An inquiry that will “hugely” disrupt our government

If Donald Trump thought sacking the FBI director James Comey would kill off the investigation into his team’s connections with Russia, “he was wrong”, said The New York Times. The investigation is to continue, but now under the leadership of a special counsel – Comey’s predecessor, Robert Mueller. A decorated Vietnam veteran and former prosecutor, Mueller led the FBI for 12 years under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and is respected on all sides. The appointment puts the president “on a path he has never travelled”, said Jennifer Palmieri in USA Today: “a collision course with the truth”. Mueller is charged with investigating links with Russia, and any matters that may arise from that inquiry. He will be dealing not in spin, but hard facts. Anyone who lies to him, even the president, can be prosecuted.

Republicans should “rejoice” at Mueller’s appointment, said Erick Erickson on Foxnews.com, because it will give the White House some welcome breathing space. They can now say that they can’t discuss the Russia issue because to do so might compromise the Mueller inquiry. And when, as will most likely happen, Mueller concludes there is no actual crime at the heart of this case, the Democrats, who have relentlessly hyped up the story, will be left with no leg to stand on. Trump and his team have a chance at “real and full exoneration”, said Chris Cillizza on Cnn.com. But equally, if this inquiry does find wrongdoing, it will be “damn near impossible” for the White House to discredit it. Trump’s fate – and that of his party – “is now largely in Mueller’s hands”.

Whatever the result, the mere existence of the inquiry will be hugely disruptive, said David Brooks in The New York Times. People who have served in administrations under investigation speak eloquently of how miserable it is, and of the climate of paranoia it creates. Trump’s administration can ill afford more distraction. “The Nixon, Reagan and Clinton White Houses had hired quality teams by the time their scandals came. They could continue to function, sort of, even when engulfed.” But Trump still has hundreds of senior and mid-level positions unfilled. And who is now going to “want to join a self-cannibalising piranha squad whose main activity is lawyering up”? The administration may survive the Mueller inquiry politically, “but any hopes that it will become an effective governing organisation are dashed”.