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The Mueller Report is not just a story about what happened in 2016. It's a warning about what could happen again, and thus a call to action to protect our democracy. (1)
The report tells us Trump wasn't working for Russia (thankfully), but also that he wasn't, and isn't, working for America. He's interested only in protecting himself, as DHS Secretary Nielsen found out when she urged action to secure the 2020 election. (2) tinyurl.com/y6rzatnw
This means it's up to Congress to act. Here are some ideas. (3)
First, we need to provide funding to secure the machinery of our elections. New Jersey, for example, is struggling to upgrade machines that leave no paper record of votes, and to harden our systems against hacking. We need more federal help. (4)
Second, it's illegal for political candidates to share things like polling data and campaign strategy with independent political action groups (IEs) in the US. Yet apparently it's perfectly legal to share that info with Russian spies to help them target our voters. (5)
The rules that prohibit coordination between political candidates and IEs should also apply to coordination with a foreign government or agent of a foreign government. At the very least! (6)
Third, political candidates should have an affirmative legal duty to report to law enforcement any offer of help coming from a foreign government or that might be illegal, like offers of hacked emails. Just as banks are required to report suspicious transactions. (7)
Finally, Mueller concluded that "Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice." I read that not just as an invitation to hold Trump accountable, but to legislate. (8)
We should consider how to define more clearly that actions by presidents to influence or shut down investigations in which they have a personal interest -- as Trump repeatedly and blatantly tried to do - are illegal and prosecutable. (9)
None of this absolves us from the responsibility to investigate the president's actions and reckon with the consequences. But our most basic duty as legislators is to legislate. I hope that members of Congress on both sides, whatever their views on impeachment, will agree. (10)
If those of you who have read the Mueller Report have additional ideas about how we might codify norms to prevent a repeat of the disgraceful behavior it describes, please share them! (11)
