Evan McMullin: Mueller's investigation must go forward for truth to prevail

This coming Thursday, members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, a bipartisan bill intended to protect the Department of Justice’s investigation into Moscow’s interference in our political process. Both of Utah’s senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, sit on this committee and give the Beehive State an opportunity to make a unified demonstration of its commitment to the rule of law.

It is no secret that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has attracted the ire of President Donald Trump. Trump has called it a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” but the probe has already yielded five guilty pleas and 22 indictments and appears to be rapidly uncovering additional evidence of the Kremlin’s attacks on our political system and other relevant criminal activity.

The president’s allies in Washington and the media have attempted to cast the special counsel as a Democratic endeavor intent on destroying Trump for partisan or personal purposes, but this is not the case. What should matter about Mueller is his decadeslong track record of honorable, effective and nonpartisan public service.

Despite what the president would have us believe, most law enforcement officials serve with honor and without partisan motive. We must not allow Trump to politicize their work. Mueller also happens to be a decorated Marine Corps veteran and a registered Republican. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him to be director of the FBI and the Senate confirmed him unanimously, evidence of broad bipartisan respect for his professionalism.

We would be hard-pressed to find another public servant as qualified to perform this important national service as conscientiously as Mueller likely will, and we must allow him to do so free of interference from the president. As citizens, we need to know the truth about foreign efforts to divide and weaken us, and we must support the legal process that leads us to it.

Passage of the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act would be a step in this direction and signal our renewed commitment to the rule of law. In a political environment that has become dangerously polarized, the bipartisanship of this effort is significant in itself. It is a statement that, even at the nadir of our politics, we are still capable of uniting around the rule of law and the necessity of accountable leadership.

If the president continues his attempts to fire Mueller or other senior Department of Justice officials to impede the investigation, it is a clear indication that he considers himself to be above the law, something we and our elected representatives in Congress must reject.

This is modest but important legislation. It reinforces the president’s compliance with existing special counsel regulations, allowing Mueller’s removal only with for-cause justification and requiring judicial review of the evidence that supports it. Some argue that allowing a court to review a president’s personnel decision within the executive branch would be an unconstitutional limitation on his authority. However, if that were true, then the existing regulation’s for-cause requirement would already be an infringement.

According to the Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Morrison v. Olson, this is not the case; as the regulations governing independent counsels were ruled constitutional, there is significant legal precedent that the similar regulations governing the special counsel are also appropriate.

Moreover, as constitutional law expert Stephen Vladeck testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee last September, the fact “that Congress lacks the power to impose any removal restrictions on anyone serving in the executive branch ... could have enormously deleterious consequences for the separation of powers.” It would mean that the president has the unfettered authority to fire Department of Justice officials investigating his possible wrongdoing at will, including for corrupt purposes.

This would certainly invite an administration’s abuse of power by crippling federal law enforcement’s ability to discover evidence of its wrongdoing. Not only is such information vital for accountability under the law, but it is indispensable politically as well. If presidents can conceal evidence of their own wrongdoing from law enforcement and voters, our ability to hold them accountable at the ballot box is severely impaired and our democratic process compromised. This is how freedom gradually slips away from those who once thought it guaranteed.

If Trump’s continued reluctance to hold Moscow accountable for its aggression were not alarming enough, the guilty pleas and indictments rendered by the special counsel to date are ample evidence that this investigation must continue. We do not yet know its outcome, but we cannot impede its pursuit of the truth.

Both of Utah’s senators have long track records of defending the rule of law. We are living through a uniquely dangerous moment in which our self-rule is threatened by those who would appropriate the people’s sovereignty and when the political pressures to accept it are abundant. I hope those who represent and lead us will face this challenge with courage by voting to maintain the president’s accountability and our liberty.