Letter to the editor: Mueller investigation, impeachment not 'hoaxes'

In her letter “Republicans don’t need to ‘get over it’ ” (Dec. 3, TribLIVE), Suzanne Wehrli calls the Mueller investigation and impeachment hoaxes, as do many President Trump supporters, who try to justify what Trump is doing now. It is disturbing to me to read this blatant untruth.

The Mueller investigation was well justified in that there was significant evidence of Russian involvement in the election. His office indicted 12 Russian officers for active interference. While the report shows contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, it did not find enough evidence to charge anyone in the campaign with criminal conspiracy. The report found at least 10 episodes of possible obstruction of justice.

But Mueller did not charge Trump because of a long-standing Department of Justice policy that says a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime. “The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” Mueller told Congress. “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” Attorney General William Barr put out a misleading summary of the Mueller report and subsequently released a redacted version of the report, which we have yet to see in full.

As for impeachment, there were many credible witnesses who testified in the House, despite Trump’s order that they not, and Sen. Mitch McConnell refused to allow them to testify in the Senate. In fact, McConnell announced before the trial that they would find Trump innocent.

Charles Henry

Greensburg