EVEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MUST SOMETIMES HAVE TO STAND NAKED
“They had a very bad original concept. It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups. They had the worst cover-up ever.”
Robert Mueller could use that as the opening paragraph of his report on the Trump-Russia conspiracy, but those words were actually spoken by Donald Trump himself, complaining about the inefficiency of the Saudi assassination team. It’s a fair point, albeit a cynical one. Nothing wrong with murdering journalists, but for crying out loud, be professional about it.
I’ve been on the MS Trollfjord for the past two weeks, exploring the fjords along the coast of Norway. I haven’t been “off the grid,” but my most of my attention has been on Vikings, the aurora borealis, and stuff like that. As the trip nears its end, though, I’ve begun to re-focus on American politics. In particular, I’ve been thinking about likely next steps in the Mueller investigation. The impression I have is that election day will trigger some pretty significant developments.
It seems likely that no matter which party winds up with control of Congress after election day, Donald Trump will fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Everything I’ve read suggests that congressional Republicans promised Trump that they’d support Sessions’ ouster – AFTER the election, to avoid further riling up Democrats and independents. Of course, we know that Donald Trump is both a creature of impulse and an inveterate liar. Only a fool would take him at his word, but as November 6 gets closer and closer, the bargain may hold. The last polls close at 6:00 p.m. Hawaii time, which is 11:00 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Trump could take a metaphorical bone saw to the Justice Department at 11:01 on November 6 and still abide by his agreement with Congress.
Whenever it happens, we can be sure that the next Attorney General will be someone whose loyalty is to Trump, rather than to the Constitution. The new AG may not shut down the Office of the Special Counsel, but at a minimum, he’ll give Robert Mueller a deadline to finish his work, probably no later than the end of the year. The good news is, I believe Mueller is ready to do just that.
In fact, I’ll be surprised if election week doesn’t bring a slew of new indictments against people in the Trump campaign, including members of his inner circle. I’m less certain that Mueller will issue an actual summary report, especially if the purge of the Justice Department turns into a real bloodbath, and Mueller is among those fired.
A summary report would be nice, but it’s the least important of Mueller’s remaining tasks. Even if Democrats retake the House and/or the Senate, any report issued between now and January 3, 2019 will wind up in the hands of Republicans – committee chairs, the puppet Attorney General, and to Trump himself – all of whom will do their best to suppress, distort, and spin everything in the report that reflects badly on Trump and his inner circle. Those kinds of secrets are hard to keep, but Team Trump will surely try.
Thus, while a public summary of Mueller’s conclusions would be great, the most important “reports” from the Special Counsel’s Office will be the indictments they hand down. The guilty pleas and convictions Mueller has already obtained prove that Russia penetrated the Trump campaign at the highest levels. Both Trump’s campaign manager and his top national security advisor were on the take from Putin-controlled oligarchs. Mike Flynn flipped early and Paul Manafort flipped late, but both of them have provided inside information to the Robert Mueller, and the next wave of indictments should provide clues about what they told him.
Taken together, evidence included in both the old and new indictments will give us a comprehensive picture of who did what, when. If there are any surprise witnesses for the prosecution – if, for instance, Jared opted to spill his guts in the hope of saving his own skin – we’ll know that too.
The most important development of election week, of course, is the actual outcome of the election. If Democrats are cheated out of congressional majorities by Russian vote fraud and Republican vote suppression, we’re screwed. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but vote early if you can. That way if you’re run over by a bus between now and November 6, you can die knowing you did your part to save democracy.