Bringing the Mueller Report to Life
FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | JUNE 6, 2019
“The congressional committee hearings in the coming weeks will provide the American people with the true story of what the Mueller investigation found and of the transgressions committed by President Trump and his associates.”
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has announced a series of hearings will start on June 10 on “the alleged crimes and other misconduct” laid out in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Nadler has said he is confident that Special Counsel Mueller will testify soon.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced that his Committee will also be doing a series of hearings on the Mueller report dealing with Russian interference in the 2016 election. Other Committees with jurisdiction over matters dealt with in the report may also conduct hearings.
Televised committee hearings in the coming weeks are essential to inform and educate the American people about the findings of the Mueller report.
Most Americans are unaware, for example, that the Mueller report lays out “multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election” by Russia, as Mueller noted in his press conference. They are also unaware of the numerous examples of potential obstruction of justice by President Trump set forth in the report.
Hearings by the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 played a similar important role in educating the American people about the abuses of President Nixon and his administration.
All told, 319 hours of Senate Watergate Committee hearings were broadcast live and 85 percent of U.S. households watched some portion of them.
The televised hearings had a dramatic impact.
President Trump has done everything he could to mislead and deceive the American people about the Mueller investigation and report. He has been aided by Attorney General William Barr, improperly operating as Trump’s chief defender rather than as the nation’s chief law enforcement official.
The congressional committee hearings in the coming weeks will provide the American people with the true story of what the Mueller investigation found and of the transgressions committed by President Trump and his associates.
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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections. See previous Notes from Fred here.
