Editor’s Note: What most Americans don’t quite grasp about the Mueller investigation is that it is a counterintelligence investigation. It is directed at uncovering and removing a hostile foreign asset in our government. This is a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around, outside of novels and film, but ultimately it comes down to the most basic matters of our sovereignty. Leaving aside the well-established fact that government does not address the needs of ordinary people, it is critical to discover whom the Executive Branch truly serves. -sg

Reposted from Just Security.

By Stephanie Douglas
26 November 2018

The primary mandate of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is to determine if there are “any links between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” That specific task has nothing directly to do with criminal liability for any Americans or Russians, nor anything to do with the potential political implications for the President whether in the form of an impeachment report or something else. The primary mandate of the Special Counsel is, instead, a counterintelligence investigation. With all the media focus on potential criminal and political implications, we often forget this critically important, core mission for Mueller.  We should concentrate far more on that dimension – the counterintelligence effort – as the country prepares for the release of the Special Counsel’s report.

Mueller’s counterintelligence effort can answer nationally important questions like: Why were the Russians so successful in impacting the 2016 presidential election? For the last year and half, the Special Counsel has undertaken a broad scoped investigation into allegations regarding “collusion” on the part of then candidate Donald Trump’s campaign and matters that arise from that investigation. While the political and criminal investigative efforts make for great media, the critically important counterintelligence part of the Special Counsel’s investigation is being undertaken much more discretely. Of course, the Special Counsel is looking to determine if criminal wrongdoing happened, but he will be working to identify and understand the more complex intentions and actions undertaken at the direction or, at the least, with the concurrence of one of America’s most significant adversaries, the Russian government.

We are all hopeful that the counterintelligence investigation will not only identify the actions undertake by the Russians but why they were so successful.

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