Rachel Maddow explains the difference between Mueller and the new special adviser
Rachel Maddow and her guest Andrew Weissmann explained why Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation is different from Robert Mueller’s.
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Maddow told Weissmann, “And I feel like some version of the pitfalls that I’ve seen in historical investigations like this also happened in the Mueller investigation, basically a political appointee by this president interfering to submarine your work and make sure it disappeared from public view. Do you think that’s right? »
Andrew Weissmann replied:
Yeah. I think the analogy is, I mean, palpable. You have people outside the country looking to interfere and you have people inside the country doing the same thing in the White House and even in the Department of Justice. It’s something Jack Smith won’t really have to deal with. It’s really important to see that there’s a huge difference between his situation and Mueller’s situation. Because you don’t have this sitting president who uses pardons to try to get people to not cooperate and threaten and dangle pardons and you don’t have the constant threat of being fired.
Every day we sat wondering if we would be there at the end of the day. I remember meeting Rob Mueller where he kind of announced that you had done a great job and we all knew it was the last day. And then, we were there the next day. He doesn’t have to worry about it either.
He is no longer the current president. A former president. And then you don’t need the White House and sometimes the Justice Department on the other side actively trying to downplay and thwart what you’re doing. Here you have the White House saying they will be completely indifferent. And you don’t have Bill Barr at the Justice Department working to undermine what they’re doing.
The idea that the President of the United States and the Attorney General will not use the power of the federal government to undermine the investigation is huge.
People who try to compare Mueller and Smith are missing the point. Smith is not going to have a situation close to what Mueller had to deal with. Pressure on Smith will come from House Republicans, but the House GOP cannot control or stop the investigation.
For the first time since entering politics, Donald Trump is facing an investigation over which he has no control, and that is the biggest difference between the two special advocate investigations.
Jason is the editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate studies focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association
