Writing in defense of federal investigators

To the Editor:

Instead of fully embracing the special counsel’s investigation with a view that it will exonerate him and his campaign of suspicions of cooperation with Russia to influence the election his way, President Trump and allies have vigorously fought the probe since it was announced. One of the current refrains is that Robert Mueller and his team are partisan puppets of the Democratic party and/or “deep state.” This, like much of Trump’s rhetoric, is not supported by facts. Mueller is a Vietnam veteran, former Republican, straight-arrow guy who is widely respected for his 12-year management of the FBI (under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama); he was tapped for his current job by Trump’s appointee to the Justice Department, Rod Rosenstein.

Mueller was barely two weeks on the job at the FBI when the 9/11 attacks occurred, and the resulting changes in the bureau that he implemented helped thwart further attacks. There’s something else Mueller did post-9/11 – he hired my sister from the Department of Justice in 2002 to enlarge and professionalize the FBI’s victim assistance program. This she did, and very well, earning an award from the Attorney General in 2007. She remained in the position when Mueller left and James Comey became director, and she is still there. She describes Mueller as tough, fair, objective, and the perfect person to lead any investigation. This is how most people viewed him until it appeared he would take his job seriously and began to assemble a top-notch professional team to help him; then Trump began to attack him as the exact opposite of what Mueller’s record and reputation support. This is typical of Trump – his entire adult life he has accused any person he views as a threat of doing, saying, and being the very thing he does, says, and is – deflection and projection, evidence be damned.

Although my sister has been in Washington, working in mostly senior government management positions for almost 30 years, she is not now, nor has she ever been, part of or aware of any “deep state” conspiracy to do anything. She, like most government workers, is a patriotic citizen grateful to live in this country, and she tries to do her job well. Of course, being human, she is not perfect, but like most senior managers in the federal government, she could have worked in the private sector and made a lot more money.

I have my own relevant government experience. While I have been a tradesman, small business owner and graduate student, for fourteen years I was an investigator for the city of Dallas, Texas, eight of that in the auditor’s office in a small unit screening and investigating allegations of waste, abuse, and fraud of city resources by employees, vendors, and contractors. Because it was city government, the resources being the people’s, not the employees’, vendors’, or contractors’ working for the city, they (and we) had strict rules to follow. But we also had broad authority to gather any necessary, relevant, credible evidence from any source to support or refute any jurisdictional allegations, and our reports were public records.

Because some of the subjects of our investigations were politically connected to city council members and/or the mayor, we had to be scrupulously objective and extremely careful in our gathering of evidence, as well as our evaluation of its nature and value, and we had to be able to support our conclusions and recommendations against criticism; some of our work was even scrutinized in public by council members and the press. So, regardless of our personal or political feelings and perspectives, we acted objectively. This is true of any good investigator, especially in government.

Given my experience, what I know of Robert Mueller, and the fact that his investigation and report will be one of the most scrutinized in history, I am confident that if allowed, he and his staff will carefully, thoroughly, and fairly investigate the matter before him. There is no evidence he is bent on, much less obligated to, pleasing any person, political party, or imaginary “Deep State.” Remember, until he took this position, he was out of government working in the private sector, having no need, financially or otherwise, of this responsibility. He only accepted this difficult task out of a sense of duty to the country he has so admirably served.

Steve Turman, Red Oak