Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed Wednesday to investigate Russian interference into last year's presidential election and links or coordination with the campaign of President Donald Trump.
“Colluding with the Russians to undermine our elections would be espionage,” Jeffrey Swartz said. Swartz, now a professor at WMU- Cooley Law School, was a County Court Judge for Miami-Dade County, Florida, 1995-2005, where he presided over criminal and civil cases.
Swartz said no matter what the investigation reveals about the Trump campaigns' ties to Russia, the past three days will go down in American history.
On Monday, the Washington Post reported that Mr. Trump shared highly classified information with the Russians. On Tuesday, the New York Times broke a story that now fired FBI Director James Comey put in a memo that Trump asked him to stop investigating his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn ties to Russia. Wednesday afternoon, Robert Mueller is assigned as the special counsel to the Russia investigation.
Mueller was assigned by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to "oversee the previously-confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, and related matters."
In a statement, Rosenstein said:
"My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination. What I have determined is that based upon the unique circumstances, the public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command."
"I accept this responsibility and will discharge it to the best of my ability," said Mueller in a statement.
Mueller will have 60 days to put together a budget for resources to conduct the investigation and that budget must be approved by Rosenstein. Attorney General Jeff Sessions previously recused himself from all matters related to the presidential campaign.
“It clearly would be espionage. It clearly would be a criminal conspiracy, if they prove there was collusion that's all that it would take for possible impeachment,” Swartz said.
Mueller will have all of the authority of a U.S. Attorney including the ability to take the matter before a grand jury and the ability to issue subpoenas.
“He can grant them immunity and force them to testify in front of a grand jury even though they don't want too,” Swartz said. “I think the next bombshell is they may give some immunity to Flynn in front a grand jury and that, to me, will spell the end to Mr. Trump.”
