For two years, we have been waiting with baited breath for a report from the special counsel, Robert Swan Mueller III, about whether or not the president of the United States colluded with the Russians and attempted to obstruct justice. These are potentially devastating accusations. For two years, Mr. Mueller has been a particularly elusive figure. He is one of the most powerful men in Washington but we never see him in the flesh. We never hear his voice. We don’t know what he and his expensive gang of prosecutors have been thinking. On May 29, we finally had the opportunity to hear from the man himself.
As I tuned in to his address, I hoped Mr. Mueller would say, “We just spent two years and countless millions, issued 2,800 subpoenas, and interviewed 500 witnesses. The result of our extensive investigation is that there was no collusion, no obstruction of justice. Thank you very much and goodbye.” Given the substance of his report, that would have been an accurate and honest statement. I expected such a confession because we were assured by the CNN crowd that Mr. Mueller is a man of the highest integrity and professional competence. Alas, my expectation was not realized.
In place of the truth, here is what this allegedly honorable man had to say: “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” This careless statement insinuates that the president did commit a crime. What the hell is wrong with you, Mr. Special Counsel? Can’t you simply say that you couldn’t find the evidence to support an indictment and so there was no crime? What a weasel! “I can’t say he did it, but I can’t say he didn’t do it.”
How can we take Mr. Mueller seriously after this statement? If you can’t prove he did it, then shut up and go home. That’s how our justice system works, as you of all people, Mr. Mueller, ought to be aware. If you can’t prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is not guilty.
But no, Mueller has created the unavoidable impression that he believes the president has committed a crime. The mainstream media and Congressional Democrats on the “I Hate Trump” team—Nadler, Harris, Schiff, Warren and company—are jumping for joy. They never liked the results of the investigation. This is more to their taste.
Mueller won’t exonerate Trump, but does he actually believe that a crime has been committed? Not exactly. Mr. Mueller contradicted himself by acknowledging that his report contains the truth and nothing but. “We chose those words carefully and the report speaks for itself.” If it does speak for itself, and it doesn’t contain proof of a crime, then why didn’t Mueller have the integrity to exonerate the president?
It made no sense, but that was only the first contradiction. Mueller then offered this excuse for his “I can’t say he didn’t do it” statement: “We did not make a determination of whether the president did commit a crime” because “a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider.” In other words, we wanted to charge him but we lacked the power to do so. Never mind the absence of evidence. “It would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge… We concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime.”
Wait a minute. You just admitted that you had no confidence in the president’s innocence, now you’re saying that you reached no determination on this question? This is an attempt to hide the truth. You can’t have it both ways, Mr. Mueller. Either you are accusing Trump or you are absolving him. If you truly believed that the president could not be charged with a crime, you should have called off the investigation. The bottom line is that after two years, Mueller could not produce the result he wanted so he is tossing a bone to the Democrats as they salivate for impeachment.
At this point in Mueller’s address, I asked myself, “Why is he bothering to give this speech?” The answer poked its nasty little head out of the fog: “The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” Aha! Mueller’s entire performance was really a cover-up for urging Congress to impeach the president. Had Mueller been a person of integrity he would have said so in plain language. He isn’t, so he resorted once again to insinuation. That was good enough for Trump’s enemies.
From its inception, the motives surrounding the special counsel investigation have been suspect. As political commentator Mark Levin has argued, the Deep State—led by Obama holdovers in the justice system—used the Mueller investigation as a “silent coup” to unseat President Trump. “Neither Mr. Mueller nor Andrew Weissmann are interested in the truth whatsoever,” says former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, author of Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice. “They’re only interested in whatever they can generate to create a criminal offense.” The special counsel’s attempt to invalidate a legitimate presidential election is an example of the weaponization of the DoJ in service of political objectives. Mueller coerced witnesses to “compose” evidence capable of bringing down the president. If our justice system were functioning as it should, Mueller himself would be charged with blackmail and subornation of perjury—persuading a witness to make a false oath. Instead, the lives of uncooperative witnesses were destroyed as they were charged with a non-crime by the special counsel.
When did Mueller realize that the Trump campaign did not collude with the Russians and why didn’t he conclude his business at that point? Answer:Mueller wanted to divert attention from the worst political scandal in American history—a multitude of criminal activities by members of the Obama administration including but not limited to Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Loretta Lynch, Susan Rice, John Brennan, and Obama himself. It looks like there was collusion with the Russians, only it was the Democrats who did it. We desperately need a special counsel—to investigate the illegal activities of the Democrats, not the Republicans.
The final insult was Mueller’s decree: “That is the office’s final position and we will not comment on any other conclusion or hypotheticals about the president… This will be the only time I will speak to you.” Mueller is afraid to appear before a congressional committee. Is this the man of integrity we were told to expect? He turns out to be nothing more than a partisan hack and a coward. Ed Brodow is a political commentator, negotiation expert, and author of seven books including his latest, Tyranny of the Minority: How the Left is Destroying America.
