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President Trump suggested the special prosecutor's team might not be fair, impartial investigators because of previous political contributions, legal clients and personal friends. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

The people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters. Some of them worked for Hillary Clinton. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous, if you want to know the truth, from that standpoint. President Trump, interview with Fox & Friends, June 23, 2017

Then who does Mueller select to help lead the independent investigation? Four top lawyers, all major donors to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Party. One of them even worked for the Clinton Foundation. Only in Washington could a rigged game like this be called independent. Pro-Trump group Great America Alliance, political ad, June 23, 2017

President Trump and his surrogates are attacking the judgment and independence of former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation and related matters. They are criticizing the political contributions of some of the attorneys hired to Muellers team, questioning the investigators independence.

Trump claimedthe attorneys are all supporters of Hillary Clinton and worked for her. The ad described the hires as a part of a rigged game.Lets dig into it.

The attacks aimed at discrediting Mueller one month into his special investigation are similar to efforts by former president Bill Clintons supporterstwo decades ago. Democrats at the timeworked to undermineKenneth Starr, special counsel whose investigations ultimately led to Clintons impeachment in the House. They painted Starr as an unethical investigator with a conflict of interest conducting a partisan witch hunt.

Mueller has hired 13 attorneys and is expected to hire more. Most are veteran attorneys at the Justice Department or the FBI, or attorneys Mueller worked with at the WilmerHale law firm, which he left in May whenhe was appointed special counsel. The members who have been made public:

Four (Quarles, Weissmann, Rhee, Prelogar) have made political contributions to Democrats and four (Zebley, Dreeben, Page, Jed) have no record of making political contributions. Previous news reports incorrectly identified Dreeben as a Democratic donor, mistaking him for a furniture designer in Chicago named Michael W. Dreeben.

Quarles gave the most political donations out of the four nearly$33,000 to various Democrats since 1999, Federal Election Commission records show. Recipients included Obama for America, Hillary for America and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Quarles is the only one who donated to Republicans. In 2005, he gave $250 to then-Sen. George Allen of Virginia.In 2015, he gave $2,500 to Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee who later wouldinvestigate Hillary Clintons private email server use.

Weissmann donated $4,300 total to the Obama Victory Fund in 2008 and the Democratic National Committee in 2006. Rhee gave $5,400 total to Hillary for America in 2015 and 2016; $5,800 total in 2008 and 2011 to the Obama Victory Fund; and $250 to the DNCin 2004. (Quarles and Rhee gave maximum contributions of $2,700 to Clintons 2016 presidential campaign.)Prelogar donated $500 total to Obama Victory fund in 2012 and Hillary for America in 2016.

Rhee was a partner on the defense team representing the Clinton Foundation in a lawsuit over Clintons use of her private email server. Zebley once represented a Clinton aide at WilmerHale, PolitiFact found.

So Trump twisted the facts: Not all of Muellers hires supported Clinton, and none of them worked for Clinton directly.The White House did not provide an explanation of Trumps claim.

A Great America Alliance spokesman said the ads message is that hiring four high-profile attorneys who contributed to Democrats means Mueller cannot credibly claim to conduct an investigation without some inherent bias or conflict.

An independent investigation should actually be independent and Mr. Mueller is failing to achieve that standard, the spokesman said. Stacking the investigative team with political opponents of the president will not achieve an unbiased result and we are committed to exposing this reality.

But that overlooks important context. Federal regulations prohibit the Justice Department from considering the political affiliation or political contributions of career appointees, including those appointed to the Special Counsels Office. So the implication that Mueller is making politically motivated hires is quite a stretch, as he is legally prohibited from considering their political affiliations.

Under the Rules of Professional Responsibility, attorneys are permitted to participate in matters involving their former firms clients so long as they have no confidential information about the client and did not participate in the representation, said Peter Carr, spokesman for the Special Counsels Office. Moreover,attorneys are bound by confidentiality rules and may not useinformation they learned from one client (say, Clinton Foundation) and divulge it in another case (say, the Russia probe).

The Justice Departments ethics experts found Mueller and those he hired from his former firm are consistent with DOJ rules, Carr said. This was despite concerns over WilmerHales representation of Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort, son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump.

Mueller reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. In a June 13 Senate hearing, Rosenstein said it is not a disqualification for a lawyer in the Special Counsels Office to have made a political donation, and that as a general matter, it is not a disqualification for a lawyer to have represented Clinton in the past.

That Rhee represented the Clinton Foundation is irrelevant, said Stephen Gillers, expert in legal ethics at the New York University School of Law:The Mueller investigation is not about Clintons emails. The two matters are apples and oranges. A lawyer could work on both.

In fact, the lead defense attorney that Rhee worked with on the Clinton Foundation case now represents Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Trump mischaracterized the donations from Muellers attorneys and falsely claimed some even worked for Hillary Clinton. Four out of eight attorneys made public so far have contributed to Democrats, including Clinton and Obama. The other four have no record of political contributions.

One attorney who donatedthe maximum amount to Clintons 2016 presidential campaign represented the Clinton Foundation in a 2015 lawsuit. Another attorney who made no political donations represented a Clinton aide at one point. Both attorneys worked for WilmerHale, a firm that also represents Trumps former campaign manager, daughter and son-in-law.

Further, Trump and the ad use these political contributions to suggestbias orconflict of interest. But that twists the facts that misleads the public to believe there is something nefarious going on. Legally and under federal ethics rules, there is no conflict of interest. The DOJ is legally barred from discriminating career appointees based on political affiliation, so Mueller cant decide his team based on their contributions. That half of the publicly named special counsel attorneys donated to Democrats is not an indication that Mueller has failed to achieve a standard of independence. We award Three Pinocchios.

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Read more from the original source:
Do Russia probe attorneys' donations to Democrats threaten their independence? - Washington Post