NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS HAVE CHANGED FOR THE WORSE

 

Once upon a time, national investigations were bipartisan affairs designed to provide complete, unvarnished historical prospective to the most horrific events in American history. Investigations were designed to answer difficult questions and to unite the country. For example, the 1963 investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination by the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby had acted alone. Commission findings led to recommendations for improving Presidential protection. 

The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee conducted hearings in 1973 that determined President Nixon had approved plans to cover up his administration’s involvement in the Watergate break-in. Based on the evidence, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater and others convinced Nixon to resign before he was impeached.

The 2002 9/11 bipartisan commission provided a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It also gave recommendations designed to guard against future aggression.

The constitution provides that Congress is to exercise its power of inquiry in order to conduct oversight and to inform the public. Over the years. Congress has probed issues such as interstate commerce, Ku Klux Klan activities, the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic, Wall Street banking practices, organized crime, anti-union activity and the Vietnam War.

Since the 9/11 Commission, national investigations have changed for the worse. This commentary will examine several recent examples, which have degenerated into angry, partisan affairs. The two Republican probes discussed below did more to divide the country than to inform the public.

The Benghazi Investigation.  Ten investigations were conducted into the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Six of these were convened by Republican-controlled House committees. The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Intelligence Committee both concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration.

Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State during the attack and became the Republicans’ main Benghazi target as she prepared to run for president in 2016. The GOP went after Clinton by creating one last investigative unit in the House. All pretense of bipartisanship was abandoned. After spending more than seven million dollars in additional taxpayer funds the evidence once again failed to uncover any wrongdoing.

The Mueller Investigation. This Special Counsel probe was an investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 American elections. Links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and possible obstruction of Justice by President Trump and his associates were also investigated.  Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team indicted or got guilty pleas from 34 people including six former Trump advisers, 26 Russian nationals and three Russian companies. Despite the investigation being commenced by the Republican Justice Department, there was little Republican outrage to the well-documented findings of Russian interference in the election. Many Republicans agreed with then President Trump that the investigation was unjustified.

The John Durham Investigation.  In April 2019, U.S. Attorney General William Barr told members of Congress that he believed the Trump campaign was spied upon in 2016. In May, Barr appointed John Durham to oversee a DOJ probe on the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference. The probe was initiated despite the findings of the Justice Department inspector general, who determined that there was no political bias or improper motivations influencing the FBI investigation.

Three years later the most prominent prosecution initiated by Durham was of an attorney, Michael Sussmann. He was indicted for lying that he had been working for the Clinton campaign when providing evidence of Russian/Trump collusion to the FBI. It took a federal jury only six hours of deliberation to acquit him.

The Investigation of the January 6 Attack. The U.S. House Select Committee was convened to investigate the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capital. The Democratic proposal to form a bicameral, bipartisan commission failed due to a filibuster from Republicans in the Senate.  When it became apparent that Republicans would not cooperate, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi appointed the select committee to investigate the events including two supportive Republicans. Despite exemplary efforts to piece together evidence of White House involvement in the attack, most Republicans continue to ignore it.

The Impeachments.  Impeachment proceedings are highly charged political affairs and are not officially Congressional investigations. Nonetheless, the Nixon impeachment was ultimately resolved on the facts presented by the Senate. This was in stark contrast to the Clinton and two Trump presidential impeachments, which were decided along strict partisan lines. Moreover, the constitutional mandate of “high crimes and misdemeanors” needed to convict for impeachment, left a great deal of wiggle room for Senators who wished to support the sitting president.

Each of these investigations (and impeachments) discloses a troubling pattern that has developed in recent years. Important issues that should have united all Americans, such as foreign election interference and domestic violence against certifying the presidential election, have done the opposite. Ill-advised investigations that should never have been commenced in the first place have spawned conspiracy theories that further divide the country. On the one hand, real threats against our constitutional republic have become divisive events causing further partisan conflict. On the other, Congressional political theater has replaced rational fact-finding.

Dark prophecies of a rancorous and gridlocked Congressional future seem warranted. Congress will lose more of its investigative responsibility and be relegated to conducting partisan witch-hunts based on shifts in Congressional power. The presidency will become more imperial. Only the courts will stand in the way of corruption and maleficence.