alternative that was available. My problem is that I have continuously underestimated the vitriol and defiance of the radical left, the Democratic Party, and their fellow travelers in the holdover Obama administrative state in their willingness to go to any length to invalidate and discredit his election, and that this extends to the undermining of the rule of law, which many of them evidently consider secondary to the protection of the country from a successful Trump administration. This has become even more abundantly clear in this biased investigation and I fear that, regardless of the outcome, it ultimately will do great damage to the republic. The only way I see out of this mess and provide the necessary transparency and impartiality is for Congress to take charge of all aspects of the investigation into outside influence in the 2016 election under its constitutional oversight role, which should immediately include strict enforcement of its contempt of Congress authority under the law.
Good article. However, it leaves out the involvement of folks like Lindsey Graham and other establishment Republicans, who are no more interested in having the investigation go away than the Democrats. Many of them want to control/constrain/ eliminate Trump as much as the Democrats do.
I am confident that Robert Mueller will produce an excellent report with well researched conclusions. He has the respect of a large majority of thinking folks. As a lawyer myself I have to presume that there is something going on between Trump and Russia and his buddy Putin. Everyone agrees that Russia meddled with our election and that should be an act of war but Trump ignores this. We have a president who ignores a foreign power doing this. He refuses to criticize Putin but criticizes and makes fun of everyone else. This circumstantial evidence against Trump is powerful and the details are coming to light. I could say a lot more about Trump but I am confident that Mueller will produce a lawyerlike report and you and other thinking citizens will agree with it. You may be one of those folks who believe that Trump is good enough and those like me who speak or act against him are the forces of evil. I believe in moderation and Trump does not encourage this at all. I wish we had people like Mueller as head of every agency.
Regarding your education comments, we certainly need a legislature and leadership that will work on this. Instead we have the Patrick- Abbott leadership which was consumed with their bathroom bill, the most juvenile piece of legislation I have ever seen.
I continue to be inspired by moderate Republicans like Strauss in Texas and a few in Washington who have the courage to speak and act in the face of some extreme views and legislation.
I’m no where near as smart as a lawyer and would never “presume” to know near as much about collecting evidence of a criminal act as a lawyer does. However, I did not know because one was a lawyer, he had “to presume” anything, let alone guilt or wrong doing.