Republicans operating in good faith
Surely you jest.
I know this might be about Republican motives, but they’ve been doing hearings in the Senate and the House since the investigation began and this question was never asked. It seems curious to me that it pops up as Democrats have taken the House and are gearing up for their own investigations. It seems to be a bit like deficits, its not a problem until Democrats take control, then its a big deal.
Caspar Weinberger wasn’t acquitted because he was granted immunity for his testimony. GHWB pardoned him.
Like it or not, this is political rather than legal, because Trump’s pardoning power effectively removes legal repercussions.
The country needs to be told what these people did, and decide if they have a problem with it. If they don’t, then kiss democracy goodbye. A country gets the government it deserves.
I can understand if Mueller has concerns. I also understand why Mueller is operating with the secrecy that he is.
I appreciate that we get fairly large amounts of info via extensively detailed indictment documents.
However, I can also understand that we, the general public, need to have some more information — and not wait longer for it. We are watching a ghastly catastrophe unfolding in front of our very eyes on a daily basis, and only get “wait for it” as a reassurance. I’ve been one of the patient ones, but I gotta tell you, my patience gets thinner every day after Kavanaugh, vindictive policy changes like banning trans soldiers, making asylum seekers wait in Mexico and 800,000 public servants work as unpaid slaves who cannot even stay home without fearing for their (unpaid) jobs.
Enough is enough. We need the info to get the MFer out of office and wrest our country back from the brink.
Kavanaugh is an excellent example of why we need to have hearings. He was the designated leaker during the investigations into Bill Clinton. He leaked information that they thought would be most damaging to Clinton. Hearings in the open can counteract that kind of BS.
Seed corn & feed corn
Mueller needs to accept that while he needs info for the case - he may have to feed the public’s appetite for information -and visibility … so as to make it so high profile - that it is next to impossible for the process to be shut down.
Stone was charged with lying to a house committee. Does this suggest that the dems are being careful not to step on mueller’s toes? Or that they are trying to create new evidence for mueller’s team? It seems telling that the senate committee (which has appeared more bi-partisan to date) subpeonaed cohen but the house committee (where there are more republican hacks) did not.
True. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a concern. (Same for deficits)
Congress has a backlog of oversight needs to fill, so even if they aren’t overlapping Mueller, there’s still much to do. One area of overlap that only Congress can address is the emoluments clause. Since there’s no legal jeopardy for violating the emoluments clause, only Congress can act on that.
They need to be careful here. During Iran Contra Congress held hearings and gave some of the witnesses immunity. When those people were tried and convicted the appeals courts threw out those convictions because of the publicity received during the hearings tainted the jurors ability to give a fair hearing of the evidence.
You can bet the Repubs will try to make as much of the information available to the public so their compatriots can’t be tried. So hopefully the Dems will short circuit those attempts and keep as much information under wraps as possible so we can actually find out what happened via trials and not hearings.
To answer the question posed in the title, according to bmaz at Marcy Wheeler’s blog, yes, Congress is indeed putting Mueller’s probe at risk… The reasons? There are too many nefarious ways to push back on Cohen’s public testimony. I will let the Empty Wheel crowd speak to that.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/01/19/the-sco-statement-and-why-cohen-should-not-testify-feb-7/
I agree that we need to get these guys out ASAP, but we only get one shot so it has to be solid. As far as whether or not we need info right now, what would we, as citizens or voters, do with it at this point without actual indictments? There’s no election, and there’s no reason to think repubs with power will do anything just based on citizen voices. Hell, we’re facing down a rapidly approaching major breakdown in real systems and they’re barely moving.
I’d love more info, but not at the risk of blowing our chance for real change.
There is IMHO but one truism: you can’t trust a republican. It was true 70 yrs ago and it’s true today.
Am I the only one who think that the relevant House Dems are coordinating with #TeamMueller to avoid these problems?
And the Senate SSCI seems to have been run fairly well by Burr / Warner.
That leaves Judiciary under Grassley / Feinstein and we know Grassley is sketchy although DiFi might pull a Nancy on him and keep him in line. 
Not as big a concern as some may have us believe, same as deficits. Why can’t they do both? There were many many questions left unasked, witnesses uncalled and lies told when the Republicans were in charge of these investigations. There is a feeling among many that witnesses felt they were protected by their Republican friends running things so they lied freely thinking they would never be held to account. Its that freedom from consequences that offends American sensibilities the most. We want to see fairness, so let the investigations begin. Mueller is a big boy, he can take care of himself and his investigation.
Oliver North’s convictions were vacated due to his immunized congressional testimony. He didn’t need a pardon. Lets try not to repeat mistakes that happened only a couple decades ago. Hell, the AG is even the same person.
The Senate IC hearing will not be in the open.
The only thing that tells you is that the prior republican-controlled HIC didn’t want to hear from Cohen, and the current democratic-controlled House committee can’t do shit until its members are seated (republican party is refusing to name its HIC members to prevent it from doing anything).
Soon the majority of our nation’s taxes will be going to pay the interest on our debt. There’s been a tendency to dismiss altogether the notion that deficits matter ever since the GOP hypocritically raised such a ruckus about deficits during the Obama administration. The GOP were in the wrong, but not because deficits don’t matter.
So lets undermine him as much as possible? Don’t be surprised when I tell you that’s a terrible plan.