For the last year, special counsel Mueller and his staff of Democratic donors have investigated the possibility of the Trump campaign somehow colluding with the Russians. While the Mueller investigation has limped along finding almost nothing, the Congressional committees and outside organizations have dug deeply into the activities of the FBI and Justice Department. At this point what has been revealed is: the FBI and Justice Department are the ones most likely to have committed wrongdoing while the Trump campaign and his administration have committed none.
More specifically, the creation of the Mueller special prosecutor investigation is tainted by apparent dishonesty, lies, misdirection, Russian involvement, and illegalities. The shadow of corruption surrounding the creation of the Mueller investigation is compounded by the Justice/FBI’s unwillingness to give the Congress its legal right to the documents. In short: the Mueller special counsel is illegitimate.
The lack of legitimacy of the Mueller probe could be repaired by proving its creation was legitimate. One should imagine Mueller, Democrats such as Minority leader Chuck Schumer, and everyone eager to find some dirt on Trump would desire an investigation that was legitimate.
In the last day or so there is hope that the FBI/Justice will cooperate with Congress and provide a small subset, evidently about 200 documents, of the 1.2 million (there is no telling what might revealed in the entire batch) that they are concealing. This small group of documents may illuminate how the special counsel was created.
It should be pointed out that the Justice Department and the FBI are creations of Congress, by mere statute, Congress can do away these institutions, and there is absolutely no doubt that Congress has a constitutional right, oversight, to see the documents, even if it is only a special subset of members of Congress who can see all the documents. The FBI and Justice Department are behaving unconstitutionally.
It is possible the promised 200 documents and evidence will reveal the circumstances of the Mueller special counsel creation. It is also possible the Inspector General investigation of the FBI and Justice Department could provide information about the creation of the special counsel.
In the meantime, the Mueller probe should be suspended, paused, or whatever term one prefers. If there is no basis for the investigation and it was illegitimately created, then it is time to know that and rethink the special counsel’s existence. Of course, if this cabal of conflicted, most likely legally in jeopardy officials, such as R. Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, desire to get Mueller working again, they can release the documents.
Critics may say Mueller is beyond Constitutional control. They would say, Mueller can go on as long he wants, that he cannot even be put on pause. This is crazy. There are sufficient top officials and institutions capable of, at the least, putting the Mueller probe on pause. If the critics say a pause is unconstitutional because no one has the power to tell the special counsel anything, let these critics take the case to the Supreme Court. The case will likely be against the Congress, the Attorney General, or the president. Most likely the Court would support the Congress or president over the FBI. By the time this gets thru the courts, the proof of Mueller’s illegitimacy will be well-known.
John Havick has a Ph.D. in political science. He was a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology for many years, authored several books and a number of articles, including the widely cited "The Impact of the Internet on a Television-Based Society." His work has appeared in The New York Times, and his recent book, "The Ghosts of NASCAR: The Harlan Boys and the First Daytona 500," is available at ghostsofnascar.com. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.