| Dear Katy, Last week, Donald Trump made it clear how much he wants to sabotage the Mueller investigation when he installed his lapdog Matthew Whitaker as attorney general. Now members of Congress need to use the next few weeks to step up and show how much they want to defend our democracy. Whitaker spent months complaining about Mueller's investigation and openly laying out plans to destroy it.1 Congress' path to undermine Trump's power grab is clear: Pass legislation to protect Mueller, now. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan will always try to prop up Trump no matter what lines he crosses. But Democrats in Congress and even some Republicans are talking about bills to protect Mueller.2,3 To save the investigation into Trump's Russia ties, we need to convince every Democrat and those supposedly concerned Republicans to use their leverage to put legislation protecting Mueller into must-pass end-of-year spending bills. Tell Congress: Use must-pass legislation to protect Mueller. Click here to sign the petition. We need to remember that protecting Mueller is a matter of our democracy itself, not mere partisan advantage. If a major party presidential campaign colluded with a foreign power to swing an election, there must be consequences. If people lied to federal investigators about such a plan, they must face penalties. Mueller's investigation already produced indictments or guilty pleas from 32 people, including four former Trump advisers, and he may be on the verge of indicting Donald Trump Jr.4,5 It is worth threatening a government shutdown over the principle that we are a nation of laws, not a dictatorship. Whitaker's installation is a direct attack on the rule of law and our democracy. Whitaker complained that Mueller's investigation might hurt Trump's reputation, defended the Trump Tower meeting with Russians, derided Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt," proposed slashing Mueller's budget in order to sabotage the investigation, suggested that Rosenstein should interfere with the scope of the investigation, retweeted an op-ed on the "Mueller Lynch Mob," suggested hiding the Mueller evidence from the public, complained about aggressive tactics, opposed legislation to protect the special counsel from White House interference and chaired the 2014 political campaign of Sam Clovis, a grand jury witness in the investigation.6,7 He made it perfectly clear that he will undermine or completely destroy Mueller's work. In April, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed bipartisan legislation to protect Mueller from being fired without just cause.8 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring it to the floor for a vote.9 It shows we cannot count on empty words about protecting Mueller from the likes of Susan Collins or Jeff Flake. Republicans are on the defensive, but McConnell is obstinate. The only tool at our disposal is for Democratic leadership to force legislation protecting Mueller into funding bills that must pass before the end of the year and to pressure Republican senators who supposedly care about our democracy to join them. Tell Congress: Use must-pass legislation to protect Mueller. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/mueller_must_pass?t=7&akid=30624%2E12967895%2E0p_qac Thank you for speaking out in defense of democracy. Kaili Lambe, Organizing Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Kevin Breuninger, "Trump's new Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who has criticized the Mueller probe, will now oversee it," CNBC, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Nicole Lafond, "Dems May Tack Mueller Protection Onto Must-Pass Year-End Spending Bill," Talking Points Memo, Nov. 9, 2018.
- Burgess Everett, "Some in GOP clamor to protect Mueller," POLITICO, Nov. 9, 2018.
- Andrew Prokop, "All of Robert Mueller's indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation so far," Vox, Oct. 10, 2018.
- Jonathan Chait, "Donald Trump Jr. Expecting to Be Indicted by Mueller Soon," Intelligencer, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Matthew Whitaker, "Mueller's investigation of Trump is going too far," CNN, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Ken Dilanian, "Tweet," Nov. 7, 2018.
- Eli Watkins, "Schumer: Democrats could tie Mueller protection measure to must-pass legislation," CNN, Nov. 11, 2018.
- Ibid.
photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images |
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