A Real INDEPENDENT Counsel Statute Is Necessary
It is painfully obvious at this point, because:
1. Mueller would not have been able to subpoena the ‘President’ to testify without the approval of TRUMP POLITICAL APPOINTEES at DOJ, even if in his judgment he deemed it absolutely necessary; and
2. The Mueller report is being hidden from us this week with God-knows-what being done to it, in contrast to previous investigations like the Starr investigation of Clinton, when as an independent counsel, Starr delivered is full report to the American people immediately upon its completion.
The fully INDEPENDENT counsel statute needs to be restored after the Democrats take back the Senate and the presidency in November of next year.
betsey says
Terry, I nominate you for that position!
SomervilleTom says
A few months ago, I would have enthusiastically embraced this.
I’m more cynical now. The problem with your approach is that it assumes that the Democrats WANT all this.
In the run-up to the 2006 election, while government-sponsored torture, kidnapping and murder were in the news each day, the Democrats used the GOP majority as an excuse for doing nothing. I still remember Barney Frank, my representative at the time, telling me during the 2006 campaign that if we could regain the majority in the House, he would make sure that hearings began “the day after we regain the gavel”. That’s not what happened. At. All.
We are the majority today. We already have more evidence of collusion, corruption, treason, and criminal behavior than we had when Richard Nixon was impeached (I grant you that we don’t yet have the equivalent of the White House tapes). We are moving away from, not toward, impeachment.
The formal impeachment inquiries of the House Judiciary Committee against Richard Nixon began in the spring of 1974, and impeachment hearings began on 9-May-1974. By the end of July, three articles of impeachment were recommended by the Judiciary Committee. The Supreme Court, in July, ruled unanimously that full transcripts of the White House tapes be released to Congress (can you imagine today’s Supreme Court doing that?). GOP leaders made it clear to Mr. Nixon that he would be impeached and removed from office if he didn’t resign. Richard Nixon resigned on 9-Aug-1974.
It thus took about six months to remove Mr. Nixon — a process that began with the Democratic majority of the House doing its constitutional duty.
We can and should begin impeachment proceedings today. We don’t need an Independent Counsel. We need, instead, Democrats in the House who have the political courage to do what needs to be done. If we were able to follow the Watergate timeline, Mr. Trump would be out of office by this September.
The Democrats in the House today look to me like the dog that caught the car.
Christopher says
That person should IMO be appointed by the Speaker of the House since his job in practice is to find evidence that might be impeachable and the Constitution charges the House with having “the sole power of impeachment”.