{"id":15697,"date":"2018-05-17T23:21:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T04:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=15697"},"modified":"2018-05-17T23:21:26","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T04:21:26","slug":"were-barely-under-way-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/05\/17\/were-barely-under-way-here\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re Barely Under Way Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was a little surprised on Wednesday night when Colbert of The Late Show<\/em><\/strong> 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<\/strong><\/em> confirming<\/a> Colbert:<\/p>\n

\n

“When you\u2019re 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\u2019s office in the late 1990s and is now at the firm Dickinson Wright.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 which began by exploring Bill and Hillary Clinton\u2019s involvement in a suspicious real estate venture \u2014 against Arkansas\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudged by historical standards, I think that the special counsel has amassed a remarkable record of achievement in the first year of his tenure,\u201d said David Kris, a former assistant attorney general for national security who now runs the Culper Partners consulting firm. \u201cIt\u2019s fast and it\u2019s productive, and there\u2019s obviously more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is how I feel about the purpose of the investigation:<\/p>\n

\n

Legal analysts, say, though that Mueller is probably unconcerned with accomplishing a particular result \u2014 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\u2019s main aim was always to be thorough, and \u201cif at the end of that investigation he\u2019s able to say, we found no evidence of collusion, kind of the core mission, I think Mueller would see it as, ‘we\u2019ve accomplished our mission.’ “<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Of course, those of us of a mendacious nature might ask if that’s how a member of either\u00a0base<\/em>\u00a0(that is, the restless extremists in the Republican and the Democratic parties) would feel as well. But I shan’t. Nyah.<\/p>\n

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!<\/em> Or, at least, that’s a congruent explanation. No firm facts, just a bunch of arrests, guilty pleas, and indictments.<\/p>\n

Pass the popcorn. We’re not even to the fifth inning!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15698,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697\/revisions\/15698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}