The US politics has surrounded Robert Mueller for quite some time now; he was appointed as a special counsel to investigate the Russian government’s interference in the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Mueller’s report has turned into a debate whether President Donald J. Trump committed a crime, while he himself and most Congressional Republicans say he didn’t, the Democratic legislators and then presidential candidates say he did.
Two key aspects of Mueller’s role and his report has been overshadowed, says political and legal professors at Northeastern University.First, Mueller was appointed as a special counsel and not as an independent counsel, a distinction that limits the scope of his investigation and powers. Second, Mueller’s report did clearly spell out a troubling allegation: There were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election. Mueller said that all allegations deserve the attention of every American. He signalled that he did not want to become a political player and was protecting the integrity of the investigation, in a news conference where he thanked his staff and said he would be returning to private life.
Mueller reiterated the findings in the report, which includes a grand jury indictment of nearly a dozen Russian intelligence officers who launched “a concerted attack on our political system”. Sadly the allegation of election interference isn’t getting the same attention as Mueller’s careful language about his investigation of the President’s possible implication in a crime, which has been parsed by journalists and Congressional representatives alike.
“This attention bias among legislators likely has a political motivation,” said Costas Panagopoulos, who is a professor of political science at Northeastern University. The Republican-controlled Senate “isn’t as alarmed about it because it suits their interests,” Panagopoulos says. The grand jury indictment alleges that Russian intelligence agencies used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack the computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign.
Mayuri Talgaonkar