This is getting serious. The conclusions of partisan Congressional committees just will not settle the matter. In my opinion a Warren Commission like investigation needs to be used. We need to protect our American democracy. And we need US citizens and the rest of the world to have confidence in the conclusions.
If I were setting this up, I’d have a five member commission headed up by Chief Justice John Roberts with the other four being distinguished Americans who hold or have held high security clearances. Take a pick of four of these and I’m open to suggestions for others:
As head investigator, reporting to the commission, I would select Preet Bharara. No one is better qualified. He has prosecuted all sorts of similar crimes (cybercrime, terrorism, money laundering, and political crimes) and gone after both Republicans and Democrats. He would need a team comprised of the FBI agents currently investigating under Comey and intelligence staff.
Kenneth Feinberg? He’s the guy that oversaw the 9/11 victim payouts. I’ve heard him interviewed a couple times and he seemed like a very orderly thinker. He has some experience in being the “impartial third party.” I put that in quotes because there may be some that would argue he has a bias of some sort.
For your commission to work, it would need to not appear political. Bharara disqualified himself by refusing a standard request to resign, which undermined a lot of his non-partisan bona fides.
You could bring back Patrick Fitzgerald. Or Ken Starr (probably not).
Fitzgerald seems like a good guy, but doesn’t have the stature of a Bharara.
I tilted the commission a bit to the right with Roberts at the top and more GOP than Democratic names so felt an Obama appointee as the lead investigator was appropriate.
I recall Mary Jo White being hot stuff back in the day, but she may be over the hill.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is often the premier investigator in the USA.
I like your line-up, but I have suggested a broader mandate. I’ve proposed a “Commission on Electoral Integrity” which would look at not merely the “Russia stuff”, but also claims of dead/illegal voters, corporate or governmental interference. Heck, throw in voter suppression and gerrymandering. In short everything that everybody has claimed are wrong with the election process.
And the example that I generally cite is the Kerner Commission, as the Warren Commission isn’t exactly the model that you’d probably want followed.
Chief Justice seems like kind of a full time job as is. Plus the Chief Justice presides over impeachment trials, so if the investigation uncovered wrong doing by Trump himself, I imagine Roberts would have to withdraw from the commission.
Albright was a Clinton campaign surrogate, which makes it tough to sell her as an impartial judge of issues regarding that campaign. Rice and Powell are pretty closely tied to selling the Iraq War, so I’m not sure they’re exactly trusted or respected public figures. Plus Rice and Gates worked as consultants for Exxon under Tillerson, and Tillerson’s relationship with Putin seems like something that the committee would investigate.
Leahy and Hatch are fine, but they’d presumably be the types of people you’d find on a Congressional commission, so I’m not sure whats gained by having them on one independent from Congress.
Bahara just got in a public spat with Trump, so he seems like a not great choice for lead Investigator.