Using the Mueller report to prepare for 2020 election
The introductions and summaries of the Mueller report demand more attention than the public is giving. As Bill Bekkenhuis said in his letter, printed in the June 2 edition of this paper, “If you have children and grandchildren, or if … you care about other people’s children and grandchildren …” read the introduction and executive summary (18 pages) of the 481page report.
I have done so and recognize that even this will be difficult for most readers to absorb. Yet the message of the Mueller report is vital to the future of our gov- ernment and the country we love.
Volume I of the report concerns the Russian attack on the American presidential election which began in 2016. Volume II concerns potential obstruction of justice. What the public wants to know is: Did the president do anything illegal?
As the Mueller report says, this is a bit complicated. What the public needs to know is that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel determined the president is, by the requirements of the office, uniquely exempt from normal prosecution to the point of preventing investigators from even asking questions which the president would be unable to answer. Given these restrictions, the special counsel was limited to prosecuting others in the administration and the campaign organization, and gathering verifiable facts. The report describes what they did and how they did it.
The public also needs to know, because it got a lot of attention throughout the process, that “collusion” is not a federal crime nor a term of legal art, though it was used in the document that created the special counsel’s office. The special counsel could charge someone (though not the president) with conspiracy, but not collusion.
Conspiracy requires an active agreement. In the judgement of the special counsel, actions by one part which knowingly benefited the other party but were not agreed to in advance do not reach the level of criminal liability.
As is so often the case with public officials, “it’s not the crime but the cover-up” that gets people into trouble. Given the opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel that the special counsel could only exonerate or not exonerate the president, any adjudication of the president’s conduct is up to Congress through the impeachment process, and the voters through the electoral process.
The special counsel says twice in the introduction to Volume II that the evidence does not allow them to exonerate the president. It is thus up to Congress and the voters to decide if, in the case of Congress, the president is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and in the case of voters, if the president should be reelected.
That, from my reading of the essential 18 pages of the Mueller report, is the message that Robert Mueller wants the American people to receive.
Realistically, Congress is not going to impeach this president. To start with, there isn’t time. The first debates among Democratic candidates are scheduled for the end of this month. And until Republican members of Congress feel their tenure is threatened (as happened with President Nixon), they will continue to support the president, and the leadership in the House will not begin the impeachment process.
This leaves it to the voters — ordinary citizens who, in our democracy, have the final say. Over the next 17 months, voters will receive and process information leading up to Nov. 3, 2020 when they will choose among the candidates for president of the United States.
There has been much said about division in our society. Now in this, our defining hour, we have the opportunity to create a more perfect union based on mutual respect and good will. This time, we can’t rely on others or say that it doesn’t affect us — that it doesn’t matter.
Few of us are accustomed to thinking of 17 months as a short period of time, but it is the time we have been given and we will use it all. At least look at the 18 pages and perhaps a bit more of the report. Ask our members of Congress to hold public hearings on the report, which will attract more voters than a website. Produce pamphlets for voters to quickly read, and ask your friends and neighbors about their knowledge of the Mueller report. Presume nothing but good will.
Bill Bekkenhuis compares this to the Civil War as a time when a generation is challenged to choose what it means to be an American. This is my response. What is yours?