{"id":1315343,"date":"2019-10-06T20:20:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T02:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/thiessen-column-democrats-were-outraged-at-how-trump-handled-the-mueller-probe-now-theyre-acting-the-same-way\/"},"modified":"2019-10-06T20:20:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T02:20:01","slug":"thiessen-column-democrats-were-outraged-at-how-trump-handled-the-mueller-probe-now-theyre-acting-the-same-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/thiessen-column-democrats-were-outraged-at-how-trump-handled-the-mueller-probe-now-theyre-acting-the-same-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Thiessen column: Democrats were outraged at how Trump handled the Mueller probe \u2014 now they\u2019re acting the same way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

<\/p>

Marc A. Thiessen<\/strong>
AAA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump\u2019s critics are now complaining that he asked the Australian prime minister to cooperate with the Justice Department\u2019s investigation into the origins of the Mueller probe and that Attorney General William Barr has traveled overseas to ask foreign intelligence officials to cooperate with that investigation. The New York Times called it another example of \u201cthe president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not. The president\u2019s critics are conflating two different things: the investigation by Trump\u2019s private lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, into Hunter Biden\u2019s business dealings, and the official inquiry by U.S. Attorney John Durham into the counterintelligence investigation directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. The former is opposition research activity; the latter is a criminal justice matter.<\/p>\n

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking foreign heads of state or intelligence officials to cooperate with an official Justice Department investigation. As George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley explains, \u201cIt is not uncommon for an attorney general, or even a president, to ask foreign leaders to assist with ongoing investigations. Such calls can shortcut bureaucratic red tape, particularly if the evidence is held, as in this case, by national security or justice officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Americans support the Durham probe. For two years, they were told by Trump\u2019s opponents that the president was \u201cworking on behalf of the Russians\u201d and had committed \u201ctreasonous\u201d acts that were of \u201ca size and scope probably beyond Watergate.\u201d Those were serious accusations, and Americans took them seriously. They waited for special counsel Robert Mueller to tell them whether the president had indeed betrayed the country.<\/p>\n

Then Mueller issued his report, and they found out that none of it was true. They understandably wanted answers. How did it come to pass that our government was paralyzed for two years and spent tens of millions of their tax dollars, chasing a Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory? A Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll following the Mueller report\u2019s public release found that 53% of Americans said that \u201cbias against President Trump in the FBI played a role in launching investigations against him,\u201d and 62% supported appointing a special counsel to investigate the investigation of Trump.<\/p>\n

Instead of a special counsel, Barr appointed Durham, a career prosecutor, to lead the investigation that Americans demanded. Durham is a man of unimpeachable character who was appointed by Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the CIA\u2019s terrorist interrogation program. At the conclusion of that probe, which ended without any criminal charges, Holder praised Durham for working \u201ctirelessly to conduct an extraordinarily thorough and complete\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n

Now Barr has asked Durham to bring the same tireless professionalism to his investigation into the origins of the Mueller probe. But suddenly, all those who were so eager to find out what happened in 2016 when they thought Mueller would reveal that Trump conspired with the Russians have lost interest. The same people who were outraged at Trump\u2019s efforts to discredit the Mueller probe are now doing the exact same thing to the Durham probe. Back then, Democrats insisted Trump stop criticizing the investigation and \u201clet Mueller follow the facts wherever they lead.\u201d Now they need to heed their own advice: Stop criticizing the investigation. Let Durham follow the facts wherever they lead. If there was no wrongdoing, then there is nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Trump bears some responsibility for helping Democrats lump together Durham\u2019s official investigation with Giuliani\u2019s partisan activities by mentioning them both on the call with Ukraine\u2019s president. There should be a firewall between the two inquiries. Instead, Trump and Giuliani have blurred those lines.<\/p>\n

But keep in mind, it was the Democrats who told us there is nothing wrong or illegal with a presidential candidate hiring a private lawyer to conduct opposition research in a foreign country on their political opponents. After it emerged that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had paid Christopher Steele to dig up dirt in Russia on Trump, the Democrats\u2019 defense was: That\u2019s just opposition research. Everyone does it. The biggest problem with the Steele dossier was not that Democrats paid for opposition research, but that the FBI might have used it as the basis for spying on the Trump campaign \u2014 which is part of what Durham is investigating.<\/p>\n

Durham is no partisan actor. Despite political pressure, he cleared the CIA of wrongdoing during the Obama administration. Like Mueller, he will follow the facts wherever they lead. Maybe that is why so many Democrats are up in arms.<\/p>\n

Follow Marc A. Thiessen on Twitter, @marcthiessen. (c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers Group<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marc A. ThiessenAAA WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump\u2019s critics are now complaining that he asked the Australian prime minister to cooperate with the Justice Department\u2019s investigation into the origins of the Mueller probe and that Attorney General William Barr has traveled overseas to ask foreign intelligence officials to cooperate with that investigation. The New York Times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 20:30:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}