Robert Mueller (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Special Counsel Robert Mueller spoke for the first time since the release of his report. He took no questions, provided no new information, argued that he should not be hauled in front of Congress, and basically told America to go jump in a lake and leave him the hell alone.
In comments at the Department of Justice, Mueller said: “”The report is my testimony.” He went on to merely reiterate what was already in his report: he didn’t “exonerate” President Donald Trump, but he didn’t charge him because he felt charging a sitting President was beyond his purview. He added that he thought charging a sitting President was “unconstitutional.” It’s not, but I’ll allow him some creative license since explaining that following Department of Justice guidance that has never been challenged in court is a little wordy.
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His statement will satisfy nobody. I’m sure that the Maggie Habermans of the world will think this a virtue. Disappointing the collection of criminals and bigots that rule America, AND disappointing everybody else, is somehow sacred ground for those who value the appearance of “balance” over the demands of history.
It would appear that, in the end, Robert Mueller is most concerned about the reputation of Robert Mueller. You find this a lot among self-styled “institutionalists.” They care about their little part of the store, and if their part of the store fails, they care about being perceived as doing the right things. If you’ve been watching the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, you saw this dynamic play out in the first episode. The nuclear power reactor EXPLODED. It actually blew the hell up. But all the technicians and apparatchiks just kept pressing their little buttons and following the normal procedures for a non-explosion. Later, with the skin melting off of their bones, they just kept saying “we did everything right.”
That’s Robert Mueller, a guy who is witnessing an unanticipated and unprecedented explosion of America, clutching his user’s manual as if it has the answers.
If it sounds like I’m being overly critical of Mueller and his efforts, I really don’t mean to be. He was hired to do a job and he did that job, no more. He’s the doctor who looks at your scans and says, “Looks like you have cancer.” He was never the oncologist who was actually going to do something about it. We wanted Mueller to be savior, a non-partisan ringer who would come in and right the ship of state. Instead we got a mere functionary, a career bureaucrat who performed his duty and now wants to go home.
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It’s like having a junior associate who’s never off the clock.
Mueller didn’t want to be “the guy” who brought down the Trump administration. That’s why he never interviewed or subpoenaed Don Trump Jr. or Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump. That’s why he let President Trump skate by with written responses to his questions. All of Mueller’s investigative decisions make sense, once you accept that he always wanted to pass the buck to somebody else.
That buck now sits squarely on the House of Representatives. It is House Democrats, more than anybody, who have fooled themselves into thinking Mueller was more than he is. It’s Democrats who have pinned their hopes on Mueller making things easy for them, giving them cover to start impeachment proceedings based on his directive as opposed to making the call based on the evidence he provided.
The Democrats don’t need Robert Mueller’s say-so to impeach. He’s provided them with more than enough evidence in his report, in addition to all the things we know about the Trump administration that were outside the purview of the Mueller report. We’re dealing with the most corrupt President in the history of the country: a tax cheat, a charity fraud, and an emoluments profiteer. He has obstructed and attempted to obstruct (same thing, folks) investigations into his administration at every turn, including once on live television, even to the point of witness tampering. We don’t need to hear any more from Mueller, we need to hear that Democrats will uphold their oaths of office and hold the President accountable by the only means specified in the Constitution.
Robert Mueller would like his part in this drama to be at an end. He was never here to make it easy on the Democrats. He was never here to save America. He was just… here, filling out his suit and his checklist and his report as best he could.
And now his watch has ended.
Mueller speaks about investigation for first time, says he won’t comment beyond his report [NBC News]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.