Guest Editorial: GOP attacks on Mueller’s team are unwarranted

This editorial is from the Washington Post:

Special counsel Robert Mueller III began his investigation of Russian election interference to bipartisan praise. Both Democrats and Republicans lauded the former FBI director as the ideal candidate to conduct a politically tricky investigation with rigor and honesty. Yet as Mueller's probe has continued, allies of President Donald Trump have turned to attacking a man whose integrity and credibility they had previously considered unimpeachable. There is no basis for their criticisms.

Republicans charge that Mueller's team is hopelessly biased against Trump. Top Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, they note, attended Hillary Clinton's election-night party in November 2016. He also wrote to former acting attorney general Sally Yates after Trump dismissed her, lauding her decision not to defend the first iteration of Trump's travel ban.

Then there is Peter Strzok, an FBI agent removed from Mueller's probe after the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General discovered that Strzok had sent text messages critical of Trump while investigating Clinton's use of a private email server. The messages exchanged by Strzok and Lisa Page, a fellow FBI employee, express crude opinions of Trump. Strzok certainly exercised poor judgment. But the material that has so far been made public shows no sign that Strzok's work on the investigation was influenced by political bias.

Neither Weissmann's nor Strzok's activities should cast doubt on Mueller's investigation. Federal agents and prosecutors are not forbidden from holding political beliefs or giving campaign donations.

Mueller's decision to remove Strzok from his team after learning of the text messages should be heartening to those concerned for the investigation's fairness. And Strzok's conduct is already the subject of an ongoing internal probe into the Justice Department's handling of the Clinton email investigation. When its work is complete, the Office of the Inspector General should release as much of its report as possible to give the public a full accounting of any misconduct. The inspector general and the Justice Department should also clarify the circumstances behind the department's unusual public release of Strzok's messages in the midst of an ongoing investigation.

Some supporters of Trump have returned to their calls to appoint a second special counsel to investigate Clinton or the Justice Department itself. But none have pointed to any factual basis for such an investigation, which would require a showing of a possible crime.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave a vote of confidence to the special counsel's work before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, affirming Mueller's integrity and clarifying that he has seen no reason to remove him from office. We are glad to see Rosenstein stand firm in support of the special counsel he appointed despite the onslaught of partisan attacks. In doing so, he is upholding no less than the rule of law.