Now that the Mueller report has been submitted, what is the next step? I guess it depends upon what Mueller was actually investigating.
I think we have reasonable agreement that foreign governments or their surrogates have used technology to influence American elections to some degree for several years. The Mueller investigation was predicated on there being a relationship between Donald Trump and Russian efforts to interfere.
Keep in mind that our government has known about Russian efforts and those of several other countries to interfere in one way or another for years. President Obama knew about them and yet he still minimized the actual impact on any election we could point to. He never instructed his Attorney General to investigate Russian meddling; probably because he knew Hillary Clinton was actually in bed with the Russians. That should be incorporated into the discussion. Foreign interference in our elections was never identified as a significant threat to our country before Donald Trump came on the scene.
What we learned in the course of the nearly two-year investigation was that people associated with Donald Trump misled investigators. Some like Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort might spend years in prison for their lack of candor. The important conclusion we should arrive at is Trump and his team didn’t interact with Russia inappropriately.
My personal view is that Mike Flynn was targeted because he was a strong advocate for American security evidenced by his dismissal from the Obama Administration for his criticism of the administration’s incompetence. Flynn was a target of the Obama holdovers in the DOJ and FBI from the time he signed on with Trump. At that time, there was discussion about how Flynn knew where the bodies were buried in the Obama Administration because of his very high position. His relationship with Trump represented a threat to exposure of evidence that Obama Administration officials were involved in criminal activities, even up to treason. It was absolutely a priority to discredit Mike Flynn and hopefully silence him. Surprise, Surprise, Mike Flynn was snuffed.
The good news now is that we might get to see the evidence they tried mightily to keep in the dark. After two years of this torture there are indications that the new Attorney General might be shifting the attention of the DOJ over to investigating the real crimes committed going back as far as 2014.
We learned that in the pursuit of Paul Manafort that timeliness of the crime is not important. He is going to jail for crimes he committed years before Trump ever heard of him. Members of Congress and TV pundits were clear that allegations of criminal acts warrant investigation and if there is actual evidence, prosecution should follow. Prosecutors squeezed Manafort mightily and they came up with old crimes that would ruin his life moving forward, but they didn’t get a thing implicating Trump in anything dirty.
The lesson is that allegations of crimes by government officials regardless of their timeline or intent are worthy of investigation and if there is evidence of crimes then prosecution is required. Paul Manafort will most likely spend the remainder of his life in prison for minor crimes so I don’t think it’s improper to demand that every one of the folks at the Department of Justice and FBI who conspired to take down a President (regardless of their suspicions about Trump) are pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
We cannot sweep this under a rug and hope it goes away. Crimes against our country demand investigation. Covering up crimes against our country demand investigation. Conspiring to undermine an election demand investigation. Destroying evidence of Espionage and National Security crimes demand investigation. Obstructing justice by anyone in the government or by anyone in a political campaign to prevent exposure of criminal acts by others demands investigation.
The model for the Department of Justice moving forward needs to reflect the aggression and zeal of the Trump-Russia Special Counsel investigation. We are entitled to justice but more importantly, we need justice to restore the integrity of our institutions.
Attorney General Barr needs to get on with the process. The time clock is running. A Presidential election could squelch an ongoing investigation in 2020. Start with the evidence we all are aware of and work your way up. Shake the tree. If you can squeeze lower level rats to sing, we can work our way to the divas at the top of the pyramid. Let the evidence lead us to the criminals.
Posted on March 23, 2019 at 7:59 am in Political commentary | RSS feed
|
Reply |
Trackback URL
No Loss for Words
Mueller Report Next Steps
by Steve DanaNow that the Mueller report has been submitted, what is the next step? I guess it depends upon what Mueller was actually investigating.
I think we have reasonable agreement that foreign governments or their surrogates have used technology to influence American elections to some degree for several years. The Mueller investigation was predicated on there being a relationship between Donald Trump and Russian efforts to interfere.
Keep in mind that our government has known about Russian efforts and those of several other countries to interfere in one way or another for years. President Obama knew about them and yet he still minimized the actual impact on any election we could point to. He never instructed his Attorney General to investigate Russian meddling; probably because he knew Hillary Clinton was actually in bed with the Russians. That should be incorporated into the discussion. Foreign interference in our elections was never identified as a significant threat to our country before Donald Trump came on the scene.
What we learned in the course of the nearly two-year investigation was that people associated with Donald Trump misled investigators. Some like Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort might spend years in prison for their lack of candor. The important conclusion we should arrive at is Trump and his team didn’t interact with Russia inappropriately.
My personal view is that Mike Flynn was targeted because he was a strong advocate for American security evidenced by his dismissal from the Obama Administration for his criticism of the administration’s incompetence. Flynn was a target of the Obama holdovers in the DOJ and FBI from the time he signed on with Trump. At that time, there was discussion about how Flynn knew where the bodies were buried in the Obama Administration because of his very high position. His relationship with Trump represented a threat to exposure of evidence that Obama Administration officials were involved in criminal activities, even up to treason. It was absolutely a priority to discredit Mike Flynn and hopefully silence him. Surprise, Surprise, Mike Flynn was snuffed.
The good news now is that we might get to see the evidence they tried mightily to keep in the dark. After two years of this torture there are indications that the new Attorney General might be shifting the attention of the DOJ over to investigating the real crimes committed going back as far as 2014.
We learned that in the pursuit of Paul Manafort that timeliness of the crime is not important. He is going to jail for crimes he committed years before Trump ever heard of him. Members of Congress and TV pundits were clear that allegations of criminal acts warrant investigation and if there is actual evidence, prosecution should follow. Prosecutors squeezed Manafort mightily and they came up with old crimes that would ruin his life moving forward, but they didn’t get a thing implicating Trump in anything dirty.
The lesson is that allegations of crimes by government officials regardless of their timeline or intent are worthy of investigation and if there is evidence of crimes then prosecution is required. Paul Manafort will most likely spend the remainder of his life in prison for minor crimes so I don’t think it’s improper to demand that every one of the folks at the Department of Justice and FBI who conspired to take down a President (regardless of their suspicions about Trump) are pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
We cannot sweep this under a rug and hope it goes away. Crimes against our country demand investigation. Covering up crimes against our country demand investigation. Conspiring to undermine an election demand investigation. Destroying evidence of Espionage and National Security crimes demand investigation. Obstructing justice by anyone in the government or by anyone in a political campaign to prevent exposure of criminal acts by others demands investigation.
The model for the Department of Justice moving forward needs to reflect the aggression and zeal of the Trump-Russia Special Counsel investigation. We are entitled to justice but more importantly, we need justice to restore the integrity of our institutions.
Attorney General Barr needs to get on with the process. The time clock is running. A Presidential election could squelch an ongoing investigation in 2020. Start with the evidence we all are aware of and work your way up. Shake the tree. If you can squeeze lower level rats to sing, we can work our way to the divas at the top of the pyramid. Let the evidence lead us to the criminals.
Rate this:
Share this:
Related
Posted on March 23, 2019 at 7:59 am in Political commentary | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL
One Trackback to “Mueller Report Next Steps”