Can’t Be A Witness, Participant & Fact Finder All At Once: GOP lawmaker calls for Mueller recusal over uranium deal
Robert Mueller should resign as special counsel. Here is why:
1. He cannot be participant and fact finder/prosecutor. Whatever the Russia investigation entails (and apparently it was not limited by the Justice Department), it involves the actions of the FBI.
There is no question that Russia was attempting to influence American policy with respect to the Uranium One deal. Russia was doing that through a series of legal and illegal activities. Mueller was FBI director at the time. So you have to ask: What did he know and when did he know it?
As a participant in part of what appears to be a questionable legal process (he delivered a sample of highly enriched uranium confiscated from smugglers in Georgia to Russian authorities for forensic examination in 2009) and the head of the FBI while many of illegal actions were undertaken, Mueller was a participant in the deal. You cannot be both a participant and a fact finder/prosecutor for the same issue/matter.
Who is going to interview Mueller? He should resign because of that alone.
2. He cannot be a witness and a fact finder. Obviously, Mueller was a witness to actions and activities of others as well in the Uranium One deal. Should he be fact finder for those people? The answer is no.
But there is more to it.
While Trump was considering firing Comey, Mueller interviewed for the FBI job with Trump. Therefore, he is a witness on that issue too, i.e. the firing of Comey and Trump’s comments to Mueller. Remember, some say Trump illegally fired Comey to obstruct justice. That may well be part of the investigation. So who is going to interview Mueller about that?
Further, Mueller may well have spoken to his protege Comey with respect to those issues.
Mueller cannot be a witness and a fact finder/prosecutor for the same issue/matter. He should resign.
3. Mueller Has A Hopeless Number of Conflicts. A Special Counsel can be removed because of conflict of interests. Further,
“No employee shall participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with: (1) Any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation or prosecution.”
If the above exists, the employee can only stay on if the “employee’s participation would not create an appearance of a conflict of interest likely to affect the public perception of the integrity of the investigation or prosecution.”
In this case, Comey, who admitted to a felony on TV (you cannot take federal property, give it a 3rd party to leak, for purposes of influencing an investigation), is Mueller’s protege and friend. Mueller should not be investigating Comey let alone making a prosecutorial determination on Comey’s actions, which also include:
a) Comey’s actions toward Trump,
b) Comey’s handling of the Hillary email investigation (Mueller could uncover information about her actions, which should be referred for further investigation), and
c) the Fusion GPS Scandal (the FBI either paid money to or furthered the actions of Fusion GPS).
Beyond all of that, Mueller would potentially have to judge the actions of former FBI employees in connection the FBI’s participation in the Fusion GPS scandal, the Hillary investigation, and the Uranium One Deal.
All of the above calls into question the integrity of the investigation or prosecution, not to mention Mueller’s hiring of prosecutors that donated to Hillary and Obama and not referring the Manafort tax case to the proper authorities (Manafort’s tax problems have nothing to do with the Russia investigation).
That is why, those in Congress who have called for the resignation of Mueller are right.
