In an interview with Axios, a top legal expert and former DOJ official said that it will be extremely difficult for the Justice Department (DOJ) to deny members of Congress all of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigatory files. He said that the DOJ would be required under existing legal precedents to turn over Mueller’s evidence files on Donald Trump after he submits his final report to Attorney General William Barr.
Matt Miller, who was a high-ranking Justice Department official under President Barack Obama, and who now works as a legal analyst for MSNBC, also said that Mueller’s files will contain a vast amount of interesting and potentially incendiary information.
“It’s not just the final Mueller report, whatever that is, that’s relevant. It’s also all the underlying evidence he collected,” Miller explained.
Referring to an FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that turned up no criminality, Miller stated,
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“The FBI set a precedent in the Clinton case by turning over nearly the entire case file to Congress within three months of the investigation closing.”
“Now that that precedent has been set, there’s no good argument for not doing so here.”
Miller also claimed there will be a huge amount of material to analyze given the massive number of FBI interviews conducted by federal prosecutors with associates of Donald Trump.
“All the FBI 302 interview records,” Miller speculated. “Just imagine how many news cycles are in there.”
Over the past few days false rumors concerning the imminent release of Mueller’s final report have been floating around in the press. Yesterday a DOJ official had to squelch the rumors by saying that the date for the release of the Mueller report was undetermined.
“A senior U.S. Justice Department official shot down expectations that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office will deliver next week a highly anticipated report on its investigation into possible Russian interference in U.S. elections.”
“Any reports that the Special Counsel’s report will be delivered to the DOJ during the week of Feb. 28 are incorrect,” the official said.’
Democratic members of Congress have been warning the Trump administration that they should not try to keep them from seeing Mueller’s report. But as Matthew Miller has explained, what could be even more damaging to the president is for them to see Mueller’s underlying evidence that will serve as the basis for his final report.
It is extremely likely that once Congress obtains Mueller’s evidence and has a chance to review it that they will soon thereafter open up impeachment proceedings that will be the beginning of the end of the Donald Trump presidency.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
