Mueller’s Actions On Russia — Not Congress’s — Will Rule The Day

FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | JANUARY 11, 2018

“Speaker Ryan needs to be held publicly accountable for his refusal to do anything about the dangers to our democracy caused by the Russian interference in our elections.”

When President Trump tweeted this week that Congressional Republicans need to “finally take control!” of the Russia investigation, he was asking them to do what they’ve already been doing.

In recent weeks, key Republicans on Capitol Hill have been pounding away at the Mueller/Russia investigation and working to curb the congressional inquiries.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) apparently sees his job as investigating the Justice Department, the FBI, Fusion GPS, and anyone else he can think of, rather than pursuing the Russia investigation. When Nunes demanded that the Justice Department and the FBI turn over sensitive investigatory documents to him, they did so only after House Speaker Ryan quietly backed the request.

Speaker Ryan needs to be held publicly accountable for his refusal to do anything about the dangers to our democracy caused by the Russian interference in our elections.

In the Senate, Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) appears to believe his job is to investigate Hillary Clinton (calling for a second Special Counsel to investigate a seven-year old government decision), to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department against the author of the “Trump dossier,” to refuse to make public the testimony of the head of Fusion GPS who commissioned the dossier (Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) eventually did), and do anything else he can to avoid conducting a serious Russia investigation.

The Nunes and Grassley efforts have all the appearances of throwing mud against the wall in the hopes that something might stick. This is a far cry from the role that Republicans played in the Senate Watergate investigation.

Fortunately, there is no evidence that these efforts or any other efforts undertaken by President Trump or others have had any influence on Mueller and his investigation.

In the end it is Mueller’s findings and actions — not these efforts to discredit, obfuscate, and undermine the Special Counsel investigation — that will rule the day.

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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.