If you’ve been following the coverage on both CNN and in the Washington Post today about the special counsel investigation and the fact that Mueller is purportedly close — perhaps within the next few days — to issuing his final report to the Justice Department and Congress, you undoubtedly know that the nation’s capital is ablaze with expectation. How quickly will the report be released to the public? How fully, without redactions?
More importantly, will the new Attorney General — on his second tour of duty in the position after serving in the same capacity for President George H.W. Bush — allow even Congress to be fully briefed on what’s in the report?
Those are all valid questions, and nobody is asking them more keenly, aside from those with the utmost concern for justice for the Trump campaign, than those who hope the answers will protect Donald Trump instead.
One advisor, in fact, told the Post that members of Trump’s inner circle have a “palpable concern” about the potentially damaging political effect the report could have on Trump’s presidency. While not all are convinced that the report will actually implicate Trump in criminal activity, the Post editorial goes on to say:
The end of the special counsel’s probe would not mean the end of criminal investigations connected to the president. Federal prosecutors in New York, for instance, are exploring whether corrupt payments were made in connection with Trump’s inaugural committee funding.”
It is hard to imagine, however, that Robert Mueller has not at the very least concluded that the President has knowingly, purposefully obstructed justice during the investigation on multiple occasions. After all, much of that obstruction was done publicly — admissions on live television about the motivation for firing James Comey, tweets clearly intended to intimidate witnesses, and public statements to the effect that all negative media coverage is false, fake, or made up.
Additionally, the statement that Trump would not be criminally implicated isn’t new or unique — remember, the source is an advisor to the President, and that’s been their defense essentially the whole time: If anything illegal happened, Trump didn’t do it, know about it, or intend for it to happen.
But if we know better, you can rest assured that Bob Mueller knows better as well.
Featured image via screen capture
