EDITORIAL: Understated Mueller urges Americans to fight for their democracy

Special counsel Robert Mueller made several pointed observations on Wednesday, none likely to please President Donald Trump, as Mueller stepped down from the job to which he was appointed more than two years ago.

He was, in his soft-spoken way, urging us to push on in preserving our democracy.

• “Every American,” Mueller said, should be concerned about multiple, systematic efforts by Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. No one should shrug it off. When he said “every American,” we assume he meant Trump, too — who has shrugged it off.
• The Mueller Report did not clear Trump of obstructing justice. On the contrary, Mueller said, if his investigators “had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” The special counsel said he adhered to a Department of Justice rule that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but he left little doubt he otherwise would have. “When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators,” he said, “it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.”
• It’s up to Congress, then, to act on the issue of obstructing justice.
• Trump’s constant complaints about a “witch hunt” and acts of “treason” are groundless. The investigation, Mueller said, was conducted “in a fair and independent manner” by people of “highest integrity.” It is a testimony to the power of the disinformation campaign of Trump and the likes of Fox News that Mueller even felt the need to say that.

Mueller spent nine minutes seeking to refocus Americans’ attention on the alarming findings turned up by the investigation he led. Too many of us have been content to rely on misleading or outright false shorthand summaries from Trump, his administration and TV talking heads.

Mueller’s statement came after Trump announced last week that he has given U.S. Attorney General William Barr extraordinary power to investigate the roots of Mueller’s inquiry and, if he chooses, declassify American intelligence agency documents.

The disinformation campaign, that is to say, continues.

Our job as Americans, not partisans, is to be intellectually honest and put our country first. Regardless of whether Trump is ever indicted or impeached, Congress must get on with the business of investigating the president’s transparent efforts to obstruct justice, as well as any compromising financial ties he might have with Russia or other foreign nations.

Let the subpoenas and hearings continue.

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