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Bookmark this from UNLV professor @batesunlv on the @lawfareblog site for when you have time. Bates goes into depth on the Watergate experience and what it tells us about release of Robert Mueller's report. There are some important lessons here. lawfareblog.com/road-map-impea…
2. One is that release of grand jury evidence presents genuinely difficult issues, many of which confronted the Leon Jaworski-led investigation of Watergate as well. There are good reasons not to make public information about people a grand jury decides not to indict.
3. On the other hand, there are other, perhaps even stronger reasons not to keep under wraps information pertaining to a President presumed by Justice Department policy to be immune from indictment. This came up during the Watergate investigation as well.
4. A second lesson pertains to something I've argued, which is that impeachment proceedings in the House, practically speaking, need to wait until Mueller's report is conveyed to Congress. I may have been mistaken about this. In effect, it leads to the House....
5....depending on Mueller to do all its investigatory work. As @batesunlv says, it creates "...a system in which the executive branch can investigate but cannot prosecute, whereas the legislative branch can impeach but, at least for now, will not investigate."
6. @YAppelbaum noted this in his Atlantic piece arguing for starting a House impeachment proceeding not long ago. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
7. The zeal of House Judiciary Committee Republicans is a complication. Most of them will defend Trump ferociously no matter what is established about Russia, corruption, self-enrichment, or anything else, something that was less true of House Republicans and Nixon by 1974.
8. This ties into the third lesson. Bates describes this as being about the disputes and distrust inevitable in the investigation of a President. The comprehensive bad faith of this President, though, makes these both more numerous & more serious than they would otherwise be.
9. The subpoenas just authorized by the House Judiciary Committee for the Mueller report illustrate a basic mistrust: namely, that the Trump-appointed Attorney General will not be less interested in disclosure than he'll be in protecting Trump.
10. This is what Trump demanded -- often, loudly, and publicly -- of his last Attorney General, and William Barr has in his past indicated he would find this rule congenial, for whatever reason. Added to the zeal of partisans to defend their Leader would be any disagreements...
11... among members of Mueller's team, for example on Mueller's peculiar decision not to insist on questioning Trump directly, and disagreements among Democrats in Congress, some of whom remain intimidated by Trumper Republicans and the prospect of impeachment, and others...
12... who fancy themselves clear-eyed and hard-headed enough to bet everything on the next election campaign. This, in our campaign-centric political culture, is what partisans of any stripe usually want to do, because it is what they know.
13. We're in uncharted waters now. The issues Trump has raised are far more serious as potential threats to American institutions than were the issues Nixon did. But Watergate is the closest thing to a precedent we have. lawfareblog.com/road-map-impea…
