Special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE is the true man of progressive convictions and principles. He believes in due process of law — even for people who have done such evil they don’t deserve it.

The problem is, when it comes to Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE, we progressives find it inconvenient to apply our core due process principles. But we don’t need to choose between due process and Congress doing its duty, as Robert Mueller properly implied is the next step.

When prosecutors hold press conferences after an indictment, they fundamentally compromise due process. They omit telling the public that an indictment is meaningless — a one-sided presentation to a grand jury with no cross-examination, no counter-point evidence. It’s no joke when prosecutors joke that they could indict a ham sandwich if they wanted. They could.

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It is therefore no accident that in the United States, according to the last report of the Department of Justice, in 2012 the conviction rate in U.S. federal courts was 93 percent. Don’t tell me that 93 percent of those convicted by judges or juries were guilty.

The percentage of black people in U.S. prisons is about 38 percent of the total population — more than three times the percentage of blacks in the U.S. population. Don’t tell me that is because poor black people are three times more criminal than white people.

Remember the 1994 crime bill, which in part compromised justice and contributed to today’s mass incarceration of people of color. And re-read what should be to progressives the stirring words from the Mueller report on the importance of strict adherence to due process principles:

…[We] determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes. … Fairness [read: “due process”] concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought. The ordinary means of an individual to respond to an accusation is through a speedy and public trial, with all the [due process] procedural protections that surround a criminal case. An individual who believes he was wrongly accused can use that process to seek to clear his name. In contrast, a prosecutor’s judgment that crimes were committed but that no charges will be brought affords no such adversarial opportunity for public-name-clearing before an impartial adjudicator. [italics added]

These words clearly prove that Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrHarris faces pivotal moment with Supreme Court battle Hillicon Valley: DOJ proposes tech liability shield reform to Congress | Treasury sanctions individuals, groups tied to Russian malign influence activities | House Republican introduces bill to set standards for self-driving cars McCarthy threatens motion to oust Pelosi if she moves forward with impeachment MORE lied when he claimed that the Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president had no impact on Mueller’s refusal to make a finding of obstruction of justice. Mueller wrote precisely the opposite — and Barr knew it.

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And, of course, Trump willfully lied — surprise! — when he claimed that Mueller had “exonerated” him. Again, Mueller stated exactly the opposite — and Trump and the White House lying machinery know it.

…[I]f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. … Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime [add: because to do so would violate due process principles], it does not exonerate him.’ (italics added)

And his refusal on Wednesday to state legal conclusions on the overwhelming evidence of obstruction of justice in his report, Mueller was simply adhering to due process principles. He properly passed the baton to where it belongs: the impeachment and removal power uniquely possessed under our Constitution by the U.S. Congress.

Now it is time for Congress to do its constitutional duty and begin the impeachment investigatory process, which means every subpoena must be honored, and would be enforced by the U.S. Supreme Court, I believe, by a 9-0 margin.

If the Republican Senate doesn’t convict with two-thirds vote, then so be it. If it turns out to be bad politics, then so be it. (I happen to disagree with that — the factual evidence according to all the polls is that most Americans already suspect Trump committed obstruction, even if they don’t like the idea of a long impeachment process.)

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And here’s why, with all due respect to Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiHoyer: House should vote on COVID-19 aid — with or without a bipartisan deal Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose at Supreme Court McCarthy threatens motion to oust Pelosi if she moves forward with impeachment MORE (D-Calif.):

If this Congress doesn’t even begin the impeachment process given the facts found and documented by Robert Mueller — Trump committing obstruction of justice — much less all the other evidence of impeachable offenses (betraying America by attacking our intelligence agencies, while standing next to Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinNavalny released from hospital after suspected poisoning Ex-Trump national security adviser says US leaders 'making it easy for Putin' to meddle The Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting MORE and saying he believed him over these agencies when Putin lied and denied what Mueller found to be his pro-Trump intervention in the 2016 election, a de facto act of war against the United States; open refusal of lawful congressional subpoenas and other clear congressional mandates; writing personal checks as president in 2017 to reimburse the illegal hush money scheme that prosecutors found he directed a few days before the election; and defying congressional subpoenas and clear statutory mandates on turning over tax returns, just to name a few) ... if, given this overwhelming evidence already virtually beyond dispute, Congress doesn’t at least begin an impeachment process, then when will it ever?

To hell with worrying about politics. Our constitutional system of three co-equal branches of government is imperiled. House Democrats must being the impeachment process. Today.