President Donald Trump and his supporters have criticized the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election, asserting that it was improper, unnecessary and costly. They now propose to investigate the investigation. As is true with almost everything these days, there is a political element to this.
Politics aside, if that is possible, given the information available in early 2016, the investigation was not improper. National security investigations in 2016 revealed both Russian involvement in the election and connections between Trump advisers and the Russians. It would have a serious dereliction of duty to have failed to investigate.
As the investigation proceeded, both the investigators and the public were confronted with a series of false and changing stories coming from the president and from his advisers and spokespersons. It then became necessary for investigators to deal with the conflicting accounts and the conflicts with the facts known to the investigators. Thus, the investigation was not unnecessary.
There can be no doubt that the investigation was costly. There also can be no doubt that it was made more time-consuming and costly by the actions of the president and those around him. Had the president not denied any Russian involvement in the election when the intelligence community was telling him otherwise, had the principals in his campaign not lied to and misled investigators – in short, had the administration cooperated and been truthful, the investigation would have been much shorter and far less costly.
RICHARD A. HESSE
Hopkinton