The Special Counsel statute needs to be repealed.

[kentuck]

There was a lot of hoopla when Robert Mueller, most respected man in Washington, was appointed.

However, he was very restricted in what he was able to investigate. He was unable to get an interview from Donald Trump. He was unable to indict a president for any crime. His hands were tied.

Although he and his team were able to uncover crimes and potential crimes, the Attorney General was able to take his report and throw it in the trash can.

In hindsight, it seems that he wasted about two years, while Trump and his criminal friends were able to pillage and loot everything in sight.

But, it was obvious that the Republicans in charge of the Congress were looking the other way. They were not going to get involved. Democrats had to wait until March of 2019 before they could take control of the House, with the 35-day shutdown of the government by Donald Trump.

Little did they know that the Mueller Report would go out with such a whimper.

Perhaps the country would be better off today if Special Counsel had never been appointed?

If they ever plan on using it again, it will need some major repairs, in my opinion.

[hlthe2b]

1. There has to be independent counsel not "special" counsel but with more constraints than Ken Starr

Never again can it fall under DOJ, IMO. But there have to be constraints from Congress to prevent the unbelievable excesses of Starr.

[NewJeffCT]

2. Without the Special Counsel regulations

none of the obstruction would have been documented like it was - the Republicans in Congress certainly wouldn't have done anything other than investigate Hillary's emails and chase after whatever Donny wanted.

and, we still don't know what is happening with the counter-intelligence part of the Report

The independent counsel/special prosecutor laws were not renewed by agreement with both parties because of the abuses of Ken Starr (who had a lot more power than Mueller because he wasn't answerable to DOJ)

[MichMan]

3. It used to be much stronger, however the law expired in 1999

Neither party seemed very interested in continuing it after the Ken Starr Clinton investigation, so it expired in 1999

[NewJeffCT]

4. and, Barr has abused the regulations in place

According to Neal Katyal - who wrote the current Special Counsel regulation under which Mueller operated - the entire report unredacted should have been turned over to Congress immediately.

[kentuck]

5. Well, that's one reform...

they could take it out of the hands of the AG.