President Trump and the loud choir to which he preaches owe massive apologies to special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
For the better part of two years, the Trumpists relentlessly smeared both men. Meanwhile, both did their jobs to the letter of the law and neither one engaged in scurrilous attempts to “frame” the president.
If anything, Rosenstein did just the opposite, standing behind Attorney General William Barr as Barr put Trump’s conduct in the best possible light. And Mueller’s report was a model of dispassionate exposition and analysis, a by-the-book accounting of exactly the sort of investigation Rosenstein had charged him with conducting.
As a reminder, Trump’s media acolytes called Mueller a “Stalinist,” accused him of having “Captain Ahab-like obsessions,” of beginning with the “assumption” of Trump’s guilt, of being part of a “Deep State crime famil[y],” of being “a disgrace to the American justice system,” of being a “Big Bully Boy Scout” leading a “stable of potty prosecutors,” among many other calumnious epithets. And Trump himself not only overused and misused the term “witch hunt” in describing Mueller’s efforts, but called the investigation “an attempted takeover of our government, of our country, an illegal takeover.”
Trump, of course, likewise accused Rosenstein of “treason” and directed that talking points be drafted against him, while his apologists accused Rosenstein of leading “a silent coup” against the billionaire president.
Some coup. There was Rosenstein on Thursday, having agreed with Barr that, despite much evidence to the contrary, Trump had not illegally obstructed justice. Indeed, there was Barr, widely accused of being a Trump lackey, beginning his remarks with rather impassioned praise for Rosenstein. It is unlikely that the leader of a coup would be so praised for professionalism by the man, Barr, who was definitively ending the supposed takeover.
Mueller’s probe was entirely justified, and it was conducted appropriately. First, neither it nor the overall “Russia investigation” were dependent on the uncorroborated “Steele dossier.” The investigation began in July 2016, two months before the FBI acquired the dossier. It was spurred by numerous accurate reports, beginning as early as April 2016, that Russia was conducting a massive, false-front, social-media effort to help elect Trump. It was a legitimate investigation, based on accurate information.
When Russia subsequently hacked into Democratic computers and then publicly disseminated the contents, and Trump publicly cheered on the release, the investigation became more important still. Here we had a candidate bizarrely obsequious to Russia and its thuggish dictator, hiring many people with strange ties to Russia, advocating policies supported by Russia, while Russia was moving mountains to help that candidate win. Trump’s team knew Russia was trying to help and welcomed the assistance.
As it later turned out, Trump’s son and campaign director had also taken a meeting they thought involved the delivery of information coming from “the crown prosecutor of Russia” as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from oversight of the investigation — rightly, as the Mueller report makes abundantly clear. That left Rosenstein nominally in charge of oversight. But when Trump fired FBI Director James Comey while specifically saying the firing was part of his effort to ice the Russia investigation, and telling the same thing to visiting Russian diplomats, it quite clearly raised the possibility of illegal obstruction.
Rosenstein had written a memo justifying Comey’s removal (although Trump had already decided to oust Comey for reasons of his own). Thus, while Rosenstein wasn’t a possible subject of any investigation like Sessions was, and thus not ethically required to recuse himself, he still was a participant of sorts in a key decision involved. Because of that complication, he correctly decided to appoint a special counsel.
Rosenstein made a great choice in appointing Mueller, whose reputation for probity and professional competence was spotless. Mueller was handed a job, and he did it. His job was not to nail Trump’s hide to the wall; it was to look into all aspects of Russian interference and to see if Trump’s campaign illegally conspired with those efforts. And then as a secondary consideration, he would look at whether Trump or others obstructed his probe.
And that’s what Mueller did, by the book. Journalists know well that Mueller’s team didn’t leak. Indeed, it went out of its way to shoot down false, anti-Trump reports. Several Trump-team lawyers repeatedly praised Mueller’s fairness throughout. And, of course, Mueller’s report exonerated Trump of conspiring with the Russians.
Mueller wasn’t a Stalinist. He burned no witches. And Rosenstein never tried a coup.
So where are the apologies to two men, each of whom, until Trump verbally abused them, had superb reputations through decades of Justice Department service? Trumpists repeatedly, maliciously slandered them for two years. The slander was despicable. It should be publicly corrected, by every single pundit and official who so disgustingly trafficked in it.
