I was a little surprised on Wednesday night when Colbert of The Late Show said that previous independent and special counsel investigations have lasted longer than the Mueller investigation so far, during which I feel like I’ve aged a decade. (Sorry, I’m feeling a little manic tonight.) But here’s WaPo confirming Colbert:
“When you’re talking about an investigation that involves international activity, with a foreign government and foreign actors who have no incentive to be cooperative, such an investigation takes a lot of time,” said Jacob Frenkel, who worked in the independent counsel’s office in the late 1990s and is now at the firm Dickinson Wright.
By comparison, it took nearly a year and a half for the independent counsel to bring charges in what is now known as the Whitewater scandal — which began by exploring Bill and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in a suspicious real estate venture — against Arkansas’ governor and two others. That case stretched on for nearly eight years, drawing in multiple independent counsels and exploring a wide range of allegations about the Clintons. They were never charged, and Bill Clinton was impeached, but not convicted and removed, for obstructing justice.
“Judged by historical standards, I think that the special counsel has amassed a remarkable record of achievement in the first year of his tenure,” said David Kris, a former assistant attorney general for national security who now runs the Culper Partners consulting firm. “It’s fast and it’s productive, and there’s obviously more to come.”
This is how I feel about the purpose of the investigation:
Legal analysts, say, though that Mueller is probably unconcerned with accomplishing a particular result — such as charging the president, or forcing his impeachment. Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director who worked under Mueller at the FBI, said Mueller’s main aim was always to be thorough, and “if at the end of that investigation he’s able to say, we found no evidence of collusion, kind of the core mission, I think Mueller would see it as, ‘we’ve accomplished our mission.’ “
Horse firmly in front of the cart. Let the evidence lead the way, and if there’s no conclusive evidence, then that’s that. I’ve seen the disasters that can happen by assuming a conclusion and then trying to prove it – reality comes sailing in through the window and steps in your freshly baked cake after mucking out the barn. Yech. And that’s just in programming.
Of course, those of us of a mendacious nature might ask if that’s how a member of either base (that is, the restless extremists in the Republican and the Democratic parties) would feel as well. But I shan’t. Nyah.
There’s no real point here except to note that investigations of this sort are lengthy processes and shouldn’t be hurried. Watching the various Trump lawyers and associated minions complain about the length of the investigation is, in its own way, a telling remark on how many of them feel about the matter – let’s close this up before they find something! Or, at least, that’s a congruent explanation. No firm facts, just a bunch of arrests, guilty pleas, and indictments.
Pass the popcorn. We’re not even to the fifth inning!
