By Chuck Warren
The Russia investigation hamstrung Donald Trump’s first administration on both ends. On the one hand, the administration had to spend a lot of time defending its reputation. On the other hand, it could not perform its duties normally because it was under special counsel investigation. This still negatively affects foreign policy and domestic politics. Americans, especially Republicans, need to move on from the Russia hoax. This requires closure, which itself needs bringing guilty parties to justice.
There is a problem. The guilty parties are Democrats, and Democrats will never prosecute their own establishment. And suppose Republicans, especially the Trump administration, investigate the matter. In that case, it will further divide America because Democrats will call it a partisan witch hunt, whether the process is honest or not.
There is a third option: a multiparty, independent investigation.
This can only be accomplished through the appointment of a panel. The president should instruct the Department of Justice to convene a group, consisting of three members: a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent.
The members should not be inside the beltway figures or state politicians, like state attorneys general, with future political ambitions. They should also not be from major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which are all elite echo chambers.
Instead, they could be career prosecutors, retired federal judges, or state supreme court justices.
This will help Americans (not guarantee) trust the process and the outcome. One problem with political communications is that the elite talk the language of the elite, which only people in a few big cities care for. A panel closer to the average American will help the panelists explain their findings, through their report and in the news, to Americans like normal people.
More importantly, they will not have friends in high places whom they will have to please or risk losing. They will not have to worry about not being invited to the next Washington D.C. or New York cocktail party since they are never invited to them anyway. And if they are retired, they will not have to worry about their next jobs and appointments. Instead, they will be serving patriotically, desperate to wrap it up and go back to their quiet lives, truly disinterested.
The panel should be required to release its report, including potential indictments, with unanimous consent, and the Department of Justice will follow the panel’s recommendations.
The panel should avoid hiring too many people from inside the beltway. Some such hiring will be inevitable because they will have to rely on Department of Justice career prosecutors, but that should be kept to a minimum. Everybody in Washington knows everybody, which is how things get reported before they are finalized, and public opinion and journalists end up influencing the process.
By hiring people without established contacts and friends in the media, leaks will be kept to a minimum, and the panel will be able to do its job without the noise.
Democrats want to move on from the Russia hoax on their own terms—i.e., memory holing it—and too many Republicans would not agree to getting anything done without first bringing the culprits to justice.
The problem is that America is kind of an important country and needs to get back to the business of getting its house in order and leading the world. This panel will give Republicans the peace of mind that the wheels of justice are finally turning, so they can simultaneously fix other problems we face. Democrats will also have to remain quiet since the process will be omnipartisan.
After the report is issued and indictments are brought, only then, can we finally move on.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.