It's Not Too Late for an Independent Commission to Investigate Election Meddling

[DonViejo]

The Mueller report is finished. But it won’t solve the problem of foreign interference in U.S. elections.

By PHILIP SHENON March 24, 2019

Philip Shenon, a former Washington and foreign correspondent for the New York Times, is author of A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination and The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.

The special prosecutor’s work is over. Now is it time for a commission?

With the announcement Friday that Robert Mueller has completed his nearly two-year investigation into whether President Trump and his campaign conspired with Russia, much of Washington is beside itself with anticipation as Attorney General William Barr reviews Mueller’s findings. But whatever might be in the Mueller report—and no matter how thorough of a job the special counsel might have done—his investigation will not put an end to the great national security threat revealed in the 2016 election: the possibility that a foreign power is determining the outcome of American elections and will meddle again when voters try to choose a president next year. Senior federal law-enforcement and intelligence officials agree the threat of foreign meddling remains dire—and that it is perhaps as serious as any that has confronted American democracy in their lifetimes.

That explains the need for Congress to consider establishing an independent, bipartisan blue-ribbon commission to pick up where Mueller leaves off. Mueller was not asked to offer systematic solutions to the danger of foreign election interference. Torn by partisanship, Congress seems unable to deal with the issue itself. But there could be enough agreement in Congress to muster support for legislation to create a commission, likely modeled on the 9/11 commission, to look for concrete solutions to the threat of election meddling. Unlike Mueller, the commission could be given the important assignment of educating the public about exactly what happened in 2016 and resolving whatever questions Mueller leaves unaddressed in his still-secret report. The 9/11 commission’s final report in 2004, after all, was hailed for its gripping, easy-to-understand narrative of the 2001 terrorist attacks and of the rise of global terrorist networks.

In 2017, during the frenzied days after Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey, Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was House minority leader at the time, and Congressman Adam Schiff of California, then ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and now its chairman, called for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate foreign meddling in the last presidential election. But the idea was quietly shelved. Democrats appeared to agree then on the more urgent need for a special counsel—with subpoena power and the ability to bring criminal charges—to get to work, especially if there was any possibility that Russia was controlling the actions of a newly elected American president. Plus, Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, so Pelosi and her deputies had no ability to insist on much of anything.

Now, though, Mueller’s investigation is over; the Democrats are in charge in the House. And the Russia threat looms. The nation’s principal intelligence and law-enforcement agencies have agreed unanimously that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, with the intention of electing Trump, and that Moscow is continuing to meddle. Because of partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill, Congress has not ordered sweeping changes in election security procedures. The Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for protecting the integrity of balloting nationwide, was criticized by its inspector general just last month for having failed to organize a “well-coordinated approach to securing the nation’s election infrastructure.”

more
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/24/mueller-report-election-interference-226108

[beachbum bob]

1. shouldn't this be under way in the House?