# Would there be a "Trump/Russia" investigation had Hillary won? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 27, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697 "2018-07-27T19:45:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/21 "2018-07-28T02:16:13Z")
The investigation was already underway before the election. Yes, Mueller was assigned to it afterwards, but it just would have stayed in the FBI under Comey. So unless you believe that Comey would have dropped it for some reason, we have to assume that the investigation would have continued. I’ll go with a 1 in 1000 chance that Comey wouldn’t have kept investigating it. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/22 "2018-07-28T03:44:02Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Simple question, simple poll. > > Other questions to ponder… > > 1. How would it be different (other than no investigation into obstruction, obviously)? > 2. What would Americans reactions to this be? > 3. How would Vlad react? > > (Public poll, btw.) Trump and the Repugs would investigate it to hell and back. Trump was yelling about fixed elections during the campaign already. Putin and his trolls might have backed him, just to sow chaos. And the Base would go fucking crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/23 "2018-07-28T03:46:51Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I can’t imagine a scenario where Clinton wins and doesn’t carry a few extra senators over the line with her. > > She’d be blocked from getting her agenda passed by the House but she’d get nominations through the Senate, possibly after they eliminated the same rules McConnell did (since he’d still be doing the Obstruction At All Costs thing he did under Obama) You may not be able to imagine it but [of the seats in contention that were won by Republicans](https://www.politico.com/mapdata-2016/2016-election/results/map/senate/) only three were within five percentage points (Missouri, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania) while of the seats won by Democrats three were also in that range (Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire), and overall, even with losing a net two seats the Republicans retained control with a two seat Martin, while the Democrats still had a four seat deficit. And Democratic senators in ‘red’ states like Claire McCaskill would still be looking over their shoulders and taking calculated positions lest the tally after 2018 look even worse for the Democratic Party. There is no plausible scenarios in which a Clinton win results in a well-functioning legislature and executive working in harmony. I’m morally certain Mitch McConnell would have come up with some rationale to block a hearing for Merrick Garland, and would likely forestopped many Cabinet picks out of nothing more than petty spite and obstructionism. That being said, I would still have rather Clinton won because regardless of how hawkish or too-clever-for-itself her foreign policy might hypothetically have been, it would have been immeasurably better than the unholy calamity that Trump’s “Art of the Deal” negotiations have been and we wouldn’t have apocalyptors running around the halls of the White House with open access to the guy with the nuclear codes. Given how much evidence was already known even before the election, the investigation would continue but the public response would be a, “So what? Clinton won, didn’t she?”, and Putin would deny, deny, deny, with a wink and a nudge while continuing to agitate in the Ukraine, and, have journalists assassinated, and Russian expats poisoned with nerve agents. This is the world we live in because we collectively dropped the ball in the ‘Nineties when there was a chance of fostering a nascent democracy in Russia under Yeltsin, and whomever is elected President has the ability to to a set fuck all about it now. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/24 "2018-07-29T14:12:43Z")
there would have been an investigation of the Russian hacking. The deep dive into the various individuals in the Trump campaign such as Manafort-unlikely. And of course the investigation into obstruction of justice wouldn’t have happened. I don’t think anyone would have cared much about possible Trump/Russian collusion. It would have focused on Russian interference in the election-especially the Democratic hacking. All in all, much more low key. Trump himself would almost certainly never be involved. That would have been a red line a Clinton administration would not have dared cross. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/25 "2018-07-29T21:41:47Z")
Again, unless someone thinks that Comey would have stopped the investigation which had already been underway for nearly half a year by the time the election took place, there’s exactly zero reason to think that the FBI wouldn’t have kept on investigating Trump. Trump is not under investigation because of politics, it’s because there was legal questions that needed to be answered that were raised with the FBI. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/26 "2018-07-29T23:05:37Z")
Of course not. For the same reason there is nobody investigating Hillary’s peccadilloes now. The system is full of sore losers, but sore winners are rare. When you’ve already captured the prize, the last thing you want is people turning over rocks and finding unexpected dirt. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/27 "2018-07-29T23:39:20Z")
Yes, but it wouldn’t be nightly news. Someone would be investigating. But it probably wouldn’t have needed a special prosecutor - just the day-to-day DOJ investigation. There would be arrests and convictions, but the entire tenor of the discussion would be different. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697/28 "2018-07-30T00:40:29Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Of course not. For the same reason there is nobody investigating Hillary’s peccadilloes now. > > The system is full of sore losers, but sore winners are rare. When you’ve already captured the prize, the last thing you want is people turning over rocks and finding unexpected dirt. Are you saying that the investigation that began before the election is being run by sore losers? > [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Of course not. For the same reason there is nobody investigating Hillary’s peccadilloes now. > … She was investigated up, down, left and right for years. Would you care to be more specific about “the same reason” she’s not being investigated now? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-there-be-a-trump-russia-investigation-had-hillary-won/818697.md?page=1)