Robert S. Mueller III — a man of enormous skill and accomplishment — doesn’t need a word of thanks from chump bloggers such as me, but he’s going to get one anyway.
The special counsel has completed his work, handed it to Attorney General William Barr and this morning he might be sleeping in a little. He deserves the rest.
Mueller has spent much of his adult life serving the United States of America. He took on a huge task in early 2017 when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him special counsel to examine that “Russia Thing” alluded to by Donald John Trump.
He accepted the bipartisan praise that came his way upon the appointment. Mueller then assembled a first-class legal team to examine allegations that Trump’s presidential campaign “colluded” with Russians who had attacked our electoral system in 2016.
He had to deal eventually with Trump’s incessant blathering of recriminations against him, his team. The president challenged Mueller’s integrity, his honesty, his commitment to fairness, the legality of his work.
Through it all, Mueller kept quiet. He was stone-cold quiet. Mueller’s operation was leak-proof in the extreme. Mueller went about his work. He indicted more than 30 individuals. Mueller secured convictions (including guilty pleas) from about a half-dozen top Trump aides.
The man’s commitment to public service is well-known: service during the Vietnam War as a combat Marine; as a federal prosecutor; as an assistant attorney general in a Justice Department led by William Barr; as director of the FBI under two presidential administrations, one Republican and one Democratic.
He conducted himself with professionalism and dignity, which in my view was in stark and glaring contrast to the conduct exhibited by the nation’s 45th president.
I have declared my intention to accept whatever findings Mueller has reached. If he exonerates the president of wrongdoing, then so be it. I would accept those results not because I want the president cleared of any funny business, but because of my implicit trust in the special counsel and the work he has done on our behalf.
The probe that Robert Mueller conducted was not a “witch hunt.” It was a search for the truth. I believe he has found it, in whatever form it takes.
Forgive the cliché, but thank you, Robert Mueller, for your lifetime of service to the nation.