SWAN: ‘It’s Up To Us To

Keep Officials Accountable’

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal

ONEONTA – Details matter.

“A four-page summary should be the tip of the iceberg,” said Aimee Swan, Otsego County Democratic chair. “There were 2,800 subpoenas, 500 witnesses, but there is not a single word from Robert Mueller in Barr’s letter. We need to see the full report.”

She was referring to Attorney General William Barr’s letter summarizing Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice.

Swan praised the “integrity” of Mueller’s investigation. “It was a successful investigation, not a partisan witch hunt,” she said, echoing Trump’s favorite phrase on Twitter. “Republicans held all three branches of government when Mueller was appointed.”

She also pointed out that the investigation had led to multiple arrests and indictments, including Trump’s “fixer” Michael Cohen, campaign chair Paul Manafort, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, campaign aide Rick Gates and, most recently, former adviser Roger Stone.

“All the officials involved did a great job of getting to the bottom of these investigations,” she said. “They asked good questions, and they got good answers.”

But while Barr’s letter stated Trump had been exonerated of any wrongdoing, Swan believes there is more to it than that. “We knew Barr’s opinions before he was named attorney general,” she said. “He said he didn’t believe in the validity of the investigation. We need to know the context and know what details of the investigation went into him drawing that conclusion.”

Swan said the report reiterated that Russia did make active attempts to influence the 2016 elections.

But she took relief in Barr’s assertion that Mueller found the Trump campaign did not reach out to Russia for help in interfering with the 2016 elections.

“That is good for America,” she said. “But Trump has taken the word of Putin over our intelligence agencies, so it’s good to see their work confirmed that Russia did try to influence the election.”
Though Manafort, Gates and Cohen have been found guilty, Stone, who was a keynote speaker at the Otsego County Republican’s 2017 dinner, is awaiting trial on charges of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress. “It will be interesting to see how it will play out,” she said.

Going forward, she said, she would like to see more transparency in the process, including congressional testimony. “I feel we’ll learn a lot more there,” she said.

But she doesn’t want to go forward on seeing and interpreting the full and final report through what she calls “a partisan lens.”

“It shouldn’t be about winning or losing,” she said. “It’s about the integrity of our elected officials. There should be a trust, a loyalty to our intelligence community.”

The best case, she sees, is that if the full report reveals evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice, he would be held accountable.

“If it’s determined that he broke the law and is behind dishonest, he needs to be held accountable,” she said. “I would like to see him held to the standards all elected officials are held to – and that’s what I think this investigation is about.”

Swan says she came of age during the Clinton impeachment trials and developed an interest in politics then. She joined the county Democrat committee 2016, was named vice-chair in 2017 and was named chair this past September.

“Our elected officials work for us,” she said. “It’s up to us to keep them accountable.”