The limited fallout from the bombshell news that more than two dozen cell phones used by key members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team were wiped clean is rather remarkable.
The deletions came just before the Department of Justice Inspector General was scheduled to access them as part of his investigation of the Russia collusion investigators and just after the surfacing of anti-Trump cell phone messages between former FBI agent Peter Stzrok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page, both part of the Mueller team. No one seems to care, though, besides Republicans who seem to be on the lookout for anything that casts President Trump’s tormentors in a negative light.
Yet, the idea that any of us plain folk would get away with this sort of thing, even for a moment, is laughable. Shouldn’t all of us then, partisanship laid aside, be concerned about getting to the bottom of what, at least on their face, seem like purposeful obstruction of justice – perhaps even coordinated – by consequential government personnel?
And what about those 17 “errors” committed by the FBI to the FISA Court which are now conceded to have falsely justified the issuance of surveillance warrants? Is that an issue of concern only for Republicans? Also, what about the palpably special treatment Mrs. Clinton received at the hands of James Comey over her own “accidental” cell phone obliterations? And Comey’s “leaks?” What about them? And what about those meetings Obama and Biden attended in which instructions for an investigation of Donald Trump arguably appear to have been issued?
Nor have we ever gotten to the bottom of the reports that the Mueller probe continued even after it was clear to the Mueller team that there was no “collusion” between the Russians and the Trump Presidential campaign.
To be clear, in our view, key questions remain unanswered and the overriding issue raised by all of this is whether or not ours is a corrupt system of government. It’s a pity not more of us care enough to want to find out.