February 20, 2019 03:16 PM UTC

Mueller Probe Nears Completion; Will Republicans Try to Bury It?

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• by: Colorado Pols

There’s a lot to unpack about special counsel Robert Mueller’s apparently soon-to-be-final report into potential collusion between President Trump’s campaign and/or obstruction of justice, so let’s jump right in, shall we?

As CNN reports:

Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, with plans for Barr to submit to Congress soon after a summary of Mueller’s confidential report, according to people familiar with the plans.

The preparations are the clearest indication yet that Mueller is nearly done with his almost two-year investigation.

The precise timing of the announcement is subject to change.

The scope and contours of what Barr will send to Congress remain unclear. Also unclear is how long it will take Justice officials to prepare what will be submitted to lawmakers…

…Under the special counsel regulations, Mueller must submit a “confidential” report to the attorney general at the conclusion of his work, but the rules don’t require it to be shared with Congress, or by extension, the public. And, as Barr has made clear, the Justice Department generally guards against publicizing “derogatory” information about uncharged individuals.

As a result, one of the most pressing questions Barr will face in the coming weeks is the extent to which Mueller’s findings should be disclosed to Congress. [Pols emphasis]

How would Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) oppose any efforts by Barr (or the White House, as adviser Kellyanne Conway indicated on Tuesday) to potentially bury the results of the Mueller investigation? If Gardner’s recent public comments are any indication…we really don’t know the answer to that question.

[mantra-pullquote align=”center” textalign=”center” width=”90%”]87% of Americans want a full public report of Mueller investigation — including 92% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans.[/mantra-pullquote]

It’s important to note that the American public is not particularly divided about wanting to see the results of Mueller’s investigation, as FiveThirtyEight.com noted earlier this month:

It’s rare for Americans to agree on anything these days, particularly when it comes to a politically charged issue like special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. But a CNN poll released last Thursday found that a whopping 87 percent of Americans (including 92 percent of Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans) believe that once the Mueller investigation ends, there should be a full public report on the findings, whatever they may be.

The Washington Post found similar numbers in a separate poll this month.

Last month a bipartisan Senate bill was proposed that would require Mueller’s team to submit a public report to Congress once the investigation has concluded. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma), who is reportedly in frequent communication with President Trump, has been lukewarm on this proposal from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Gardner has generally given lip service to supporting the Mueller investigation, but has balked at standing behind any sort of pre-emptive legislation to protect the special counsel. As Colorado Public Radio reported in December regarding a proposal to protect Mueller legislatively, “Gardner accused the bill’s backers of ‘playing politics,'” which is a particularly stupid response given that Gardner is paid a full salary so that he can go to Washington D.C. and “play politics” on all sorts of issues. This is sort of like John Elway saying that there is too much “playing football” with the Denver Broncos.

If Mueller’s investigation is indeed nearing a conclusion, the American public has made it clear that they expect to be able to see the results for themselves. We’ll learn a lot about Gardner’s political future by how he responds to any public release of information (or lack thereof) once the investigation is finalized.