April 20, 2019
On Thursday, 23 months after the appointment of the Special Counsel and nearly a month after he submitted the report to the Attorney General, the Mueller Report was finally released to the public. Even though the section on evidence of coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia was heavily redacted, the 448 page report painted a damning picture of a campaign eager to profit from a massive Russian effort to interfere with our elections and a President determined to thwart any investigation of that fact, (Source: “Trump’s aides were eager to take Russian dirt on Clinton. But it wasn’t a conspiracy, Mueller report said,” by Kristina Phillip, USAToday.com, 4/18/19).
Volume I of the Report details the extent of Russian efforts to subvert our democracy. It describes an effort that began in earnest in 2014 and involved the manipulation of Americans through sophisticated use of social media, as well as a hacking operation that obtained e-mails from the Clinton campaign, DCCC and the DNC, which were strategically released to inflict maximum damage on Clinton’s campaign, (Source: “Executive Summary to Volume I, Report on The Investigation Into Russian Interference into the 2016 Election, Volume I, by Special Counsel Robert Mueller). Much of the information in Volume I tracks what we already know, thanks to the indictments, plea deals or convictions of Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen and the Russian Internet Research Agency.
It is Volume II, which analyzes the case for obstruction of justice charges against Trump, that is the most impactful. Volume II details ten potential instances of obstruction by Trump and, contrary to William Barr’s nakedly dishonest conclusion, makes clear that the only reason the Special Counsel is not stating whether he believes that Trump obstructed justice is the Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president, (Source: “Does the Mueller Report exonerate Trump? I asked 12 legal experts,” by Sean Illing, Vox.com, 4/20/19).
In the 20 pages of the Report entitled, “Legal Defenses to the Application of Obstruction-of-Justice Statutes,” the Special Counsel methodically eviscerates the specious argument made by Trump’s lawyers that a sitting president is beyond the reach of those laws. This section of the report reads like a remedial clinic on statutory interpretation that you might give a particularly dim first year law student. First, the report tackles the plain meaning of the relevant statute, 18 U.S.C.§§1512, spending an entire paragraph dissecting the meaning of the word, “otherwise,” (Report on The Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Election, Volume II, page 162). The Report goes on to review relevant Supreme Court precedent, frequently citing opinions by conservative justices such as Scalia and Kennedy, as well as the statute’s legislative history. It concludes the analysis by stating that the “preclusion of ‘corrupt’ official action is not a major intrusion on Article II powers. For example, the proper supervision of criminal law does not demand freedom for the President to act with the intention of shielding himself from criminal punishment, avoiding financial liability or preventing personal embarrassment,” ( Source: Report, Volume II at 174).
Although those of us more accustomed to the language of righteous indignation from progressive activists might find the studied neutrality of the Report’s language disappointing, the reality is that the Report is actually roadmap for impeachment proceedings. The Report paints a damning portrait of a nest of unscrupulous vipers who seemingly were only saved from criminal culpability by their own incompetence.
Mountains of evidence in the Report reveals our “president” to be an utterly corrupt and faithless person whose only motivation is his own self interest. His actions are precisely the type the founders had in mind when they drafted Article II, Section 4, which provides that a “President… may be removed from Office on Impeachment for and conviction of Treason, Bribery or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Refusing to impeach Trump because the Senate won’t convict him is an abdication of the Democratic House majority’s Constitutional and moral authority. Refusing to act because the corrupt ultra -partisan Republicans in the Senate take the position that powerful white men are above the law is to concede that they’re right. Failure to impeach in the face of the Mueller Report is to countenance lawlessness at the highest level and we all know who suffers most when those in power are unconstrained by law. Just ask the asylum seekers being detained at gunpoint by vigilantes on the New Mexico border. Refusing to uphold the law in pursuit of the chimerical “swing voter” treats the most vulnerable among us like acceptable collateral damage. Just know that we see you.