Wertheimer Statement: Justice Department’s IG Report Provides No Basis for Trump to Challenge Legitimacy of Mueller Investigation
Justice Department’s IG Report Provides No Basis for Trump to Challenge Legitimacy of Mueller Investigation
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General report is highly critical of former FBI Director James Comey for violating DOJ rules in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
The report shows that Comey’s improper interference in the 2016 presidential election was harmful to Hillary Clinton. While we will never know the answer, Comey’s public reopening of the Clinton email investigation 10 days before the election, in violation of Justice Department policy, may well have been decisive in electing Trump as President.
It is widely expected that President Trump and his allies will misuse and mischaracterize the IG report to claim that it was appropriate for the President to fire Comey, that there was no obstruction of justice in his doing so, and that the “witch hunt” Mueller investigation never should have begun and should now be ended.
There are three key points to remember during the barrage of false and misleading statements expected from Trump’s twitter.
One, we know from Trump’s own statements to NBC and to Russian officials that he fired Comey to get rid of the Russia investigation, not for mishandling the Clinton email investigation. It was President Trump’s obstructionist action in firing Comey that correctly led to the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller.
Two, the Mueller investigation, which Trump keeps calling a “witch hunt,” has already resulted in five criminal convictions, indictments of eighteen additional individuals and companies, and more than one hundred criminal charges. There is no doubt more to come. The investigation is anything but baseless.
Three, the main conclusion to draw from the IG Report is that Comey’s improper interference in the 2016 presidential election was harmful to Hillary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump.
It is simply Orwellian to say that the IG report, which shows that Comey broke the DOJ rules in ways that hurt Clinton and helped Trump, is evidence that Mueller’s investigation should never have been started and should now be ended. The investigation has already produced major results and must continue until the Special Counsel has completed his work.
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Released: June 14, 2018
