William A. Jacobson:
They are not investigating a crime. They are organizing a search party to find a crime.
When Robert Mueller was first appointed Special Counsel, I thought, given his generally good reputation, that this might be a streamlined process with fewer leaks, focused on either proving or disproving allegations of Russian interference.
But I did acknowledge, for example in this radio interview, that there was a risk that in the wrong hands the powers vested under the Order appointing Mueller could be abused:
“He will have the authority to investigate and the authority to prosecute any crimes that he finds, and the scope of what he’s investigating under the order is fairly broad, it’s anything related to Russian interference in the campaign and any collusion, or any matters arising out of that. So it’s very broad, and very easily in the wrong hands could be a prosecutor in search of a crime, as opposed to a prosecutor prosecuting a crime.”
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Q. Do you think Robert Mueller is the wrong hands [for the investigation]?
A. I don’t think so, I have no reason to believe that … but until you get there, you don’t know. If we see this turning into what I’ll call ‘process crimes,’ which is somebody wasn’t completely truthful, or was evasive, not necessarily perjury, but obstruction of justice …. If that’s where this ends up, then this would be another example of a special counsel, or special prosecutor, gone wrong.
That interview was before James Comey testified that he manipulated the media and DOJ into appointing a Special Counsel by leaking a memo of his conversation with Trump about the Flynn investigation to the NY Times.
Ever since that disclosure, the Special Counsel process and Mueller specifically, has been tainted. I argued that Mueller needed to step aside because of his friendship with Comey, Robert Mueller should step aside: Friends shouldn’t be investigating friends:
“… the case has dramatically changed since James Comey was outed, or outed himself, as the leaker of a memorandum to the NY Times and testified before the Senate. Remember this case started as an investigation of Russian involvement.
We now know from Comey’s testimony that as of the date Comey was fired in late May, Donald Trump individually was not under investigation for anything, not criminal, not counter-intelligence. So there’s nothing for Mueller to be investigating about Donald Trump individually except for one thing, which is James Comey’s conversations with Donald Trump regarding the Michael Flynn investigation. That’s where Comey famously quotes Trump saying ‘I hope you let it go, he’s a good guy,’ I’m paraphrasing there.
That is now the center of attention. That involves James Comey as a key witness. Who is James Comey personally and professionally friendly with? Robert Mueller.
Robert Mueller, if he is going to consider the alleged obstruction of justice asserted by James Comey, should not be the prosecutor or investigator in this because he is friendly with a key witness, James Comey. So that’s what I meant when I said ‘friends should not be investigating friends.’ And Robert Mueller, if he is considering Trump’s asserted obstruction of justice, cannot and should not be the investigator on this case.”
Everything that has happened since then leads to the conclusion the Mueller as Special Counsel is not investigating an alleged crime, but searching for a crime.
Andy McCarthy argues persuasively that this is not a proper role of Special Counsel under the regulation creating the position, Mueller’s Empire: Legions of Lawyers, Bottomless Budget, Limitless Jurisdiction: