While discussing the Russia investigation on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on Tuesday, even liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus had to acknowledge that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team had a definite “Democratic tilt.” The admission came in the wake of an FBI agent being removed from the probe due to anti-Trump bias.
“Now, Mueller hired a number of people to work for him who turn out to be Hillary Clinton donors and Democratic donors,” Marcus admitted. In fact, nine of the 17 identified lawyers on Mueller’s staff are Democratic Party donors. Referencing Republican concerns about Mueller’s impartiality, she reminded viewers:
And, you know, take us back – we’ll take ourselves back to the Ken Starr days, when there was a lot – Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton and originally Whitewater – and when he was named, there was a lot of kerfuffle because he came from a Republican political background, he hired a lot of Republican-affiliated lawyers. And the Clintons and their allies were not particularly shy about claiming bias on his part....there’s a little bit of sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander here.
A Media Research Center study released on Monday examined the blatant double standard of the media rushing to defend Mueller against any criticism from the Trump administration versus how the same liberal journalists welcomed the Clinton administration’s frequent attempts to undermine Starr’s investigation in the 1990s.
While dismissing GOP calls for a second special counsel to look into numerous Hillary Clinton scandals as “crazy” and “not necessary,” she confessed: “At the same time, I wonder if Bob Mueller would have been wiser if he had a more eclectic and bipartisan group of prosecutors on his staff, just to insulate himself.”
“Of course, we don’t know who all the people are on his staff and how wide that is,” Mitchell interjected. Marcus replied: “We don’t, but what we do know suggests a Democratic tilt.” She went to explain: “Not surprising among sort of elite – if you look at the array of elite lawyers from elite law schools, the studies show, I was looking at this yesterday, they tend Democratic. They tend to be Democratic givers.”
When even liberal commentators are worried that Mueller has hired too many Democrats, perhaps the investigation’s credibility is in question.
Here is a transcript of the December 12 exchange:
12:45 PM ET
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RUTH MARCUS: Now, Mueller hired a number of people to work for him who turn out to be Hillary Clinton donors and Democratic donors. And, you know, take us back – we’ll take ourselves back to the Ken Starr days, when there was a lot – Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton and originally Whitewater – and when he was named, there was a lot of kerfuffle because he came from a Republican political background, he hired a lot of Republican-affiliated lawyers. And the Clintons and their allies were not particularly shy about claiming bias on his part.
They never went so far as to call for a special counsel to investigate the independent counsel. That seems a little wild to me. But there’s a little bit of sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander here. I do wonder – I think that these calls for special counsel are crazy. Going back and reopening Hillary Clinton investigations also seems completely not necessary to me. At the same time, I wonder if Bob Mueller would have been wiser if he had a more eclectic and bipartisan group of prosecutors on his staff, just to insulate himself.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Of course, we don’t know who all the people are on his staff and how wide that is.
MARCUS: We don’t, but what we do know suggests a Democratic tilt. Not surprising among sort of elite – if you look at the array of elite lawyers from elite law schools, the studies show, I was looking at this yesterday, they tend Democratic. They tend to be Democratic givers. The theory has always been in the Justice Department that professionals are able to separate their personal points of view from the prosecutorial decisions that they make.
MITCHELL: Of course, there’s always been the assumption by the Clinton people that the New York FBI was a hotbed of Rudy Giuliani acolytes who had been there for years and years and were against her.
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