On Wednesday, U.S. Commander and Chief Donald Trump said that if the nation wanted to see the report being prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the alleged Russian interference in the presidential campaign and elections, held in 2016, he wouldn’t stop it. The investigation and report will also include any possible links to the Trump emperor and campaign.
The report being prepared by Robert Mueller on his investigation and findings is to be submitted to the U.S. Attorney General William Barr, which will include Russia’s role, if any, in the election and also if Trump illegally sought to hinder the initial probe. Trump has vehemently denied any form of collusion and/or obstruction. Russia too has denied any interference in the elections of 2016.
The Attorney General is already in the hot seat because of lawmakers, whom are pushing to have the entire report document public and quickly, Barr has a very wide latitude in what he can release and make public to the nation.
Last week in the U.S. House of Representatives, a vote of 420 – 0 was cast on a nonbinding resolution, which called for the report from Mueller to be made public. The report should be released to Congress as well as the parents, however it is not as clear how well the such a move will fare in the Senate.
Trump, while being interviewed by reporters at the White House, said that he had no idea of the release date of the report, also stating that there was no collusion and we will wait to see if the report is a fair report.
“I don’t mind” was the answer Trump gave when asked if the public at large should be able or allowed to see the contents of the report. “Let it come out, let people see it, that’s up to the attorney general … and we’ll see what happens,” he added.
It is very likely that the Mueller report may not even implicate President Trump in any way, this being the case, the Republicans would be more that willing to have the report made public. However, top Democrats sitting on House committees that have the mandate to investigate the president will be very eager to see if the findings int eh Mueller report will reveal any new avenues for them to pursuit.
According to the House Oversight Committee Chair, Elijah Cummings, “There may be some areas where, because of the limitations of his jurisdiction, that he had to stop. I don’t know what those areas would be, a lot of it may corroborate some of the things we’ve already found, which is helpful. But we’ve got a lot more work to do with regard to Russia’s efforts to interfere with our elections.”
Democrats have been arguing strongly that the public release of Mueller’s report is in the best interest of the nation.
A statement coming from the Democratic Committee stated, “as the Department of Justice made clear over the last two years, DOJ policy permits disclosure of investigative materials when it serves the public interest, even as they pertain to ‘uncharged third parties,’” it goes on to read, “the public is clearly served by transparency with respect to any investigation that could implicate or exonerate the President and his campaign.”
What Barr has to really consider and keep at the forefront of his mind, is a longstanding practice of the Department of Justice to ensure that negative information about a matter that is still under investigation is not published, as long as the person has not been charged for a crime. Although this has been broken in the past, Barr can still use it to cover himself and explain why some if not all of Mueller’s report was not released.
