During the past three months, there has been a steady drumbeat of criticism of Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election from forces all across the right wing spectrum.
Republican members of Congress have tried to cast doubt on Mueller’s impartiality and integrity.
Devin Nunez, the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee has repeatedly tried to frustrate the committee from issuing subpoenas and interviewing witnesses, when he hasn’t been funneling information obtained by the Committee to the White House.
This is the same Nunez who was supposed to recuse himself from the investigation earlier this year after being caught slipping Trump information.
On the Senate side, Judiciary Chairman, Charles Grassley, has declined to advance legislation that would insulate Mueller from being fired.
Congressman Francis Rooney of Florida has called for a purge of the senior officials at the FBI.
Congressmen Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, the Freedom Caucus chair, have called on Attorney-General Sessions to resign so that Trump can appoint a new Attorney-general who could fire Mueller.
Both seem oblivious to the fact that any replacement of Sessions would require Senate confirmation during which this issue would be fully explored.
The Rupert Murdoch Empire has been united in seeking Mueller’s dismissal.
The Wall Street Journal has called for Mueller to be replaced, despite Mueller having removed a senior FBI agent he determined was biased against Trump as soon as he learned it.
The Journal further contends that because Mueller led the FBI for twelve years, he can’t be impartial when it comes to investigating the firing of James Comey.
That may be the first time that leading the nation’s premiere law enforcement agency is a disqualifier from public service.
The Fox News commentators have been particularly rabid in the pursuit of Mueller.
Sean Hannity, who concedes that he is no reporter, has railed nightly against Mueller, Deputy Attorney-General, Rod Rosenstein and anyone else remotely connected to the probe.
Perhaps the most vitriolic has been Jeanine Pirro, star of the “Judge Jeanine” Show.
Watching her, one would never realize that in addition to being the former district attorney of Westchester County, she was an actual judge in the New York Court System.
Bug eyed, she has ranted that FBI officials should be “taken out in cuffs” and the FBI “needs to be cleansed.”
It’s hard not to wish that someone from the network would come up behind her and lace up the back of her jacket during her broadcast.
Mueller has thus far secured guilty pleas from two individuals from the Trump campaign add indicted two more.
This week, however, there was a development that sheds new light on the substance of the probe.
The founders and owners of GPS Fusion, the organization that hired Christopher Steele to prepare a dossier on Trump’s Russian business activities published an op-ed piece in the New York Times demanding that their testimony before three congressional committees be made public.
They recounted how they were initially hired by a Republican donor and the Washington Free Beacon to pursue this line of investigation. Ultimately the expense of the investigation was picked up by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
They denied demanding a pre-ordained conclusion from Steele and have disclosed thatTrump had extensive business relations in Russia and that there was collusion between the Russian Government and the Trump campaign to secure his election.
They laid out that the Steele dossier was not what triggered claims of collusion but rather corroborated allegations of collusion that came from within the Trump Campaign.
Interestingly, they urged the committees to examine Trump’s banking records from Deutsche Bank.
While none of the committees have taken this step, reportedly Mueller has, which may explain why the drumbeat for his dismissal has suddenly gotten so loud.
They decried the selective leaking of portions of their testimony by Republican members of these committees, which is why they demanded their full testimony be released.
This would seem to support disclosure of something that should have been made public a long time ago.
I am referring to Trump’s tax returns.
Clearly, they would reveal what business relationships he has with Russia and whether his previous denials are truthful.
They would also reveal to the American people whether his claims that he would be hurt by the tax overhaul are true.
The continued canard that he can’t disclose them because “he is under audit” is one that only Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders believe.
Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
There is another saying that is also timely.
“Put up or shut up.”
That time has finally come.