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Mueller photographed leaving the Capitol on June 21, 2017.
By Doug Mills / New York Times / Redux.
Donald Trump relentlessly attacked the credibility of the special council Robert Mueller, with Fox News and Rudy Giuliani, the lead counsel for the president, providing valuable assistance. The strategy seemed to work extremely well until mid-August, when Paul Manafort was convicted and Michael Cohen pleaded guilty. A Washington PostLast week, an ABC News poll approved Mueller's investigation at 63 percent. "This president and Mr. Giuliani have done everything to discredit the special council and jeopardize the independence of the forces of order in this affair," says Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "But you can shout" fake news "whatever you want – when you see people around the president pleading guilty and being convicted, that has a decisive impact."
The real test will come, however, when Mueller finishes his work and submits a final report to the Deputy Attorney General. Rod Rosenstein, who is not obliged to publish the document – and may well have his own reasons for burying it. Last week, Giuliani happily revealed that he was preparing a "counter report" and that he already had 58 pages. He is also willing to attempt to invoke the privilege of management to remove the conclusions of the special council. Mueller has been quietly silent, but he cares a lot about the truth. So how could he make his work public?
"It's difficult, because Mueller's standard is that he will only present in his report what he could prove in court. And in a courtroom, Giuliani would be decimated because he's just accumulating things, "says Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in New York. "But that will be discussed in the court of public opinion. I hope that Mueller has a plan, and he probably does, because he is extremely intelligent and he has already been much more strategic in the public debate than I even think him. You see that in the schedule of indictments and in indictments that indicate people in certain directions. But Mueller will not continue Rachel Maddow. Even if it would be great. "
Prosecutors, particularly US lawyers, typically hold press conferences to explain the charges against them in high-profile cases. "True, but prosecutors are becoming experts by saying nothing more than what is actually in the indictment, to avoid creating prejudicial prejudicial publicity issues," says Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. "If Mueller speaks, Trump would have an argument that the special advocate is trying to poison any potential pool of jurors. Which would be hilarious, given that the president spent two years trying to do exactly that.
Besides the fact that Mueller – unless he opposes the precedent and the conventional wisdom of asking for the indictment of a sitting president – will not file a lawsuit against Trump, he will be constrained by regulations that significantly restrict the ability to speak to a special advocate publicly about a closed investigation. Instead, Mueller will most likely submit a report to Rosenstein. The narrative of the report will be rigorous and complete, whether its conclusions are exculpatory or overwhelming. "Despite the nonsense that the president and his substitutes continue to denounce corruption and incompetence and the witch hunt and all that trash, anyone who knows this business knows that Bob Mueller and his team are the best you can get," said Sam Buell, who helped lead the Enron government investigation. "So everything they write is going to be damn good." Although the public can never see substantial parts: the testimony of a grand jury, for example, is legally sealed.
Rosenstein held a press conference in July to announce indictments in the investigation in Russia, and he may choose to answer questions on Mueller's final report, although this may sound a bit awkward. Rosenstein will also have to choose to submit the report to Congress. The only thing certain is that the Deputy Attorney General will immediately be under enormous political and media pressure to publish the document publicly. In the event of a refusal, the mid-term results this fall will be even more important: if the Democrats win a majority in the House or Senate, they will have the power to quote Mueller's report.
Not to mention Mueller himself. He has a lot of practice testifying before Congress, appearing several times when he was F.B.I. director. Mueller's behavior in these appearances was unobtrusive but powerful, and he praised both sides of the political alley. "My admiration for you as a professional is extremely high," Mueller told a Republican Senator from Alabama in 2013.
Things have changed a little since. Jeff Sessions is now the Attorney General in trouble and refused to oversee Mueller's investigation because of his contacts with a Russian agent during the 2016 campaign. The atmosphere in Washington is much more tense and partisan, which is a reasons why Heinrich is suspicious. "I would be concerned about the fact that a special advocate is coming to testify before Congress to further politicize law enforcement and create another media circus," said the New Mexico senator. But it is very difficult to see this noisy drama end without his hero ever speaking.
After all, Democrats have more than one way to guarantee the truth. "The Mueller report must become public," says Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I will not rest until this report is made public, OK And once the box closed on his investigation, Mueller testifying would be another very important step to help explain to the Americans what happened, what he discovered and why it's important. It is the heart of democracy, to make sure that the American people know the facts. And the silent man at the center of this drama would have suddenly heard tens of millions of viewers.
