Mueller Report Evidence Favors Impeachment

It’s been a week since the release of the redacted version of the long awaited Mueller report. As the policy of the Department of Justice is that a sitting president cannot be indicted no matter the crime, Special Counsel Robert Mueller ended his report with the following statement: "Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President 's conduct. The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

That’s quite different from what Attorney General William Barr claimed when he first summarized the 448 page document. Barr tried to use Obi Wan Kenobi’s “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” Jedi mind trick. Fortunately the American public aren’t all weak minded Imperial Stormtroopers and we aren’t buying it.

The section identified as Trump Campaign and the Dissemination of Hacked Materials has a high concentration of material redacted and labelled as “Harmful to ongoing matters”, meaning releasing that information might jeopardize ongoing investigations and possible prosecutions. According to the report there are thirteen such ongoing investigations, other sources indicate that half of those are being conducted by the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, at least one in New Jersey and one in California.

The un-redacted majority of the report makes clear that senior members of the Trump campaign went so far as to setup a meeting with a group of Russians with the intent to conspire with them and likely would have if only the Russians had real dirt on Hillary. My understanding of the law is that such behavior qualifies as conspiracy with a foreign power against the United States and that’s a crime even if it was ultimately unsuccessful. That being said there is no clear evidence that Donald Trump, Senior was a party to that conspiracy.

On the other hand the case for obstruction of justice by Trump is most compelling. Trump committed clearly criminal acts repeatedly, speaking both publicly and privately to subordinates suborning perjury and tampering with witnesses by suggesting pardons and issuing threats of retribution. Trump’s efforts to get Don McGahn to change the record of his conversations with Trump so there would be no evidence that he demanded FBI Director James Comey be fired is just the most egregious of several such criminal acts.

We should all remember that impeachment is not the same as a criminal trial and the same standards of evidence don’t apply nor at the penalties the same. Unlike a criminal trial the standard isn’t guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, it’s more can Congress and the American people trust this individual to act in the best interest of the nation. As to penalties there is no provision in the constitution for fines or imprisonment simply removal from office.

One of my major complaints about the Obama administration is that he failed to hold George W. Bush and his staff accountable lying to start the Iraq war and the torture and other war crimes committed. I hope Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t make the same mistake.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 26, 2019