Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation is a year old. Too soon to ‘wrap it up.’ – USA Today op-ed by Lisa Gilbert & Fred Wertheimer

Enclosed for your information is an op-ed entitled “Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation is a year old. Too soon to ‘wrap it up.'” by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer and Public Citizen Vice President of Legislative Affairs Lisa Gilbert. The piece was published here in USA Today on May 17, 2018.

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Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation is a year old. Too soon to ‘wrap it up.’

Fred Wertheimer and Lisa Gilbert | May 17, 2018 | USA Today

On the anniversary of Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel and the kickoff of his investigation into Russian election interference, we see a repeated theme coming from President Trump and his surrogates.

“In the interest of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up,” Vice President Pence told NBC News last week. “And I would very respectfully encourage the Special Counsel and his team to bring their work to completion,” he added.

One day later, Chief of Staff John Kelly suggested to NPR that the Mueller probe had gone on too long and there was “nothing there.”

And then there are the brazen remarks of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s new “TV lawyer,” who called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop both the Mueller probe and the investigation into Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer and known fixer.

As Trump’s surrogates call for the Mueller investigation to end, Republican Reps. Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan are misusing their offices to thwart it. They have irresponsibly requested documents from the Justice Department that longstanding policies make clear cannot be revealed in the middle of a criminal investigation.

Nevertheless, these House members have threatened Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the ultimate decider in the investigation, with impeachment and contempt of Congress if they do not get the documents. In doing so, Nunes, Meadows and Jordan are laying the groundwork for Trump to fire Rosenstein if Trump decides to replace Rosenstein with a Trump loyalist.

The arguments being made by these Trump proxies are groundless.

In contrast to the regular pace of a Justice investigation, the Mueller probe is moving along very quickly. Even Trump’s close friend, Newsmax chief executive Christopher Ruddy, has publicly recognized that. As Ruddy said on May 14, “This has moved at a lightning speed. They’re not messing around. They’re going very quickly.”

The tangible results that Mueller is producing also cannot be ignored.

The Watergate scandals, which prompted congressional investigations and a special prosecutor, played out over more than two years and only came to an end when President Richard Nixon resigned. The so-called Benghazi investigation conducted by House Republicans lasted more than two and a half years and produced no indictments of anyone besides the attackers. The Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor investigation took more than six years and produced 11 convictions (though two were overturned).

Trump has falsely labeled the Mueller investigation a “Russian hoax.” Yet as of its first anniversary, the special counsel has indicted 19 individuals and 3 companies, including plea agreements with five individuals.

The Mueller results to date are all the more striking when we know that this is but a partial view of the full story that Mueller will eventually reveal. They include the following:

The special counsel has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three companies for interfering with the 2016 presidential election. The indictment alleges “that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy.”

Paul Manafort, who spent five months in the Trump presidential campaign, including three months as campaign chairman, was indicted on conspiracy, money laundering and other charges. He is being tried in two different cases.

Rick Gates, a Manafort business partner who served as deputy campaign chairman for the Trump campaign, entered into a plea agreement with Mueller and is currently a cooperating witness. The same is true for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who served as a principal adviser during the campaign.

The Mueller investigation also has referred the Cohen case to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. This case has revealed an incredibly brazen example of Washington “pay-to-play,” with Cohen offering to sell government influence in return for huge fees.

Meanwhile, Trump himself has said he fired former FBI director James Comey — at the time Comey was leading the Russia investigation — because of the “Russia thing.”

So far, it appears that Trump will not submit to questioning by the special counsel, which partially explains why he and his helpers are so anxious to stop Mueller.

The effort to end the Mueller investigation is baseless. It is simply insupportable to end the Russia probe when it is not finished and while the public is still missing so many answers about what happened in the 2016 presidential campaign and since then.

Nixon tried to end the Watergate investigation by firing special prosecutor Archibald Cox, but concerned citizens made sure it continued. Similarly, the American people will block Trump if he tries to shut down the Mueller investigation before it is finished.

Lisa Gilbert is vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen and Fred Wertheimer is president and founder of Democracy 21. Follow them on Twitter: @Lisa_PubCitizen and @FredWertheimer